Wednesday July 1, 6pm-8pm eastern

In honor of Lucille Clifton's 90th Birthday, this writing session honors her eternal life. Working with her series of divine listening poems "the message from the ones" we will listen and trust the messages each of us are called to steward and share. bring something to write with, something to write on and access this webinar from a special place. Everyone who registers will have access to the recording. My reflective writing workshops are every first Wednesday 6pm to 8pm eastern.

Sign up here!

“You here to remind people of free.” Marvin K. White in Our Name Be Witness

How far can newborns see? How about a newborn destined to be nearsighted? Either way, it’s only today as I look back at the words “never sold” above my fathers heart while he held me in the hospital that I realize, this was my first clue about my purpose. I was born to end slavery.

Some people believe that slavery is already over. Some textbooks pretend it never happened. But not only do we live in a world where people are still trafficked and forced to do physical and sexual labor against their will without pay, we also all live each day in a world structured by slavery. Can you tell that this is a sweet and loving post celebrating my Dad’s birthday? Not yet.

My mother labored with me for 36 hours. All through my Dad’s birthday and into the next morning. While my mother brought me into the air, breath by breath, my father drank his first cups of coffee in the hospital cafeteria (he says it was bitter and disgusting). He initiated himself into a new form of wakefulness watching for my immersion. And he was terrified, not only by the life and death stakes of every birth, but also about what it would mean to be responsible for someone else’s life, especially when he didn’t understand his own yet. And then eventually as my mother rested, I was in his arms, swaddled and wiped clean. He put on the standard issue hospital smock to hold me.

The stamp “never sold” on the hospital smock is not a protest against slavery or capitalism. It is a mark of institutional ownership. It probably has something to do with measures of sanitary use and liability. That doesn’t stop it from being one of many clues that I was born to end slavery. Maybe it imbedded a reminder that would be activated years later when I visited the first site of enslavement in the Americas, a sugar mill in the Dominican Republic, and heard the message that I am here to be part of a movement to end slavery in my lifetime.

But how do we replace the current system with life-giving freedom? It was right in front of my face, labeling my father’s heartbeat. The third heartbeat I would learn. Our aliveness cannot be bought or sold. This is the founding lie of slavery, reproduced violently in a system that says you have to sell your aliveness or steal someone else’s to pay for that same life. It took my father a long time to trust his way out of this system. I think it had to do with this moment 44 years and one day ago when his “never sold” heartbeat sounded true in the value of my listening.

This was a special moment, but not a unique moment. We were all born. We all studied the heartbeats of the people who birthed us and the first people who held us. I am potentially not even the only newborn to have seen this exact reusable hospital smock on that day. Which means everyone born in that hospital could take a clue and understand that they too are here to end slavery. You too are here to end slavery, in your own life and for all generations. If you are reading this and you were born in a hospital you were probably greeted by a similar smock and thankfully all clues can be shared and are transferable so if you were born at home or in some other place, you can get in on the assignment too. We are all here for freedom. It just happens to be that the guy wearing the smock also left a map.

Happy Birthday Dad. I’m so grateful that you lived beyond extraction into resonance. I’m grateful that you taught me to listen to my heart, let it be loudest. And I’m grateful that you left a map, a literal life-purpose road map that can support anyone to listen to their purpose and reclaim their breath. The Chrysalis Life Purpose Road Map takes an imaginal approach to transformation and breaks all contracts with fear and scarcity. Sangodare and I are following this map that my father created for individual transformation into collectivity because we know (as my Dad knew) that freedom does not exist on an individual scale, it is only possible in a world of transformed relation where we relate purpose to purpose in resonance, not only with our own reasons for being alive (yes) and not only even with each other’s gifts and genius (yes) but also with the aliveness of this planet which has not been bought and can never be sold.

This month, my Dad’s birthday month and mine too, Sangodare and I are implementing the first 3 month cohort of the curriculum my dad invented: The Chrysalis: Life Purpose Road Map. The virtual-only version of the full curriculum kicks off on the solstice/father’s day (Sun, June 21st at 3pm eastern) and the retreat version kicks off with a weekend in Durham, NC on June 27-28th. You can get all the information here.

Before my first day at that fancy elementary school for girls I knew that I was on a mission. How did I know? Who told me? Was I psychic already or was that one of the powers I had to develop to fulfill my mission? By the time we went to the meet and greet in the gorgeous stucco building with wood details, I knew. My mission, no option NOT to accept it, as the only Black girl in the elementary school, was to prove everyone wrong.

I got it from my Dad. My mom was never the only kid at an all white school but my father was the only one, or one of very few, for his entire elite scholarship-based private education just like me. It wasn’t until I found my grandmother’s yearbooks that I learned that she and her sisters and first cousins were usually the only Black kids in their public school too. So I came by it honest, inherited or inferred. It was up to me to vanquish all the stereotypes about Black people that these super privileged white people held in their minds and hearts. My weapon? Excellence. It was more important than friendship bracelets, leaf piles and sleepovers. I wanted that look of pride (and relief) on my father’s face when I won awards. I wanted the glint in his eyes when he looked at the other parents. I couldn’t have known, but I certainly felt that there was something gratifying for the schoolboy he had been, brilliant, isolated, sharp-witted and always on the defensive in unsafe white educational spaces. Why, one might have asked herself a million times, would he ever put me through this? Short answer? He didn’t know better. Yet.

An image I altered as part of a grief and joy ritual where I imagined my Dad and I being the same age and being besties in our school days, so neither one of us would have to be alone.

My father believed what my grandparents instilled in him. 1. Education is God. 2. You have to fight for everything you get in what my immigrant grandfather called “This man’s country.” My grandparents put their kids in white schools knowing it was unsafe. So my grandmother took over the PTA to have oversight. My parents put me in a white elementary school knowing it was unsafe. My Dad joined the board of trustees, so there was only so much they could do to me.

My father had taken the excellence route himself. So much to prove. Elite boarding school education. Ivy league undergrad AND law degree and MBA. First Black person in a vice president role at The Bank of New York. He was even featured in Black Enterprise Magazine. Winning? While I was in elementary school my father had a revelation. My Nana calls it a nervous breakdown, but I think it’s a miracle. In his corporate lawyer vice president investment bank job, my father realized what all his excellence had gained him, an opportunity to be a Black face in a white space forever, complicit in mergers and acquisitions that destroyed other people’s lives. So he could pay for his children to end up where? in the same hellish institutions? Was this the point? No way.

My father began the long journey of retracing his steps. A difficult journey which involved divorce, moving to a different city and though I felt the economic difference in my life, I didn’t really understand what was going on. Both of my parents remained committed to my and my siblings education, now on scholarships (#evenmoretoprove) and without a clear reassignment, I just continued my mission.

Here is the poison of having something to prove. At some point, it steals your internal navigation. At a certain point I couldn’t tell the difference between the gratification of lusting after the idea of excellence and the sincere sweetness of following my own dreams. Do you ever feel that way? When I see the brilliant talented people around floundering, disconnected from their core sense of purpose and wondering what to react to and how, I think about the way my mission almost stole my relationship to my purpose.

Almost.

In his journey, my Dad finally came back around to relieve me of my (deeply internalized) mission. He realized that part of his purpose on the planet and in community was to create what he would have needed to listen to his inner knowing and live a purposeful life. Through massive unlearning he taught himself to self-define, manifest and become accountable to a purposeful life and then he created a curriculum to share it with other people. Starting with me. I’m proud to say, now that my Dad is an ancestor, that what I have inherited from him most of all is the joy of living a purposeful life full of love and inspiration.

This month, my Dad’s birthday month and mine too, Sangodare and I are implementing the first 3 month cohort of the curriculum my dad invented: The Chrysalis: Life Purpose Road Map. Our online introductory workshop Doing What I Came to Do: Clarifying Your Assignment is this Saturday at 3pm EST, the virtual-only version of the full curriculum kicks off on the solstice (Sun, June 21st at 3pm eastern) and the retreat version kicks off with a weekend in Durham, NC on June 27-28th. You can get all the information here.

I am so excited to invite you into my new mission, to inspire a world where everyone we know is fully living in their purpose and generating more love and freedom for everyone.

Love,

Alexis

Yesterday’s Lovebirds playdate was a vortex of sweetness, reflection and witnessing. We used sound to remember the love that sustains us and to call in the love we want to experience in the partnerships we are calling in. For our full freedom and privacy we did not record the session, but you can experience the group poem we created below. I recommend reading it out loud!

the key

by the participants in the chasing the clouds away playdate for lovebirds

our souls are singing

in the key of the sea

our souls are singing

in the key of the moon

our souls are singing

in the key of open

our souls are singing

in the key of LIFE

our souls are singing

in the key of be

our souls are singing

in the key of see

our souls are singing

in the key of light

our souls are singing

in the key of delight

our souls are singing

in the key of the night

our souls are singing

in the key of depth

our souls are singing

in the key of tenderness

our souls are singing

in the key of safety

our souls are singing

in the key of surrender

our souls are singing

in the key of joy

our souls are singing

in the key reciprocity

our souls are singing

in her key of being seen

our souls are singing

in the key of expansiveness and deep connection

our souls are singing

in the key of vulnerability

our souls are singing

in the key of being known and being witnessed

our souls are singing

in the key of alignment

our souls are singing

in the key of commitment and hope

our souls are singing

in the key of restfulness

our souls are singing

in the key where dreams are made

our souls are singing

in the key of many stars

our souls are singing

in the key of magic

our souls are singing

in the key of spice

our souls are singing

in the key of love

our souls are singing

in the key of strength

our souls are singing

in the key of dance

our souls are singing

in the key of flowers

our souls are singing

in the key of the beach

our souls are singing

bacon grease sizzling on a cast iron stove

our souls are singing

in the key of pleasure

our souls are singing

in the key of fullness

our souls are singing

in the key of sweetness

our souls ate singing

in the key of connectedness

our souls are singing

in the key of earnestness without shame

our souls are singing

in the key of harmony

our souls are singing

in the key of loving laughter in harmony

If you are calling love into your life, consider joining our 8 week cohort this Fall. It’s all about trusting ourselves enough to love again, with intention and open-heartedness, more detail here and in the graphic below: https://sangodare.podia.com/trust-fall-activation-and-accompaniment-for-lovebirds 

Peace

by the participants in Every Breath: The Cosmic Purpose Intensive

“To that piece of each of us that refuses to be silent.”

-Audre Lorde in “Burst of Light”

The piece of each of us that chooses to be vulnerable in a world that encourages us to mask.

The piece of each of us that exists in all of us.

The piece of each of us that knows.

The piece of each of us that is still.

The piece of each of us that is still persistent.

The piece of each of us that attracts.

The piece of each of us that is always transforming.

The piece of each of us that is always expanding.

The piece of each of us that waits.

The piece of each of us that sweetens.

The piece of each of us that learns.

The piece of each of us that unlearns.

The piece of each of us that dances to silent music.

The piece of each of us that speaks where we’ve been silenced.

The piece of each of us that blooms never too late.

The piece of each of us that melds, spreads and reach outwards.

The piece of each of us that wants for so much more.

The piece of each of us that remembers not to be self-conscious.

The piece of each of us that strives to find our own tribe and remember to find our passion.

The piece of each of us that can accept the unacceptable.

The piece of each of us that can fly unencumbered.

The piece of each of us that can explore our humanity unapologetically.

The piece of each of us that remembers the way home.

The piece of each of us that cares and is cared for.

The piece of each of us that is beyond category.

The piece of each of us that is no matter who sees.

The piece of each of us that is already.

The piece of each of us that flows as doubtless as water.

The piece of each of us that knows that we are magic.

The piece of each of us that is sacred and whole already.

The piece of each of us that twinkles.

The piece of each of us that casts a warm light of recognition on all of us.

The piece of each of us that is loving fear into magic.

The piece of each of us where Audre Lorde still lives.
The piece of each of us that lives on.

Love and gratitude to everyone who supported and attended our last free-standing in-person workshop of the year! If you want a chance to engage in this field of love check out our upcoming events on the road, get matched with a workshop from our library via the practice oracle or sign up for a one-on-one mini workshop.

Photo by Cosmic Purpose Intensive participant Jeannette Bronson

Join us at the PaperBack Launch of Survival is Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde

When: Tuesday, August 26 at 6:30p

 Where: 21c Museum Hotel, 111 Corcoran St, Durham, NC (less than a block away from the shop!)

 About the event:

Alexis Pauline Gumbs in conversation with Sonya Renee Taylor at 21c in celebration of the paperback release of Alexis's award-winning biography, Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde.

Copies of Survival Is a Promise will be available for purchase during the event.Survival is a Promise Paperback Launch!: https://www.lettersbookshop.com/page/survival-is-a-promise

every breath: the cosmic purpose intensive

Audre Lorde was in love with this still combusting planet. In addition to all the other separations that Audre Lorde refused, she also refused to accept a binary difference between planets and stars. That means in the Lordean cosmology you are a star living on a star. Everything is changing.

Act accordingly.

Join us on August 26th, 2025 for this in person intensive in Durham, North Carolina to activate and nurture your cosmic destiny in the tradition of Audre Lorde. more info here: https://sangodare.podia.com/every-breath-the-cosmic-purpose-intensive

Last week, inspired by the empty bowl awareness raising campaign created by Mothers for Ceasefire and in acknowledgement of the interconnected systems depriving our beloveds in Gaza, Sudan, Congo and Haiti of the basic conditions of life, we gathered in solidarity against famine guided by June Jordan’s poem “Focus in Real Time.” Jordan (in this poem and always) pushes us to examine our relationship to the possible, our relationships with each other, our relationship to the unimaginable. We wrote poems of who and how and possibility and commitment and our final group poem (below) is a prayer of nourishment and adoration. You will increase its power when you read it aloud.

We sent the proceeds of this workshop to The Sameer Project, a donation based organization addressing the basic needs of our siblings in Gaza. If you missed the opportunity to write with us (and June) and you still want to donate feel free to donate directly to The Sameer Project or participate in the replay workshop here.

Fill the Bowl

by the participants in the “The Hands That Hold the Bowl”: June Jordan and Solidarity Against Famine benefit for the Sameer Project

            “Who would adore the hands that held the bowl…

              Who will write about the hands that hold the bowl…”

                                    -June Jordan “Focus in Real Time”

Adore the breath

            Hold the hands

            Adore the seeds

            Adore the muscle

            Open the hands

            Reach out to the hands

            Adore the heart

Heal the hands

            Uncruel the hands

            Adore this opportunity

            Soften the hands

            Abhor the hands that tighten and horde

            Hold the hands that are too small to understand

            Adore hope that tunnels through sand

            and sends lentils and rice from sea to land

            Adore the life  

            Adore Mahmoud

            Mahmoud...the hands

            Adore the question

            Adore the plants

            Adore the trees

            Adore the water

            Wash the hands

 Adore all life

            Hold on hold tight hold out

            Adore the winds

            Adore the butterflies

            Unanswer the hands

            Adore the humming birds

            Heal the hands.

            The grief the hands

            Bravery the hands

            Adore the view

            Adore the humming that chants in your chest

            Adore the song that sings across time across the hands.

            Adore the hands

            Adore the nourishers

            Free the hands

Adore our freedom

            Wash the hands

            Without question, the hands

            Adore them

            Adore the doors, open

            Remember Grandma’s hands

            Allow the hands

            Learn the hands

            Read the hands

            Listen to the hands

            Let the hands speak

            Be the hands

            Follow the hands

            Let the hands be courageous

            Adore the silence

            Empty the hands fill the bowls

            Adore the children’s  laughter, lightness, love.

            Adore the breath

            Breathe into the hands

            Feel what the hands feel

            Adore the sky,

            Blue and calm like before,

            like after,

            Like now sometimes

            Lick the bowls and give thanks

            Adore the moment

            Adore the breathing

            Adore the hands

If you missed the opportunity to write with us (and June) and you still want to donate feel free to donate directly to The Sameer Project or participate in the replay workshop here.

Inspired by Audre Lorde’s “Afterimages,” where she writes about the powerful memory of water and the evolution of the dragonfish, last week we wrote together to support each other in our perpetual and intentional evolution. The world we are witnessing is changing us and everything is at stake in what that change makes possible. Here is our group poem. I highly recommend reading it outloud. And if you missed the workshop and want to participate, the recording is here.

wild for life[1]

by the participants in “etched: audre lorde and witnessing the present”

wild for water

wild for grace

wild for radical love

wild for flowers

wild for love

wild for freedom

wild for love

wild for real and true

wilife-affirming connections

wild for dirty hands

wild for art

wild for breath

wild for sound

wild for love

wild for love

wild for art

wild for mud

wild for amethysts

wild for dreaming together

wild for connection

wild for affirming compassionate care

wild for accompanying as we gasp

wild for butterflies of compassion

wild for flowers

wild for the bright green eyes of a black cat

wild for peace

wild for change

wild for knowledge and knowing (connection)

wild for deep down shake the heavens laughter

wild for beauty

wild for belonging

wild for jasmine

wild for laughter

wild for change

wild for clouds

wild for sunshine

wild for acceptance

wild for butterflies

wild for authentic connections

wild for rain

wild for being “off duty” all the time

wild for your huge hearts

wild for the wild

wild forever

wild for life giving support

wild for softness

wild for orcas

wild for moon

wild for not knowing

wild for unexpected kindness

wild for rest

wild for hullabaloo

wild for flickering stars of fierce energy

wild for ice cream

wild for love for love!

wild for raindrops on my face

wild for serenity

wild for mammals…land and sea

wild for rewilding

wild for ancestral love

wild for starlight

wild for hot sticky sex

wild for flowing free rivers

wild for saying no

wild for growing antennas

wild for sarama

wild for the sacred

wild for the earth

wild for each other

wild for dark sky

wild for high-vibration foods

wild for all y’all

wild for roots

wild for herbal teas

wild for permission to just be

wild for deep forest

wild for holy basil

wild for deep waters

wild for shallow waters

wild for full stomachs and sleep full of ease

wild for drums

wild for heart beats

wild for swaying willows

wild for whispers beyond words surrounding us with ancestral wisdom

wild for watermelon

wild for books that touch our souls

wild for home

wild for love

wild for joy

wild for lullabies

wild for co-creation

wild for pressure in the right places

wild for food to Gaza

wild for rainbows and magic

wild for trees that keep swaying

wild for love

wild for love

wild for life

[1] From “Afterimages” by Audre Lorde

Last week for solstice we gathered and worked with two teenage poem drafts by Audre Lorde. One is called “All Those” a fourteen year old dream of impact that Audre collaborates with us to make true. The other is “On Reading A Science Report On Life on Other Planets” the poem that she adapted and rebirthed as a biomythographical notebook poem snippet in Zami: A New Spelling of My Name. We made room in our hearts and our imaginations not only for Audre’s teenage self but for our own younger selves and the desires of every age of us. We made space for the dreams for our own lives and for our geopolitical times that seem in Audre words “so far—so far.” We wrote longings we had been resigned to never mentioning again and then we collectively wrote actions that we are taking as dreamers powered by wild hope.

If you missed it and you want to participate in the replay you can access it here: https://sangodare.podia.com/wild-hope-a-solstice-reset-inspired-by-a-teenage-audre-lorde

This poem is best breathed aloud.

wild hope: a solstice prayer in action

by the participants in “wild hope: a solstice reset inspired by a teenage audre lorde

and in the brief moment that is today

wild hope this dreamer jars

for I have heard in whispers

talk of life on other stars

-audre lorde

wild hope

this dreamer softens

wild hope

this dreamer emerges

wild hope

this dreamer lights up in iridescence

wild hope

this dreamer persists

wild hope

this dreamer writes

wild hope

this dreamer crystalizes

wild hope

this dreamer senses in synesthesia

wild hope

this dreamer creates

wild hope

this dreamer tunes in every day

wild hope

this dreamer appreciates

wild hope

this dreamer whispers

wild hope

this dreamer listens

wild hope

this dreamer acknowledges

wild hope

this dreamer loves

wild hope

this dreamer weaves

wild hope

this dreamer stitches

wild hope

this dreamer is liberation in your breath

wild hope

this dreamer flows

wild hope

this dreamer midwives

wild hope

this dreamer rests

wild hope

this dreamer chooses love again and again

wild hope

this dreamer comes

wild hope

this dreamer awakes

wild hope

this dreamer cultivates

wild hope

this dreamer (wo)manifests

wild hope

this dreamer travels

wild hope

this dreamer activates the third eye

wild hope

this dreamer sings her song

wild hope

this dreamer crystallizes

wild hope

this dreamer stewards

wild hope

this dreamer joins us

wild hope

this dreamer howls

wild hope

this dreamer moves into sunlight

If you want to participate in the replay you can access it here: https://sangodare.podia.com/wild-hope-a-solstice-reset-inspired-by-a-teenage-audre-lorde

I know that empire is designed to make me imagine that I am separate from the people facing the sharpest cruelty from the oppressive systems of the world, but we are not separate. How can I lean into that connection, while acknowledging that the action I take today will not be “enough” because what I truly want is for everyone in the world to experience safety, nourishment, abundance and inspiration right now. How can I learn from this grief at a scale that keeps me honest? When I asked myself this question this solidarity process emerged. I said, can I at least learn the name of one child directly impacted by this genocidal system every day. I do not know the names of the over 5 million children orphaned and displaced in Sudan. Today can I learn one name? And the meaning and story of a child’s name?

in praise

for Mahmoud

the invisible “c”

when i say your name

the covered over conflict

the place where a border i can’t see

breaks your life

mahmoud

worthy of more

than praise

you are more people

than i can count

you are emi mahmoud

the human rights poet

crying out to beautiful Sudan

‘who did this to you?’

you are mahmoud

last name redacted by the BBC for your protection

dreaming in a massive orphanage

about how you would rebuild the world

mahmoud

in praise of youth

in praise of wild belief

in praise of people younger than me

who are founders of nations

veterans of wars

beyond your consent

in praise of audacity

in the face of impermanence

in praise of every breath

mahmoud

to say your name

i must clear my throat of pity

shuttle my own air brazenly forward

trust the invisible

(almost) see.

I am overwhelmed by the sacrifice of children all over the world to the greed of empire. The scale of the death, starvation and violence that we learn about daily has been bringing up feelings of hopelessness and powerlessness for me. I know that this violence is designed to make me imagine that I am separate from the people facing the sharpest cruelty from the oppressive systems of the world, but we are not separate. How can I lean into that connection, while acknowledging that the action I take today will not be “enough” because what I truly want is for everyone in the world to experience safety, nourishment, abundance and inspiration right now. How can I learn from this grief at a scale that keeps me honest? When I asked myself this question this solidarity process emerged. I said, can I at least learn the name of one child lost to this genocidal system every day. Can I learn one name? And the meaning of their name?

This is the poem I wrote today after learning the name of Sayden al-Najjar, a Palestinian baby only six months old who died as the result of an Israeli airstrike along with 8 of his brothers and sisters after his mother Dr. Alaa al-Najjar went to work to try to save other babies critically injured by the same incessant bombing.

a variation on joy

for Sayden al-Najjar

when you die in your sleep

too young to know the nightmare story

oblivious, i hope, to a world that says you

your drooling smile

your not-yet-toddling feet

are a danger that requires

all the force of a fearful world

when you are born

with a name that means

builder

in a region of earth

where every school, hospital, home

is a target for american funded and made bombs

when i remember

child of carpenter

al-Najjir

that you came to do miracles

and now you are gone

into smoke

without a trace

of the face your mother kissed

goodbye this morning

i wonder what

is the transubstantiated

meaning of joy

as i smudge your charred name

on my cheeks

as the ancient earth

falls

through my hands

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A post shared by Alexis Pauline Gumbs (@alexispauline)

In 1983 June Jordan went to Nicaragua on a solidarity voyage with the feminist organization MADRE and wrote home with a new clarity. In her 1984 article for Essence she explained why it was so crucial for the US to install dictators all over the world and to cover up the revolutionary brilliance and accountability of movements like the Sandinista movement in Nicaragua and the New Jewel Movement in Grenada. She said that if the oppressed people of the world witnessed the dignity and bravery of these revolutionaries “next thing you know, most of us would find ourselves in the middle of a revolution based on self-respect.”

The reality is that the same country that has installed corrupt authoritarian rulers all over the world for economic gain, is now surviving a corrupt authoritarian regime also based on greed. So this is where we are. In the midst of a revolution that is calling us to remember who we are and hold to the lessons of those who have overthrown authoritarian regimes before us. This week after studying the words of June Jordan, especially “Nicaragua: Why I Had to Go There” and her poem “safe” composed in a dugout canoe on the Rio Escondido on the way back from the Afro-Caribbean and Miskito indigenous region of Bluefields, Nicaragua 20 of us named our current revolution. The workshop “a revolution based on self-respect” was a clarifying redefinition of safety through solidarity. Our group poem is below. I recommend reading it aloud to remember where we are and what we need.

Where We Are

by the participants in “a revolution based on self-respect”: June Jordan and Dangerous Solidarities

“next thing you know, most of us would find ourselves in the middle of a revolution based on self-respect.” – June Jordan in “Nicaragua: Why I Had to Go There”

In the midst of a revolution based on breathing

In the midst of a revolution based on deep care

In the midst of a revolution based on practice

In the midst of a revolution based on laughter

In the midst of a revolution based on the depth of our roots

In the midst of a revolution based on the wisdom of my ancestors

In the midst of a revolution based on presence

In the midst of a revolution based on interconnection

In the midst of a revolution based on love

In the midst of a revolution based on adventures of the soul

In the midst of a revolution based on dancing and loving

In the midst of a revolution based on falling together

In the midst of a revolution based on  we don’t yet know

In the midst of a revolution based on witnessing the unseen

In the midst of a revolution based on recognition

In the midst of a revolution based on the recognition that we are already, ready

In the midst of a revolution based on what the children deserve

In the midst of a revolution based on ‘becoming the action of our fate’

In the midst of a revolution based on our healing evolution

In the midst of a revolution based on loving the earth back

In the midst of a revolution based on the grounded-ness of the soil

                                                                          and the lifted-ness of the constellations

In the midst of a revolution based on the fierce winds and the gentle winds

In the midst of a revolution based on respecting the dark

In the midst of a revolution based on third eyes opened

In the midst of a revolution based on channeling

In the midst of a revolution based on mutuality

In the midst of a revolution based on joy

In the midst of a revolution based on possibility and abundance

In the midst of a revolution based on bravely walking towards life

In the midst of a revolution based on questions

In the midst of a revolution based on abiding care

In the midst of a revolution based on embodied safety

In the midst of a revolution based on breathing together

If you’d like to participate in the replay of this workshop you can access it here: https://sangodare.podia.com/a-revolution-based-on-self-respect-dangerous-solidarities

In the wake of retail, tech and educational institutions complying with a backlash against the victories of our social justice movements many of us are seeking to strategically divest. I have been frustrated seeing people use social media platforms to shame each other for divesting “wrongly.” I have been sitting here thinking that I know we can do better than that. And then I remembered that I have decades of experience in strategically divesting from, confronting, challenging, building and transforming institutions (especially academic institutions.) So maybe I should share from that place. On this video, scraped from IG live I honestly answered questions about the nuance I’ve found there. It is possible to take our power back. We are not powerless. Our actions matter beyond virtue signaling. Spoiler alert…the keyword is solidarity.

To learn more come to our reflective writing workshop inspired by June Jordan’s poetry in solidarity with Nicaragua—“a revolution based on self-respect”: dangerous solidarities: https://sangodare.podia.com/a-revolution-based-on-self-respect-dangerous-solidarities

This weekend while thousands gathered to protest in Washington DC, 25 people gathered online to redefine power in the face of fascism guided by Audre Lorde’s poem “Dreams Bite.” “Dreams Bite” is one of Audre Lorde’s responses to the murder of MLK Jr. and a testament to her consistent plea for our communities to practice love beyond the scale of one nation and its political ego.

During “Power is Spoken”: Audre Lorde at the Edge of Purpose, we explored political ego death and planetary transformation. The vulnerability and brilliance was palpable. Our group poem is below. May it provide a space of grounding and possibility in this moment and whenever you need it. If you missed the workshop, the replay is available here: https://sangodare.podia.com/power-is-spoken-audre-lorde-at-the-edge-of-purpose

“When I am absolute

at once with the black earth

fire

I make my now

and power is spoken

peace”

-from “Dreams Bite” by Audre Lorde

 speak power

by the participants in “Power is Spoken”: Audre Lorde at the “Edge of Purpose”

power is now

power is ours

power is love actualized

power is love quantumly resourced

power is now

power is teaching us something now

power is practiced in circles

power is here

power is now

power is our refusal of false limitations

power  is no capital

power is our rejection of myths that don’t serve us.

power is now

power is weaving

power is decentralized

power is in the flow

power is now

power is promise

power is embodied presence in the present

power is joy even in sorrow

power is now

power is connection to self and possibility

power is community and in knowing we KNOW what we know.

agency is power rooted in truth

power is now

power is choosing where to direct my attention

power is loving myself

power is being able to return to myselves

power is now

power is an invitation to merge our mightiness with one another

power is beyond validation, beyond approval, beyond vocabulary, beyond capture. 

power is humble

power is now

power is what comes around and within and despite and because of surrendering

power is obsolescence

power is being willing to break apart and reconstitute to meet the NOW.

power is the capacity to vision and dream and act

despite and in spite of all of the intentional and unintentional circumstances

that make us feel incapacitated

power is now

power is radical hope

we may not know what our future will be exactly - our survival or our humanity.

but we know that we will be here. in the now.

power is now

power is now

power is now

Participate and add to the group poem here: https://sangodare.podia.com/power-is-spoken-audre-lorde-at-the-edge-of-purpose

Four years ago Aisha sent me a message on Instagram while the continent burned around her. She told me she was reading M Archive and witnessing the end of the world while politicians refused to respond to and acknowledge the reality of the bushfires raging in what they call Australia. And what was for me numbing powerlessness in the face of climate injustice became a call to remember my own responsibility to write through and to create ceremonies for truthtelling. We gathered across the planet over many timezones to write about this time of fire. By the time we convened earthquakes had taken out the power in Puerto Rico and one divine participant used their remaining computer battery power to be with us in ceremony.

In these times, people like to say “in these times” and in most cases is expresses an urgency too bewildering to call by its full name. But during our writing workshop we decided to listen to fire and what it is teaching us, transformation and what it is making impossible to ignore. Our group poem below names these times in their specificity, power, demand and possibility. For me this listening has led to a set of urgent writing ceremonies in solidarity with people most impacted by the natural and social disasters that are already waking us up for a decade of change as a way to contribute materially and energetically to their leadership.

I don’t have a replay of the workshop we did together in January 2020, but I am offering our group poem below and the replay of our more recent reflective writing workshop The Character of Fire: Writing After the End of the World here: https://sangodare.podia.com/the-character-of-fire-writing-after-the-end-of-the-world

If you are wildfire impacted (today or ever) you can use the code WATER to access this workshop for free. If you would like to be part of our solidarity effort proceeds from your sign up will go to folks impacted by the wildfires. With prayers for water.

In the Time of Fire

by the participants in the Archive of Fire: Climate Justice in the time of the Australian Bushfires writing workshop

 In the time of fire

In the time of firecraft

In the time of broken metal

In the time of smoke-filled lungs

In the time of broken earth

In the time of rising water

In the time of reckoning

In the time of facing undeniable truth

In the time of mourning

In the time of surrender

In the time of deeper listening

In the time of visionary organizing

In the time of ancestral tough love

In the time of eyes being pried open

In the time of upheaval

In the time of open hands

In the time of heart centered movement

In the time of freedom practices

In the time of indigenous practices

In the time of Ifa

In the time of unknowable love 

In the time of Elders teachings remembered

In the time of our roots finding our feet again

In the time of earth sovereignty 

In the time of love screaming her own name

In the time of young people’s brilliance

In the time of liberation

In the time of slowing down

In the time of gently blowing on embers

In the time of learning how to speak without our mouths 

In the time of the coqui calling

In the time of auto-tuned offerings

In the time of prioritizing vibrations

In the time of movement and wind

In the time of joy

In the time of dreams 

In the time of our kin

In the time of returning to right relationship

In the time of sacred balance returned

Last week about 70 of us gathered to listen to ourselves through the lens of Audre Lorde’s poem “Stations.” We wrote about what we are “at the heart of” in this moment, we remembered what we need to remember and we reaffirmed or generated practices to help us remember our power and interconnection. In a time when the dominant strategy is to trigger and destabilize us we are grounding in a power older than any fascist regime. If you missed it and you want to learn more about Audre Lorde’s message to her students (and the beautiful ways they carried this poem forward), or just to benefit from a supportive space to affirm and evaluate how your own practices line up with your intentions for this year, the replay is available here: https://sangodare.podia.com/the-heart-of-now-audre-lorde-and-practicing-transformation

And here is our group poem:

 A Garden of Practice

by the participants in “The Heart of Now”: Audre Lorde and Practicing Transformation

I am planting a life of balance

I am planting my hands in soil

I am planting seeds of wonder

I am planting a body that grows love

I am planting communities of care and resistance

I am planting seeds of regeneration of love and connection

I am planting hope again. Belief again. A little more joy again.

I am planting gorgeous self-trust

I am planting play inside of my practice

I am planting songs of love to travel to you after we win.

I am planting perspectives based on knowing our goodness

I am planting soft and generative touch

I am planting seeds of joy and relations

I am planting my feet on new ground, whenever needed. If I make even one step, I give myself the

opportunity of a new vision.

I am planting belonging, trust, and breath.

I am planting a spark.

I am planting understandings of power

I am planting reminders in my life of what I already know

I am planting stability in self

I am planting seeds of culture of care in play, imagination, pleasure

I am planting love, boundaries and prayers for a ceasefire and justice.

I am planting whispers of trust, grounding, and transformation

I am planting alchemical offerings

I am planting a garden of change

I am planting a future big enough to hold us all

I am planting a love for scattered seeds from packages that promise butterflies and wild flowers

I am planting bodies of flowers

I am planting spaces where ancestral knowledge is revered

I am planting seeds of presence, to accompany the power in and around me, that remembers cracks,

as illegible paths toward life and freedom

If you want to learn more about our online practice spaces to support you in deepening your creativity, listening multi-generationally, and accessing the diving power of every day check out the following:

Stardust and Salt: Daily Creative Practice

Repetition is Sacred: Practicing Seven Generations

and

The God of Everyday: A Week of Practice

Last night was one of the longest nights of the year. And over 100 of us decided to spend the night with some of Audre Lorde’s most challenging words. Lorde’s poem “Solstice” is a poem about facing failure and contradiction with deep personal transformation and rigor. Her analysis of a collective spiritual bankruptcy leads to a passionate prayer: may i never lose that terror that keeps me brave.

Last night in the dark light of “Solstice” the closing poem in Audre Lorde decolonial ancestral transubstantiation book The Black Unicorn we listened to the warning in our bodies, identified the skins we need to shed and fed our spirits with love and support. A wise teacher participated in the form of a tiny genius who lost her first tooth yesterday, our exemplar, along with Audre Lorde’s chosen monitor lizard and civets for transformation and regeneration. We were elders and babies, soil scientists and witches, heartbroken and healing and the poetic energy that Audre Lorde used to create her own eternal life held us and lifted us up. The group poem we created at the end of the session is below. I think it is best read out loud.

If you want to participate in the workshop, the replay video is here (or click on the image below)

changes

by the participants in “That Terror that Keeps Me Brave”: Solstice Writing Workshop in Honor of Audre Lorde

“I shall be forever”

            Audre Lorde in “Solstice”

i shall be vulnerable

i shall be soft and malleable

i shall be courageous

i shall be FREE

i shall be courageous

i shall be changed

i shall be loving

i shall be brave

i shall be a breathing thing

i shall not be alone

i shall be me

i shall be. that’s enough.  that’s more than enough.

i shall be without this skin

i shall be tender

i shall be recharged

i shall be scooping up our longings and we fulfill them and feeding them to our spirits.

i shall be vulnerable

i shall be a creative child and an a creative elder

i shall be cool breeze harmattan

i shall be open to being changed

i shall be medicine

i shall be like the hummingbird, hardworking and making sweetness

i shall be a mermaid

i shall be singing

i shall be present for the magic that i am

i shall be conduit

i shall be filled with wonder

i shall be revived

i shall be rested and loved on

i shall be momi

i shall be flow

i shall be open to possibility

i shall be rooted in the earth

i shall be meeting house

i shall be ritual

i shall be supported, nourished and connected

i shall be a channel for my ancestors

i shall be alive and well

i shall be radiating love

i shall be flying in the clouds

i shall be putrid like leaf litter

weak and pathetic like the new limb on a sea star

i shall be lazy ike my grandmothers wanted to be

i shall recover

i shall be intentional

i shall be deep as the earth

i shall be flexible,

supple

i shall be cooking

i shall be listening to ancestors everyday

i shall be present and in relationship across times and in all directions

i shall be awed by our power

i shall be healed in ways anyone who’s ever harmed me was not able to

i shall be renewed and grow a new way of being

i shall be sitting with oshun

i shall be attentive

i shall be who i am who i am i am

i shall be connected love

i shall be patient

i shall be iridescent

i shall be of service

i shall be fiercely courageous and deeply connected to our collective liberation

i shall be confident

i shall be alchemizing

i shall be whispering on winds

i shall be available to love

i shall be my home

i shall be in connection

i shall be a place to pour out of and pour into

i shall be holy

i shall be clear at the crossroads

i shall be a baby again

i shall be relishing our brilliance

i shall grow a new limb like a monitor lizard can

i shall be coloring the world pure

i shall be forever  

You can participate in the writing workshop whenever you want here. Or any of our offerings here.

Some of you have asked how you can gift your loved ones access to the transformational workshops and practice spaces that we have created over the past several years. Great question! It's easy and it is instant (in case you have a kwaanzachristmasbelatedsolsticechanuka deadline). Or you just get one or more of these supportive offerings for yourself.

1. View all the offerings here and choose one: https://sangodare.podia.com/

2. Make sure that you are not logged in as yourself

3. Enter the email address of your loved one and make them a password (I usually use "ILOVENAME" with the person's name. They can change their password whenever they want.

4. Enter your own payment information.

5. THAT'S IT!

These feel like cynical times. Octavia was right. It’s 2024 and climate catastrophe and resource wars are in full swing. But then I look at the faces of the people I love and I am surprised again at my own capacity for love in uncertain times. What if in this moment, when I am terrified and in deep grief, I can still be guided by what Che Guevara called “great feelings of love”? What if I can still surprise myself?

Last week in celebration of Alexis and Sangodare’s 16th anniversary of loving partnership Mobilehomecoming hosted two new moon intention setting workshops for Loveships (committed partnerships) and Lovebirds (people seeking committed partnerships). But it turns out that it is ALWAYS a good time to create and powerfully practice intentional love, so replays of both workshops are available at this link: https://www.mobilehomecoming.org/loveship-workshops

Both workshops are guided by our sacred text, June Jordan’s “The Creative Spirit” which teaches us that Love is Lifeforce!

For a sneak peek of the beautiful energy we experienced check out our Lovebirds group poem below!!!

To Our Own Astonishment

by the participants in “Like Tigerlilies: An Intention Setting Workshop” 

“let us look at tiger lilies blooming to their own astonishment, and learn to cherish their form and orderliness and freedom for our own.”

-June Jordan “The Creative Spirit”

i am the key and the door

to my own astonishment.

i am open

to my own astonishment

i am ready

to my own astonishment

i am present

to my own astonishment

i have petals, stem, leaves and roots

to my own astonishment.

i am both tender and firm

to my own astonishment

i am the echo wreathing the mountains

to my own astonishment

i am still learning to breathe

to my own astonishment.

i still love and care deeply

to my own astonishment

i am free from self-judgement

to my own astonishmeent

i can ask for help

to my own astonishment

i am allowing sweetness

to my own astonishment

i have access to safety, dignity, and belonging

            to my own astonishment.

i am feeling hopeful about the future — my own and the planet’s

 to my own astonishment.

i am moving through the grief

to my own astonishment

i am abandoning empowerment to drop into my pain and heal

to my own astonishment

i am in need of forgiveness

to my own astonishment.

i am somehow still spacious, even while grieving

to my own astonishment

i am committed to my aliveness

to my own astonishment

i am making peace with aging

to my own astonishment

i am an exquisite, aging body

to my own astonishment.

i am abundantly loving with my whole self

to my own astonishment

i am a new person now

to my own astonishment.

i am capacious and persistent

to my own astonishment.

i am gracious

to my own astonishment

i care for what i love

to my own astonishment.

i am present with myself

to my own astonishment

i am certain i am spontaneous

to my own astonishment

i am becoming even more brilliant

to my own astonishment

i am learning and applying that learning

to my own astonishment.

i am stopping to witness beauty every day

to my own astonishment

i am making new friends and local connections

to my own astonishment

i am compassionate and kind

            to my own astonishment

i am being vulnerable and sharing my heart

to my own astonishment

i am seeing and being seen

to my own astonishment

i am reaching to new places

to my own astonishment.

i am in flight

to my own astonishment.

i am rising to my truest self

 to my own astonishment

i am learning to show up as my full self

to my own astonishment

i am unlimitedly and unconditionally loving myself

to my own astonishment

i am romantic

to my own astonishment

i am dancing playfully and deliciously

to my own astonishment.

i am full of curiosity

to my own astonishment.

i am learning to play

to my own astonishment

i am no longer drinking coffee every day

to my own astonishment

i am deeply relaxing

to my own astonishment

i am celebrating my accomplishments

to my own astonishment.

i am joyful

to my own astonishment.

i am barely working but/and still thriving

to my own astonishment

i have manifested a beautiful house to live in

to my own astonishment

i am a waterfall of flowers

to my own astonishment.

i am already held in so much love

 to my own astonishment

i am taking my rightful place

to my own astonishment

i am ready, willing and open to receiving loving partnership

            to my own astonishment

i am worthy of love

to my own astonishment

i am in love, with myself

 to my own astonishment

i am the embodiment of love

to my own astonishment