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Audre Lorde Resurrection Sunday 11 When the Saints Come Marching In

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    Hello, loved ones!
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    Welcome to Resurrection Sunday... YAY!
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    It's um actually the first Sunday in a long time
    that I've gone to church.
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    Filmmaker, queer activist Emilio Rojas invited us
    to come to church with him this morning,
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    which was a really powerful, interesting experience,
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    and what's cool is that I met Emilio
    at the Bayard Rustin Symposium
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    last Sunday... last Saturday,
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    where I gave a keynote.
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    And part of the activity
    that we did in our keynote ritual
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    was based on this poem that I'm about to
    share with you by Audre Lorde.
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    It's called "When The Saints Come Marching In".
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    Plentiful sacrifice
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    and believers in redemption
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    are all that is needed
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    so any day now
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    I expect some new religion
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    to rise up like tear gas
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    from the streets of New York
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    erupting like the rank pavement smell
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    released by the garbage trucks' baptismal drizzle
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    the high priests have been ready
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    and waiting
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    with their incense pans full of fire
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    I do not know the rituals,
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    the exaltations
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    nor what name of the god
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    the survivors will worship
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    I only know
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    she will be terrible
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    and very busy
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    and very old.
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    So I love this poem.
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    I love the idea of what we can see
    as the new religion
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    coming up from the grimiest place.
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    The baptismal drizzle of the garbage trucks
    on the pavement of New York City.
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    And how we can imagine
    a terrible, busy, old, female god,
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    whose high priests are ready and waiting.
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    So the assignment for this week
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    is to think about that.
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    What are the faith-transforming baptismal drizzles
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    experiences of funk
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    that you are present to
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    at this time in your life,
    at this moment in your community.
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    What is the dirtiness
    that is actually prompting you
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    to think about what you believe,
    to remember what you believe,
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    to feel empowered to create
    your own definition of divinity,
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    or a remembered definition.
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    Let me know!
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    I would love to hear from you,
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    and if you would like to talk more
    or have your own poem oracle,
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    the poem oracles we did at the Bayard Rustin
    Symposium were off the hook,
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    and if you would like your own poem oracle,
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    check me out at:
    summerofourlorde.wordpress.com
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    And have a beautiful week... AH!!!
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    Before I go!
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    In a couple of days it will be Audre Lorde's
    --would have been--
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    Audre Lorde's 80th birthday.
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    And over on the Feminist Wire
    we're having a forum...
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    Audre every day,
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    wonderful pieces from former students,
    and chosen disciples of Audre Lorde,
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    poetry, essays, beautiful photographs,
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    that we'll be sharing.
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    So, come on over to School Of Our Lorde at
    summerofourlorde.wordpress.com
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    and also check out the Feminist Wire this week for the Audre Lorde tribute.
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    Sending much love!
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    Happy Resurrection Sunday!
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    MWAH!
Title:
Audre Lorde Resurrection Sunday 11 When the Saints Come Marching In
Description:

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 "When The Saints Come Marching In" was the Oracle poem for my recent keynote at the Bayard Rusting Symposium. Meditating on civil disobedience Civil Rights all-star Bayard Rustin's concept of Angelic Troublemakers I saw fit to draw on this poem where Audre Lorde prophesies a new religion where what is grimy is god. Your challenge this week is to look at the diritness of your own life for new resources for your faith in transformation. :)

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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  • Revision 1 Edited (legacy editor)
    Radical Access Mapping Project
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