Audre Lorde Resurrection Sunday 10 Love Poem

Launched on Nov. 17th 2013 on the 21st anniversary of Audre Lorde’s transition from an embodied warrior healer to an ancestral force, this is a weekly series of videos documenting and sharing my process of clarifying survival through a re-immersion in the words of Audre Lorde. To see all the videos so far check out: summerofourlorde.wordpress.com/resurrection-sundays/

This week's poem "Love Poem" is dedicated to the awesome participants and cosponsor's of http://www.mobilehomecoming.org/ 's The Fullness: A Day Long Institute on Erotic Power inspired by Audre Lorde's "Uses of the Erotic/Power of the Erotic." This poem was part of Audre Lorde's process of being unapologetic about her desire and we offered it in oracle form to the institute participants who challenged themselves and each other to unapologetically express their desire in their personal, political and spiritual lives! This is your assignment too. What are you ready to claim unapologetically?

To check out the ongoing work of the 25 organizations that helped to cosponsor the institute visit this page: http://mobilehomecoming.tumblr.com/post/75045307614/the-fullness-ongoing-resources-for-ecstatic-wellness

Every week as part of my practice of resurrecting Audre Lorde in my life and in our communities I will be making an alphabetical oracle from the weekly survival poem which will consist of up to 26 new poems based on the sacred source text. If you would like to receive a custom poem as a blessing for your journey you can with a donation of your choice to Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind’s School of Our Lorde! summerofourlorde.wordpress.com

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Captions courtesy of the Radical Access Mapping Project, Un-ceded Coast Salish Territories of the Skwxwú7mesh, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.
To learn more, see: http://radicalaccessiblecommunities.wordpress.com/subtitled-videos/
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Hello loved ones!

I'm Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs,

welcome back to Audre Lorde Resurrection Sunday.

Um... catching up! I'm catching up
on the Sundays that I missed,

and this past weekend we were in Houston,

facilitating Mobile Homecoming, grounding,

with a team of awesome facilitators,

The Fullness: an all day institute
on erotic power and spiritual wellness,

inspired by Audre Lorde's
"Uses of the Erotic/Power of the Erotic."

And it was incredible,

about a hundred people
participated throughout the day,

and it was powerful to witness all these folks

stepping into their full, embodied power
in relationship to their sexuality,

their sexual practice, their political practice,
their creative practice,

their spiritual and religious practice,
everything.

So, one of the poems that we used,
and did an oracle with during the institute,

is Audre Lorde's "Love Poem", from her collection
New York City Headshop and Museum.

And I'm gonna share it with you right now.

"Love Poem"

Speak earth and bless me with what is richest

make sky flow honey out of my hips

rigid as mountains

spread over a valley

carved out by the mouth of rain.

And I knew when I entered her I was

high wind in her forests

hollow fingers whispering sound

honey flowed from the split cup

impaled on a lance of tongues

on the tips of her breasts, on her navel

and my breath, howling into her entrances

through lungs of pain.

Greedy as herring-gulls

or a child

I swing out over the earth

over and over

again.

So, I love this poem for many reasons.

Two that are really important in terms of
this whole context of survival,

and re-defining survival
with the guidance of Audre Lorde,

are that this is a poem where she talks explicitly
and makes a connection between

her sexual practice, her intimate embodied love
for women or for a woman,

and her spiritual practice of connecting with nature,
connecting with the earth itself,

and the valleys and the rain
and everything.

And I think that the Fullness Institute
was really all about that...

how can we activate our embodied practice,
and our intimacy with each other,

and our intimacy with ourselves

as a resource that has us be more alive,
more connected with nature,

and more in tune with our spiritual power.

So, we're really excited about what all the participants in the institute will do with that

as they go forward.

We are thrilled about all of
the co-sponsoring organizations,

25 different organizations who are doing this work,
helping people live fully in their bodies year round,

and you can check that out if you go to the
Mobile Homecoming tumblr:

mobilehomecoming.tumblr.com

And the other thing that I think is
really important about this poem,

--and this speaks to your assignment should you choose to accept it--

is that when Audre Lorde first submitted this poem for publication with her publisher at the time,

Broadside Press, which is one of the most important
publishers of the black arts movement,

her editor pushed back

and said that Oh, this is confusing,

there's something you know about the pronouns,

*"I" entered "her", you know, that doesn't...

that doesn't really make sense...

And Audre Lorde was like

no, there's nothing wrong with the pronouns,

y'know, I'm saying exactly what I want to say.

But the way that Broadside Press
had been marketing her work

was as a mother, as a Black Nationalist woman,
as a teacher,

not as her whole self,

as a Black, lesbian, warrior, poet, mother,
who she was.

And she took a stand with this particular poem,

which Broadside Press did publish
in her next collection,

New York City Headshop and Museum,

and she also read the poem publicly
all around New York City

as one of her acts of declaring who she was
and how she worked,

how her spiritual practice worked,

what the role of her love for women
was in her life,

not just as an abstract idea, but also as
an embodied way of engaging with the planet.

And it was really a poem that allowed her
to unapologetically declare who she was,

and when someone interviewed her about why she named herself in these ways,

why every time she spoke she came to say
"I am a Black lesbian warrior poet mother,"

doing my work, come to ask you
are you doing yours?"

Someone asked her, y'know, why do you have this whole litany of words when you introduce yourself?

And she shared that she had not known that

Langston Hughes, a poet who had mentored her,
who she knew personally,

who was very important to her as a poet,

as he's important to all of us,

but also as a person who she knew,

who gave her advice about her own poetry,

she never knew about his sexuality,
about that aspect of his life until after he was dead.

And she decided at that moment,

she wanted everyone to know
the parts of herself that mattered to her.

And she knew that she wouldn't be able to predict
who would find healing

in her ability to unapologetically declare
who she was,

who would be out there who could identify
with a piece of who she was

and would live to see her example.

And I love that, I love hearing that and knowing that,

because of course, I am a person
who found her work after she passed on.

I'm absolutely empowered by the unapologetic way
she described herself,

and I'm sure many of us, many of you watching
this video are also empowered by her bravery.

So! Your assignment for this week
in the name of Audre Lorde

is to think about that.

What is something about yourself that
you want to declare more unapologetically?

It could have to do with your sexuality
or sensuality or your practice,

or it could really also be anything, y'know, like,

if you are an artist but you've been kind of underplaying that part of who you are,

what would it look like to unapologetically
declare yourself as an artist?

To highlight your creative practice
where people can see it.

Or whatever it is, you know,

if you really wanna highlight your relationship with your siblings more...

[ CANNOT HEAR THIS PART ]

...what would it look like to say

"Y'know what? Being a sister is a crucial part of who I am, and I really want to spread that to the world"

Or for whatever reason.

With no apologies.

I mean, my siblings are amazing,
I'm obsessed with them.

No apologies for that.

So whatever that is for you, the idea is for you to unapologetically express that this week.

If you wanna leave a comment, if you wanna
email me I would love to hear about it,

and if you want a poem blessing
like the participants in the Institute got,

distilled from Audre Lorde's "Love Poem",
you can figure out how to do that,

either right below this video or at

summerofourlorde.wordpress.com

Thank you so much for listening,
for watching,

sending you much much much much love.

MWAH! Happy Resurrection Sunday.