BrokenBeautiful Press is SO proud to announce the June Jordan Saturday Survival School and the School of Our Lorde both jumping off in February at the inspiration station. These are intensive educational experiences for the whole family so be sure to get on board. (Honoring someone with a named scholarship makes an awesome holiday gift by the way!)
love,
lex
We were never meant to survive. We were never meant to find each other love each other transform each other across generations. Or were we?
Survival School is based on the premise that we need each other to survive. This series of intergenerational educational experiences based on research on the definitions and practices and survival developed by June Jordan, Audre Lorde and the members of the Combahee River Collective is designed for the whole family and is an experiment in the sustainability of community based Black feminist education for diverse communities.
June Jordan Saturday Survival School!: February 6th and 13th
Based on June Jordan's unpublished lectures "Survival Literature for Afrikan Children" and "The Creative Spirit and Children's Literature" and the guidelines for her Voices of the Children poetry program, the June Jordan Saturday Survival School is a 2-Saturday program that allows families to interact with June Jordan's theory of children's literature as a literature of survival by engaging June Jordan's out of print children's books and to create their own all-ages illustrated stories.
Apply for the June Jordan Saturday Survival School here: June Jordan Saturday Survival School Application Final (pdf version)
or here: June Jordan Saturday Survival School Application (doc version)
email completed application to brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com or drop them off at the Inspiration Station (send an email if you need directions)
(note: Every family that completes the application gets to participate. Every group of people connected through love is acknowledged as a family, Donations not due until the Survival School starts. No one will be turned away!)
Believe in intergenerational Black Feminist community education and want all sorts of great ancestral blessings and kisses? Name a sliding scale scholarship ($70-150) after someone you love! Email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com to make it happen!
School of Our Lorde: Poetics, Pedagogy and Political Practice
The School of Our Lorde is comprised of weekly evening sessions that allow participants to deeply engage and build on the work of Audre Lorde as transmitted through the committed (obsessive) research of Alexis Pauline Gumbs on the poetics, teaching practices and political implications of Audre Lorde's work (and to enjoy delicious local desserts together) on Thursday evenings. Participants will also get coursepacks with some exclusive and unpublished materials on/by Lorde. Participants can choose to participate in one 3 week semester or the entire 3 month process. No one who completes an application and can attend will be turned away. Engaging, interactive poetic childcare will be provided at every session with amazing activities imagined with and implemented by Beth Bruch!!!!
February-
Poetics: Audre Lorde is best known as a warrior poet. In February, School of Our Lorde participants will get a change to deeply engage Lorde's poetry (with the benefit of Lex's archival research on her revisions) and write their own poetry. We will meet over dessert on Thursday February 4th, 11th and 18th (Audre's b-day!!!!) and the poets will perform their own new or transformed work at a community reading on Saturday February 20th.
Apply for the poetics course here: School of Our Lorde Poetics Application (pdf version)
School of Our Lorde Poetics Application
email applications to brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com or drop them off at the Inspiration Station (email for directions)
March-
Pedagogy: Not everyone knows that Audre Lorde was breaking down the masters house by being a master teacher and librarian. Do you teach students armed and ready to text message? Well Audre Lorde taught John Jay College of Criminal Justice students who wore loaded guns to class as part of their uniform!!! Participants in this session will get to see Audre Lorde's syllabi, and course evaluations, practice their own interpretations of her teaching methods and transform the meaning of education. Participants also get to help design and facilitate the Audre Lorde Survival School. We will meet over dessert on Thursday March 4, 11, and 18th.
Apply for the pedagogy course here:School of Our Lorde Pedagogy Application (pdf version)
School of Our Lorde Pedagogy Application (doc version)
email applications to brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com or drop them off at the Inspiration Station (email for directions)
April-
Politics: With a strong emphasis on Lordeian Economics (that's right!) this unit will allow participants to examine the creative power of difference in practice in community. Participants will learn about Lorde's diasporic politics of solidarity, and her critical perspective on Black feminist socialist organizing in 1980's. Participants will witness and process the impact of the Safe in Our Streets Durham events of April 16th created by SpiritHouse and the Durham Harm Free Zone and design action plans.
Apply for the politics course here: School of Our Lorde Politics Application (pdf version)
School of Our Lorde Politics Application (doc version)
email applications to brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com or drop them off at the Inspiration Station (email for directions)
Believe in intergenerational Black Feminist community education and want all sorts of great ancestral blessings and kisses? Donate dessert or name a sliding scale scholarship ($150-200 for a particular unit or $400-500 for the whole curriculum) after someone you love! Email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com to make it happen!
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2 comments:
Hi Lex,
I suppose I've been a lurking admirer of your work for nearly two years. I'm so moved by all the work you do. I've been meaning to write you a letter for some time...I will soon. But thank you for speaking out and creating such amazing work!
I suddenly remembered this post and wondered if you could tell me about the below detail:
"Based on June Jordan's unpublished lectures "Survival Literature for Afrikan Children" and "The Creative Spirit and Children's Literature" and the guidelines for her Voices of the Children poetry program"
Where can I find these lectures? I don't see them listed in the Harvard archive or online at Berkeley.
Any help you could provide would be much appreciated. I'm applying to grad school at NYU and would love to reference some of this work.
Keep shining,
Martine
Hey Martine and all,
So "The Creative Spirit and Children's Literature" and the guidelines for the Voices of the Children poetry program are indeed at the Schlessinger Library at Harvard. I'm on the road and I don't have my notes about which boxes they are each in. But I know that the Voices of the Children stuff is definitely highlighted in the finding aid, and "The Creative Spirit..." should be with the other unpublished essays...listed as such..with its own folder.
The "Survival Literature" essay is in Lucille Clifton's papers...looks like Jordan handed it to her after giving the talk on a panel they were on together at the Howard Afro-American writers conference. When I saw it in Clifton's papers at Emory they were still in the cardboard boxes they were mailed in and had not been processed...but Clifton's papers are much more organized there now, so you should be able to search in the online finding aid.
Best of luck!
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