Loved ones!!!! For those of you who didn’t get to participate in the MotherOurselves Bootcamp in Durham NC this January here is a podcast featuring the insights of the participants and some beautiful music!!! Playlist below.

direct link: http://brokenbeautiful.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/bootcamp-podcast-1.mp3

Also know that for the next week…if you become an Eternal Summerian (monthly sustainer of the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind) your first gifts will be a mixtape of the meditations of release we did during the bootcamp and the motherourselves manual so that you can bring this work into your life and your community!!!

We can make something out of anything.

Insight from Mariel Eaves and

The Revenge of Ricky Williams “Sweet Wolf Shirt”

We recognize and nurture the creative parts of each other without always understanding what will be created.

“Dear Mom” by Adele Nieves and

Climbing Poetree “I Wonder”

We establish authority over our own definitions.

Affirmations from Miya Binta

Doria Roberts “Dying Man’s Wish”

We claim power over who we choose to be, knowing that such power is relative within the realities of our lives.

Estas Mujeres: Covenant by Fabiola Sandoval

Amel Larrieux “All I Got”

We provide an attentive concern and expectation of growth, which is the beginning of that acceptance we came to expect only from our mothers.

“When I Crave Mama” by Fabiola Sandoval

Me’shell Ndegeocello “Solomon”

We affirm our own worth by committing ourselves to our own survival in our selves and in the selves of other black women.

“I Am My Mother’s Daughter” by Rashida James-Saadiya

Lauryn Hill “If They Only Knew”

We refuse to settle for anything less than a rigorous pursuit of the possible in ourselves, at the same time making a distinction between what is possible, and what the outside world drives us to do in order to prove that we are human.

“Mother Ourselves” by Julia R. Wallace (JDub)

Santigold “Unstoppable”

We recognize our successes and are tender with ourselves even when we fail.

“My Mother Ourselves Covenant” by Dara Montaque

Res “Bittersweet”

We learn to love what we have given birth to by giving definition to, to be both kind and demanding in the teeth of failure as well as in the face of success without misnaming either.

“Letter of Release to the Next Generation” by Miya Binta

Erykah Badu “My Life”

We lay to rest what is weak, timid and damaged without despisal and we protect and support what is useful for survival. We explore the difference together.

“Mother as Savior” by Miya Binta

Georgia Ann Muldrow “Runway”

We stand toe-to-toe inside rigorous loving and speak what has always seemed like the impossible to each other.

Truth Booth Conversation between Miya Binta and Manju Rajendran

Tata Vega, “Miss Celie’s Blues”

As we speak the truth to each other it become unavoidable to ourselves.

ESG “Keep on Moving”

Infinite love,

Lex

Happy January beloved and far-flung supporters of the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind!!!!!!

Since it is a beautiful new year…we have a beautiful new gift for our beloved Eternal Summerian monthly sustainers!  All existing Eternal Summerians and all NEW monthly sustainers who sign up before the end of the month will receive their very own  digital copies of crucial priceless curriculum materials from the MotherOurselves Bootcamp:

*The MotherOurselves Manual (including the mother ourselves manifesta, playlist, activity station descriptions and a 5 cycle meditation of release including direct quotes from across Lorde’s body of work…especially Eye to Eye: Black Women Hatred and Anger.

*The MotherOurselves Meditation/Dance Party Mixtape: guide yourself or your group through the cycles of meditation and release with music, poetry and the mesmerizing sound of my voice

AND Eternal Summerians who sign up at levels of $20 or more will receive hardcopies of both the Manual and the Mixtape (well CD actually) and a one of a kind collage in the mail!!!

Hooray!!!!!  Sign up today or on payday!  Thank you for making another year of inspiration possible!!!!

<3

Love,

Lex

take flight!

Because you want to start the New Year off with your spirit in shape and a roadmap to follow…
Because “mother” is the most complicated word you have ever heard

MOTHER OURSELVES BOOTCAMP is an opportunity to use Audre Lorde’s wisdom to unpack our ideas about mothering and to consciously address internalized racism, sexism, homophobia and ableism with huge, miraculous transformative love.  MOTHER OURSELVES BOOTCAMP (all caps!!! is also major milestone/outcome/accountability point in Lex’s years of research on Audre Lorde’s concept that “We can learn to mother ourselves,” and grows out of working with Zachari on the MotherOurselves workshop for Gumbo Yaya.

(Lex’s wardrobe provided by Ammoliscious and sister-comrade Leah Burke)

I LOVE THE SCHOOL OF OUR LORDE WEBINARS!!!!!!

After reading and discussing Audre Lorde’s “Poetry is Not a Luxury”  the participants in the School of Our Lorde Poetry Webinar collaboratively created these two poems about what poetry IS and what it IS NOT!!!!   Much love to Monchel, Chantal, Rosa and Leana for being badass cyber cypher warriors!!!!

not

poetry is not a mask

poetry is not a commercial

poetry is not homogeneous

poetry is not an excuse

poetry is not perverse

poetry is not linear

poetry is not just for white guys with nothing better to do

poetry is not canonized

not a classroom unit

poetry is not a bunch/of line breaks/in random/places

not a grade

poetry is not taught or learned–it’s the language we were born with

not death without a birth

poetry is not inhibited

poetry is not brought to you by hallmark

a competition

poetry [will] not be televised

not a “10″

poetry is not about meter

poetry is not an accessory in a psuedo-revolutionary lifestyle

poetry is not oppressive

poetry is not convenient

poetry is not always easy

poetry is not boxable

not a bindi on a dreadlocked white girl’s forehead at a powwow

poetry is not the destination — it is the journey

poetry is not standard english

poetry is not patchouli

is

poetry is my son’s smile

my fingers walking across his belly and squirming back

poetry is a heartbeat

yes

poetry is what i say to my reflection when i think no one is listening

poetry is a place to live

poetry is goosebumps!

poetry is breath

poetry is prayer

poetry is a breath of fresh air

poetry is italian ice on a 90-degree day

lol

poetry is your hand in mine

poetry is laughing out loud

hee!

poetry is an ecosystem

YES

poetry is painful but not in vain

poetry is a lifeline

poetry is family

poetry is an open heart

poetry is a safe space

poetry is knowing when you’ve met The One (or The Ones)

poetry is an exorcism

poetry is jabberwocky

poetry is knowing when you’ve met yourself

poetry is a new spelling of my name and everything else

poetry is the sound of sitting still

the sounds of getting up

poetry is raw

sdrawkcab si yrteop

poetry is forwards

poetry is a yes followed by an oh yes!

poetry is circular

poetry is everpresent

poetry is old

is silent when we’re not listening, but still persistently there

poetry is about to happen

poetry is our only hope

poetry is wanted and feared

poetry is your skin knitting itself back together

poetry is omnipresent

poetry is an open door

this language is beautiful

poetry is love

poetry is stinky funky lust

poetry is knowing when to stop

and start again

poetry is what makes you say “aww” when you see a little kid

poetry is putting into words what had no words before

poetry is putting into words what never existed before

poetry is what my heart is saying to my hand

poetry is constantly naming what is so it doesn’t get lost

poetry is mothering myself

poetry is how my mom calls my cell phone whenever i say (or type) the word “mother”

poetry is calling for my attention

from For SHE So Loved the World: The Lorde Within

I don’t know if Audre used to call those Lesbian party lines back in the day. My hunch is that probably not so much, because she did a lot of her work in the time of a telephone monopoly, when long-distance service was really expensive and I can tell you…plenty of telephone disconnection services show up in the archived papers of Black feminist writers. Considering the miracles that Lorde participated in with sister-comrades, Pat Parker, Barbara Smith, Cheryl Clarke, Honor Moore while not living in the same state, or on the same coast or in the same country, through snail mail letters, it blows my mind to imagine what they might have done via skype!

At the same time…I’m grateful that some of those profound, world shifting, publication creating, discourse transforming conversations had to happen in letters, sometimes literally carbon-copied (the original “cc”) to multiple people. Because as a scholar, retro-stalker and Black feminist devotee having those letters available to read and reread means everything. Provides a trail and a trace. How are we documenting our brilliance now?

At any rate I think Audre would be tripping with glee at even the glitch-filled experience that those of us in the School of Our Lorde publishing webinar had in an audio-visual enabled internet chat room in her name! Blowing each other kisses from Durham, to Cairo, to New York City to the Rio Grande Valley, to New Hampshire, Fayetteville, to DC to Minnesota, to California, to Albany…you get the idea. I wonder if the energy of those kisses and the speed and delight with which they are received is having an internet butterfly effect, creating a storm of warrior wisdom and transformation, fanning the flames of our hearts and the ferocity of our words.

All I know is that I wake up everyday looking for another way to commune with the brilliant, complicated, warrior energy that I call Audre Lorde. And these past three weeks in the webinar I have been blessed to experience the playfulness, wisdom, hopeful spirit, critical insight, flirtatious naughtiness, and unblinkawayable beauty of Audre in the faces and typing fingers of all of the participants in the webinar. I am so grateful for this experience and I’m looking forward to how the poetry webinar (Mondays at 7:30 EDT starting June 2 at www.tinychat.com/schoolofourlorde) will print you further on my heart. (email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com for the readings for the next webinar!)

In the hands of the many,

Lex

Hey loved ones! Sign Up today to participate in the School of Our Lorde Publishing Unit

in Durham we’ll meet at the Inspiration Station on Wednesdays: May 5, 12, 19 from 6:30 to 9:30pm.

in Cyberspace we’ll meet at www.tinychat.com/schoolofourlorde on Mondays, May 10, 17, 24.

Email your application to brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com  ASAP!

Applications: School of Our Lorde Publishing Application (doc)

School of Our Lorde Publishing Application

The politics unit (which will run on Wednesdays at 6:30-9:30 pm at the Inspiration Station on April 14, 21 and 28th) will draw on letters, meeting agendas, notes and published and unpublished essays by Audre Lorde that focus on her approach to organizational politics, responding to violence against women of color, and her approach to transnational solidarity work.   Of course I strongly believe that Audre Lorde’s work can provide a space for us to explore and gain clarity about our own approaches to these and other issues as we transform the world!

Exciting poetic childcare will be provided for every session by Beth Bruch!!!

Apply now!  (Applications due by Monday, April 12)

If you live near Durham!

School of Our Lorde Politics Application (pdf)

School of Our Lorde Politics Application (doc file)

Fill out an application and email it to brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com or drop it by the Inspiration Station.

Anywhere else in the world? Sign up online:

www.schoolofourlorde.ning.com

I look forward to a million conversations about this!

Intro Part II Queer Intergenerationality!!!!!

direct link here: http://brokenbeautiful.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/intro-part-ii-queer-intergenerationality.pdf

and if you missed part one of the intro…here it is: http://brokenbeautiful.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/introduction-part-1-1979/

Infinite love!

lex

Bit by bit we keep it going.  Here is part 1 of the introduction to my dissertation entitled 1979.  This was also the basis of the first Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind Podcast (with the same name) which you can listen to here.  Thanks for everyone’s loving affirmation of the Prologue and the great conversations you all have blessed me with in the past week!  Looking forward to more!

Here is the pdf: Introduction Part 1: 1979

(direct link: http://brokenbeautiful.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/introduction-part-1.pdf)

Here is the podcast version:  1979

Infinite love!

Lex

Now that my dissertation is formatted and officially in the hands of my superstar dream team committee I see it as an act of spiritual release and community accountability to share it bit by bit with you!  So starting with the prologue which is literally a love letter to you: the audience of my dreams aka this community that transforms the world by existing aka facebook friends and neighbors alike, here we go! This is my much belabored baby that I am sending into your hearts.  Please let me know any thoughts you have, any desires this sparks, any possible collaborations that reading this inspires and just generally what you think is possible!

Ta dah: Prologue for the masses!

Or paste this link in your browser: http://brokenbeautiful.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=411

love,

lex

p.s. for those of you who want to ask the loving question “what’s next” check out www.mobilehomecoming.wordpress.com