In the Time of Fire
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.
Coming Up:
Online
Monday (MLK Day) 1/20 2pm-4pm Eastern
Who Taught You to Dream: An Ancestor Accountable Writing Ceremony
Thursday 1/23 7pm to 9pm Eastern
Of Generators and Survival: Listening for Audre Lorde When the Power’s Out (benefiting the Maria Rapid Response Fund and with a free option for folks in Puerto Rico)
Thursday 1/30 7pm to 9pm Eastern
Living Room: June Jordan and Housing as a Human Right (benefitting DHA vs. Everybody and Moms 4 Housing
In Durham
Sunday 1/19 Indigo 2020 Vision: Black Queer Feminist Sunday Service at Northstar Church of the Arts
Saturday and Sunday Feb 1 & 2 After: Black Feminist Speculative Documentary Intensive
See you soon.
Love,
Alexis
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
