Juneteenth Palestine: Report from the Living Room

Greetings Eternal Summer Family!

Last night was the kick-off of Juneteenth Palestine, a night school exploring June Jordan's actions and words in support of the fact that solidarity with Palestine and critique of the imperialism of the state of Israel was and is a Black feminist priority. This first night was about identifcation and solidarity. We brought our ancestors and loved ones into the room through a dedication exercise, meditated on June Jordan's "Moving Towards Home," where she declares "I was born a Black woman/and now I am become a Palestinian" and Suheir Hammad's meditation on "Black" in the preface to her collection Born Palestinian Born Black with collages, a BlackOutBodyBrainstorm, a telecast from anti-zionist Jewish organizer Tema Okun and a letter writing exercise based on June Jordan's "A Letter to My Friend." Experiencing the sincerity and brilliance of the folks in my living room was an honor and a true tribute to June Jordan's idea of Living Room as a global political vision of love. In honor of all displaced people here are some of our visions of living room...

love,

lex

Keeping it Hot! Little Black Feminist Book Series Vol. 2 (FIRE)

Eternal Summer means keeping it hot...This beautiful black booklet joins the legacy of Harlem Renaissance firebrands and the brilliant youth of SPARK reproductive justice (see fire@sparkrj.org). It includes lust poems and polemics to/for/about black queer community and an essay on FLAMBOYANCE dedicated to Alexis DeVeaux and Gwendolyn Hardwick of the Flamboyant Ladies!

I know you want your very own! So paypal 15 bucks to brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com and include your current address. Thanks for keeping the Eternal Summer ETERNAL!

or just this link if it is easier: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=3VHV86GHPK56J

Love,

Lex

p.s. oh and there's a matching podcast!

http://brokenbeautiful.wordpress.com/2010/10/04/the-proud-podcast-the-visionary-heat-of-black-queer-community/

Cameron Village (or u scared)

Cameron Village (or u scared)

Raleigh, North Carolina

(After Audre Lorde’s “Generation”)

i.

(how?)

How our faces are broken

splinters into rage over ages

rages into splinters of ages of always

facing the breaking of truth

how we remember to live

is a question

we grow into

if we’re lucky.

ii.

(what if?)

what if love could sing in every key

what if every touch every open every close

was

a sacred reminder that love

was all we needed.

what if it is not our held hands

our open mouths our ready boots

what if it is our simple joy

that makes us golden

makes us gay.

iii.

(u scared)

We are seizing your limited power

Cameron Village

your crept up promise

that children will beat the hope out of each other

and sell it to their parents for silence.

Who would come to your latched city of falsehood

Cameron Village, to hear

your warning that that love is not welcome

your indecent and rehearsed rejection

slippery with the spit of slave names

to hear you warn us

that you know what we know

that you have drunk a river of nothing

just to protect your even more nothing

your unquenchable failure.

iv.

(what we know)

You know what we know

even one even two even three glimpses

of what we know how to do

which is love

is danger

that if anyone saw who we are

what we have

they would batter your doors with return receipts

they would dig up your parking lot to farm

they would never buy your sham semblance of somewhere to sit

you know that you know what we know

and we know

that

if anyone saw

the love that we have

they would never buy

anything

ever

again.

shapeshift

For Samuel Blizzard Jr., Calvin Streater and Durand Robinson, black gay men murdered during the last 10 days in Atlanta.

“who learns to love me

from the mouth of my enemies”

-Audre Lorde “Need”

who have your back

who cradle your lightheaded bright eyes

who frame your face with hands pride portrait sending home

who love

who write your sweat salt into affirmation

who believe in you enough

surely the thin rope tied sweatshop stitched free backpack

filled with plastic reinforced dance party flyers

is no shield for your bulletproof and brazen spirit

no container for your purpose

who hold you and keep you safe

who watch your moving mouth and learn to love you whole

when did your open heart become a liability

when did your brave insistence on the community of an instant

become an open temple for the fear

of shapeshifters who know not

themselves in you

until too late

who paint our faces

taste the iron of your blood

until our words turn Kevlar and mean something

the back of your head looks so soft little brother

eggshell skull and brilliance breaking

sometimes I want to cry just looking at you

how to accept that your clean lined queen glide

tentative teeth ready to smile

fierce and femme

is a hopeful contradiction that could end

who believe in you enough to change everything

who love to learn your mouth whole

who hold

who hold

who hold your waiting hand

who cup your fresh cut hair

who kiss your lashed down lust

who hold

who hold

who hold you up

who have

who have

who have

your back

Here (for Assata Goff)

Here

after Lucille Clifton’s “Crazy Horse Names His Daughter”

for Assata Goff

call down the name freedom call

up the spirit of no matter what now call

your shared name liberation veins steel will

fierce focus shielding sacred smile laugh

your own name radiant as cuba

laugh your yawning name into language laugh

in the face of any power that does not know you laugh

to save life from leaning and falling over laugh

planting yes between sidewalk cracks up mural walls

and we will sing your grace walk like we know laugh

earned and eternal when we speak

Assata is here

Crazy Horse Names His Daughter: Lucille Clifton Rebirth Broadcast #11

Crazy Horse Names His Daughter: Lucille Clifton Rebirth Broadcast #11 from Alexis Gumbs on Vimeo.

This week our Lucille Clifton ShapeShifter assignment is to cast names of powerful people in our lives and in our history into the future and to create a ritual or list of naming that describes the energy in the names of the children in your family, life or community.

To see all the Lucille Clifton Rebirth Broadcasts see http://blackfeministmind.wordpress.com/category/shapeshifting/

And to learn more about the Lucille Clifton ShapeShifter Survival School and the upcoming Everett Anderson Storytime week see: blackfeministmind.wordpress.com/survival-school

Eternal Something: Alternate ROOTS Testifies

Eternal Something from Alexis Gumbs on Vimeo.

Brilliance! The participants in the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind Studio at the Alternate ROOTS annual meeting TESTIFY!!!!

blackfeministmind.wordpress.com

Eternal Summer Haikus

created by the participants at the Eternal Summer Studio at Alternate ROOTS 2010

(photo by Sed Miles)

See grandma ain’t gone

The crickets sing her church sings

Be still, hear her.

-

I create because

Knowing life more intensely

Takes paint and brushes.

-Jessica Solomon

eternal struggle

blows like a hurricane wind

through creation’s soul

-A. Assaf

Made not certainly

A Summer Source discovered

Eternal Other

Eternally something sighs

Much to much abundance lies

In the summer’s light

-Jackson Kroopf

My eternal core

Dances for endless summers

Dignity in space

-

Eternal Wonder

Magnificence Undefined

Blooming Forever

Maybe hood ‘bundnace

Is the hydrant on full blast.

-

eternal spirit

guiding me, supporting me

move me with your light

-

trees and rocks, rivers

waterfalls…is anything

really eternal

this sweet summer seems

eternal as echoing

wind chimes and sunlight

perspective growing

eternal something knowing

means never going

eternal something

latches onto my soul and

grows inside the heart

_

eternal summer

sitting quietly waiting

it is breaking, breath

eternal something

wraps itself around my skin

it’s time to begin

-

when the world smiles

when we laugh

all is healed

-Ebony Noelle Golden

Make Summer soul free

Tap that bundance now y’all and

Love eternally

-Julia Roxanne Wallace

A new life forming

Past shaded future visions

What will be will be

The potential of life

The coming together of love

Forever starts today

Love goes on and on

Thru the life shared between us

As a new child boarn.

-Chris Youngston

When it is this hot

Let the tears flow down more more

It will cool your face

My name is Vzwhyahy

Such it in breathe it out woosh!

More more suck it in

-Marquetta Dupree

eternal endings

fall to the earth to become

eternal seedling

sweatstinging the eyes

mango mash and moonlight swim

eternal summer

-

abundance is all

leafy greens, vibrant colors

and smiling bellies

forever spinning

stories of struggle and grace

lifting as we climb

eternal darkness

vibrates on another plane

pregnant with spirit

-fari

Learning to listen

Growing in compassion this

Eternal summer

Powerful rivers

Ancient, towering rocks this

Eternal summer

Hope that carries change

Working for peace justice this

Eternal summer

-

Eternal Summer

Fire exchanged through solid hugs

Rhythms, yearning peace

Eternal September: Jewelle Gomez and the Cost of Silence

(Jewelle Gomez and her Nana, photo by Ann Chapman)

Reconnect with the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind Potluck Series on September 2nd at 6pm at the Inspiration Station. We will be discussing Jewelle Gomez's "Because Silence is Costly" and discussing what it means for us to speak up intergenerationally and in community.

You can download the reading here: "Because Silence is Costly"

Bring a dish and a friend if you can and your brilliant eternal mind.

love,

lex

water sign woman: lucille clifton rebirth broadcast #9

water sign woman: lucille clifton rebirth broadcast #9 from Alexis Gumbs on Vimeo.

remember what you know.

to see all of the Rebirth Broadcasts to go blackfeministmind.wordpress.com/category/shapeshifting.

and to find out more about the upcoming activities of the Lucille Clifton ShapeShifter Survival School visit
blackfeministmind.wordpress.com/survival-school