Love is the Longest Word: On the Practice of Freedom
Today marks 50 years since the police murdered Fred Hampton, revolutionary, feeder of children, maker of chants, and one of my first examples of community accountable intellectual practice. Fred Hampton started his activism in high school in Chicago, and I first learned about him when I was in high school watching the Eyes on the Prize series. I heard him speak to the children in the Black Panthers Free Breakfast program and I will never forget the way he led the community in the chant "I'll live for the people, I'll work for the people, I'll die for the people, because I LOVE the people." Those words in that order in that cadence have remained with me as a mantra, as a standard, and as a decision-making touchstone. Because LOVE, as Fred Hampton taught the babies to say it, is the longest word, the one with the most breath and emphasis. The reason for everything else.
Last night a group of community accountable intellectuals, artists and community organizers gathered for this year’s Brilliance Remastered Q&A session and I laid out all my business, from nitty-gritty details about how I chose which graduate programs to yes and to say no to, the expansive role of mentorship in my life, the multiple experiments I did to learn what community support actually meant and to cultivate an honest relationship to my own “yes” and “no,” and more. In response to a wonderful question by a fellow Gemini about how I, as a person with my head in the stars, manages to have so much creative output, completion and productivity we spent a long time talking about the role of daily practice as what builds our lives. Inspired by our beloved Mobile Homecoming elder Ed Swan we created a group poem about what daily practice looks and feels like for us. As I typed up the poem this morning I thought about Chairman Fred, and what it means to practice freedom like breakfast, necessary, daily and never to be taken for granted. Gratitude eternal for the examples of Fred Hampton, Toni Cade Bambara, Lucille Clifton, Octavia Butler, Nayo Watkins, Nia Wilson, Zelda Lockhart, Asha Bandele and all the great teachers whose names I called during last night’s session.
I hope you enjoy our poem of practice. It’s best read aloud.
Love,
Lex
P.S. Here is the link for this weekend's writing intensive “My Words Will Be There: Audre Lorde, Black Feminist Time Travel and Ancestral Listening: http://brillianceremastered.alexispauline.com/2019/11/22/my-words-will-be-there-audre-lorde-black-feminism-and-ancestral-listening/
Here are my ancestral collages which are finally available as prints in a variety of sizes and which support the ongoing work of the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind:
And here is the link for the email list, if you want to be notified whenever we are doing something online or in person: http://brillianceremastered.alexispauline.com/contact/
Freedom is a Practice
by the participants in the 2019 Brilliance Remastered Q&A Session
Everyday I am in ceremony.
Everyday I ask the universe for guidance.
Everyday I remember my dreams.
Everyday I light a candle.
Everyday I write the dreams down.
Everyday I connect to my source.
Everyday I have woken in the dark.
Everyday I meet the morning silence with my silence.
Everyday I go back to sleep while my partner drinks coffee.
Everyday I hydrate, water is life.
Everyday I value being alive.
Everyday I do gratitude.
Everyday I make offerings to the ancestors.
Everyday I listen.
Everyday I feel deep gratitude for my wondrous body.
Everyday I dance.
Everyday I write.
Everyday I kiss the babies.
Everyday I facetime the nibblings.
Everyday I say I love you to my partner, my children.
Everyday I share a smile with another black women, I see her.
Everyday I look in the mirror and tell myself I love you.
Everyday I put three layers of moisturizer on my face.
Everyday I rest well and deeply.
Everyday I worry less about the things I can’t do yet and try anyway.
Everyday I embrace my desires.
Everyday I embrace the erotic, the passion, the juicy flow.
Everyday I live a story.
Everyday I poem (read one, write one, or dream one).
Everyday I journal, writing is life.
Everyday I trust the power of breath.
Everyday I try to feel good.
Everyday I acknowledge at least three things for which I am grateful.
Everyday I move the kundalini.
Everyday I laugh.
Everyday I exhale completely.
Everyday I move my body in the ways it needs to move.
Everyday I love myself fiercely.