Monday, February 01, 2010

Happy Black Herstory Month! The First MobileHomeComing Audio Documentary!!!!


"because they were coming home."-Carolyn Grey

On Saturday January 30th Harriet Alston and Carolyn Grey brought decades of memories and a Linda Tillery album that Harriet had spent days digitizing through the rare (and unplowed) North Carolina Snow to have a conversation with eager listeners at the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind Potluck about their time in the Salsa Soul Sisters and the lessons they learned about building community. This audio documentary blends the conversation with music selected by Harriet to bring others into the conversation who could not attend the event, and to serve as a historical and movement resource for those of us committed to the political intervention of creating loving and affirming community. Brought to you by the MobileHomeComing Project-a partnership between BrokenBeautiful Press and Queer Renaissance to nurture and amplify the resilience and creativity of Black queer intergenerational community.

Listen to the audio documentary here:

[audio http://brokenbeautiful.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/salsa-soul-audio-documentary.mp3]

http://brokenbeautiful.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/salsa-soul-audio-documentary.mp3

Donate to the MobileHomeComing Project here!:

You can donate to our project with your credit card or paypal account.

Make a donation to the A Black Queer Mobile Homecoming - An Immersive Archive

1) Click DONATE.
2) Enter an Amount.
3) Click Continue.
(or login to your paypal account).
4) Follow instructions to finish your transaction. You're Done!

For a copy of our budget or any more information please email us at mobilehomecoming@gmail.com

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Get Your Own 12 Days Poetry Booklet When You Support the Alexis Loves Julia Valentine Fundraising Drive for the MobileHomeComing!


turquoise lace edition (aka the victoria's secret of booklets)

Once upon a time visionary lovebirds Alexis and Julia were apart for 12 whole days :(, counting the seconds until they could be in the same place and envision revolutionary brilliance together again... Alexis decided to make the countdown liveable and poetic by writing daily love poems to Julia. This year for valentine's day Lex has decided to publish her infinite love in the form of tiny handmade booklets which can be yours for a sweet donation of 14 delicious dollars or more between now and valentines day!

Make a donation to the A Black Queer Mobile Homecoming - An Immersive Archive

1) Click DONATE.
2) Enter an Amount. And note "12 Days" with the coverstyle that you prefer
3) Click Continue.
(or login to your paypal account).
4) Follow instructions to finish your transaction. You're Done!

Top 12 reasons that you REALLY want to get a copy of 12 days before they're all gone:

12. For the sweet gift basket you are assembling for your sweetie(s).

11.Because you love poetry.

10. Because you are going to create your own long-distance love countdown and you want a model.

9. Because they are just so beautiful!


crimson cover editon (aka fledgling lust)

8. Because you are going to cross out Lex and Julia's names and pretend you wrote this for your honey-to-be for a valentine's day guarantee.

7. Because you support queer black love period.

6. Because you know that the MobileHomeComing is all about you and the world you want to live in.

5. Because you are a romantic, and this will distract you from the sappy Hallmark channel Valentine's Day specials.


black and white edition (aka julia in a tux!)

4. Because you are a fellow do it yourself revolutionary!

3. Because you believe that our ancestors return to us in the form of love.

2. Because you are nosy to see what kind of sweet nothings and everythings Lex be telling Julia to keep that smile so big and bright.

1. Because you are the BEST!


Turquoise and Hot Pink Duct Tape Editon (aka Dkye-tastic!)

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Anger is Useful! New Podcast and Introducing the Little Black (Feminist) Book Series

Who's afraid of the Angry Black Woman? Well BE AFRAID because Angry Black Woman are speaking our minds and transforming the world in the service of our vision. Oppression beware the well-directed rage of Black feminism!

This week for your listening and reading pleasure we have the ANGRY BLACK WOMAN edition of the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Podcast Series! As always, we start with the brilliance of our ancestors...meditating on the poetic of rage in June Jordan's angry letters to racist editors and including reflections from Nia Wilson, Mai'a Williams, Moya Bailey, Daria Bannerman and the young visionaries at New Horizon's Alternative School...plus as always music that rocks (including a track from the genuis Jon Anonymous project by Durham's own Shirlette Ammons!)

http://brokenbeautiful.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/final-angry-black-woman-podcast.mp3


And while you're at it...download or subscribe to the podcasts on itunes (search "brokenbeautiful press" in podcasts and we'll be all up in your eardrum!)

And just because my anger about racism, and sexism and gendered violence is based in my deep deep love for YOU and the world we deserve...BrokenBeautiful Press is happy to present The Little Black (Feminist) Book Series Volume 1: RAGE. Including that essay on June Jordan's Angry Letters and 4 other classic angry blogposts from the thatlittleblackbook.blogspot.com. It's pocket-sized in case you need to hand it to someone who clearly doesn't get it. Get one on deck with a donation of 15 bucks or more all proceeds go to the Community Sustained Educational programming from Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind!

Go to paypal.com and send your donation to brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com with RAGE in product line and your correct mailing address. (Or just holler at me if you have the divine insight to live in Durham.) There are only 20 so get yours soon :)

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Harriet Alston on the Salsa Soul Sisters: January 30th Durham, NC


Saturday, January 30th, 1pm@ the Inspiration Station


POTLUCK BRUNCH
Black Feminism Lives in Durham!
(featuring Harriet Alston, founding member of the Salsa Soul Sisters)




For Each Other: the Salsa Soul Sisters from Alexis Gumbs on Vimeo.



Watch this video to learn more about the Salsa Soul Sisters and come to the potluck ready to ask great questions and benefit from Harriet's wisdom and experience!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Revolutionary Vehicle: Help Lex and Julia Find a Free RV

Hey loved ones!
Check out this video of Julia and I exploring the wide world of RV's. I think Julia might be a reality TV star waiting to happen!

Here is a link to the video on VIMEO: http://vimeo.com/8639900


We know that somewhere in our beloved community there is a pre-loved RV that is waiting to be transformed or an awesome RV dealer/maker who totally gets it! Please help us out by sharing the video with everyone you can think of! Sharing is caring!

Or feel free to send an online donation of any amount! We are so proud for our project to be directly supported by and accountable to our brilliant loving community!

We are grateful to SONG (Southerners of New Ground) for supporting our grassroots fundraising. Your tax-deductible donation of $50 or more will directly support the work of the Mobilehomecoming. Check Payable to: SONG Note MobileHomecoming in the subject line.

You can donate to our project with your credit card or paypal account.


Make a donation to the A Black Queer Mobile Homecoming - An Immersive Archive


1) Click DONATE.
2) Enter an Amount.
3) Click Continue.
(or login to your paypal account).
4) Follow instructions to finish your transaction. You're Done!



For a copy of our budget or any more information please email us at mobilehomecoming@gmail.com

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Pat Parker Birthday Party and Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind Session!

I have known you forever

Been aware that you would come

My muse sang of you

Said watch the sky for an ebony meteorite

That will pierce into your darkness

And illuminate your fears...

— Pat Parker

excerpt from “For Audre”

If I could take all my parts with me when I go somewhere, and not have to say to one of them, "No, you stay home tonight, you won't be welcome," because I'm going to an all-white party where I can be gay, but not Black. Or I'm going to a Black poetry reading, and half the poets are antihomosexual, or thousands of situations where something of what I am cannot come with me. The day all the different parts of me can come along, we would have what I would call a revolution.

— Pat Parker, Movement in Black

Hey family! January 20th is the birthday of the brilliant Black lesbian poet, publisher and activist Pat Parker! Come celebrate at the inspiration station. Eat cake and engage quotations from Pat Parker's inspiring body of work. AND get applications and information for the School of Our Lorde and the Survival School series (applications for the February sessions due Jan 25th!)

Wednesday January 20th 6pm

Inspiration Station!

Cake for everyone!

Kids welcome!


Apply for the School of Our Lorde Poetics Unit by January 25th!: Available in Durham and the Diaspora!

The School of Our Lorde is comprised of 4 units of Thursday 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, political implications and publishing interventions 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 4 month process. Engaging, interactive poetic childcare will be provided at every session with amazing activities imagined with and implemented by Beth Bruch!!!! No one who completes an application and can attend will be turned away.

February 2010: Poetics ****Applications Due January 25th 2010****

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)

Distance Learning

For those of you who are not lucky enough to live in Durham, NC right now...don't worry. Audre Lorde and I both believe in long-distance love.

You can participate in the School of Our Lorde long-distance in 3 ways:


Host Your Own Satellite Campus!:

Why not have School of Our Lorde at your organization or in YOUR living room!? If you can gather 5 or more people to participate in any unit you can get a course packet with the course readings and worksheets to guide you through each session. You can also participate (along with other satellite campuses) in a monthly interactive BrightTalk session and office hours on LiveStream.

Our vision is that each Satellite Campus will be able to make a sliding scale contribution of $75-200 per unit. No group will be turned away.

To become a host, email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com with what session you'd like to host and your vision!

Independent Study:

Let us know how the School of Our Lorde poetics, pedagogy, politics of publishing process can support something you are working on with/for your community. You will get a course packet and worksheets. You can also participate (along with other satellite campuses) in a monthly interactive BrightTalk session and office hours on LiveStream.

Fill out the application for the appropriate unit here: http://summerofourlorde.wordpress.com/registration/

and get 7 people to financially support your participation. Our hope is that each independent student will raise between $50-150 to contribute to the School of Our Lorde. No one will be turned away!

Lorde as Our Witness:

You can participate in the School of our Lorde through this blog. There will be weekly video blog updates and reflections from the local participants and you can always post comments and questions here and I'll respond. Feel free to spread the good news in your community so one day you can host a School of Our Lorde institute where you live!

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Happy Birthday Joseph Beam!: New Podcast Celebrating Black Love and Survival!


December 30th is Joseph Beam's Birthday...in honor of this brilliant Black Gay literary genius ancestor and and the fact that both In the Life and Brother to Brother are back in print thanks to RedBone Press this podcast includes readings and reflections from Lisa Moore of RedBone Press, La Marr Jurelle, Darnell Moore, Justin Smith and a round the kitchen table conversation with some of Durham's most inspiring Black queer visionary men: Ashon Crawley, Sendolo Diaminah, Thaddeaus Edwards and Justin Robinson. (Plus music, love and archival goodies from an ancestor obsessed devotee who you know much too well :) ENJOY!!!!

http://brokenbeautiful.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/in-the-life-podcast-final.mp3

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Sign Up for June Jordan Saturday Survival School and School of Our Lorde!

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!

Monday, December 07, 2009

Black Girls Rock!



Inspired by the new free Black Girls Rock Album by Res (downloadable for free right here: http://www.okayplayer.com/news/Res-Black.Girls.Rock-Free-LP-.html) and the amazing, brilliant, brave Greensboro singer and songwriter Laila...we are gathering all Black Girls Who Rock and all the beautiful groupies who know the truth for an informal listening session/jam session...because we rock, and what better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than knowing it!

5pm Sunday December 13th
Lex's place (email brokenbeautiful@gmail.com for details)
Bring food if you wanna.

Kids rock too! Bring 'em and your instruments and favorite CDs and shoot...even rock band if you wanna.

Rock on.
love,
lex