0:00:00.251,0:00:03.219
[ <i>MUSIC...</i> ]

0:00:13.766,0:00:15.162
Hello loved ones!

0:00:15.162,0:00:19.833
Welcome to week 8 [br]of Audre Lorde Resurrection Sundays.

0:00:19.833,0:00:21.363
I'm Sister Doctor Lex.

0:00:21.363,0:00:30.592
I'm especially excited today because I am [br]getting ready to go to Cuba very soon,

0:00:30.592,0:00:38.300
and I am thinking so much about Audre Lorde,[br]who went to Cuba in January also, in 1985,

0:00:38.300,0:00:41.599
along with a lot of other brilliant Black women writers

0:00:41.599,0:00:49.799
like Alexis DeVeaux and Jayne Cortez,[br]and Mari Evans, and so many more.

0:00:49.799,0:00:58.599
So I am excited about this video because [br]I'm getting my energy up for that trip,

0:00:58.599,0:01:03.335
I'm really excited to participate [br]in a cultural exchange,

0:01:03.335,0:01:08.329
and I'm able to go with a delegation of [br]amazing people of colour who I love,

0:01:08.329,0:01:10.406
who I'm doing work with here in the united states,

0:01:10.406,0:01:16.614
and I'm very excited about how what we learn in Cuba [br]will influence the work we do together.

0:01:16.614,0:01:21.929
So this week I'm sharing with you [br]the poem "Diapora".

0:01:21.929,0:01:26.729
That we know of, and, um, [br]biographer Alexis DeVeaux also said

0:01:26.729,0:01:32.584
that we don't know of a place where Audre Lorde [br]wrote publicly about her experience in Cuba,

0:01:32.584,0:01:37.793
but this poem "Diapora" is about [br]her transnational work more generally,

0:01:37.793,0:01:41.884
and how she thought about the experiences [br]of people all over the world,

0:01:41.884,0:01:47.621
including folks in Lebanon, [br]including people in South Africa...

0:01:47.621,0:01:55.192
and I think that as I think about what it will mean [br]to engage with other Black folks in Cuba,

0:01:55.192,0:01:59.379
I want to have these words in mind. [br]So this is "Diaspora".

0:02:02.951,0:02:07.907
<i>Afraid is a country with no exit visas</i>

0:02:07.907,0:02:10.498
<i>a wire of ants walking the horizon</i>

0:02:10.498,0:02:13.866
<i>embroiders our passports at birth</i>

0:02:13.866,0:02:17.154
<i>Johannesburg Alabama</i>

0:02:17.154,0:02:19.515
<i>a dark girl flees the cattle prods</i>

0:02:19.515,0:02:22.313
<i>skin hanging from her shredded nails</i>

0:02:22.313,0:02:24.427
<i>escapes into my nightmare</i>

0:02:24.427,0:02:27.237
<i>half an hour before the Shatila dawn</i>

0:02:27.237,0:02:30.543
<i>wakes in the well of a borrowed Volkswagen</i>

0:02:30.543,0:02:34.602
<i>or a rickety midnight sleeper [br]out of White River Junction</i>

0:02:34.602,0:02:37.519
<i>Washington bound again</i>

0:02:37.519,0:02:40.385
<i>gulps carbon monoxide in a false bottomed truck</i>

0:02:40.385,0:02:42.606
<i>fording the Braceras Grande</i>

0:02:42.606,0:02:44.994
<i>or an up-country river</i>

0:02:44.994,0:02:47.876
<i>grenades held in a dry calabash</i>

0:02:47.876,0:02:49.603
<i>leaving</i>

0:02:52.452,0:02:53.946
So for me that poem has to do with

0:02:53.946,0:02:58.858
what is at stake for people of colour to be [br]in solidarity with each other,

0:02:58.858,0:03:03.876
and all of that means in terms of [br]the conflicts that exist all around the world,

0:03:03.876,0:03:09.767
and especially the economic violence that is part [br]of systems of domination and globalization,

0:03:09.767,0:03:14.665
that people of colour face differently[br]in different places.

0:03:14.665,0:03:21.896
And I'm excited! Sometime soon, a chapter that I wrote about Audre Lorde's theories of solidarity,

0:03:21.896,0:03:29.220
especially in relationship to majority Black [br]spaces and nations in the world,

0:03:29.220,0:03:34.852
um, will be coming out in a book that's about [br]Audre Lorde's transnational impact.

0:03:34.852,0:03:38.197
So of course if you are following the [br]School of Our Lorde blog

0:03:38.197,0:03:41.401
you will know when you will have access to that.

0:03:41.401,0:03:49.348
And! I also wanted to make a somewhat self-serving [br]assignment to you,

0:03:49.348,0:03:53.422
in addition to thinking about your impact [br]on people of colour

0:03:53.422,0:03:58.308
in other countries than the country [br]that you may be situated in right now,

0:03:58.308,0:04:02.979
I would love it if you could make a donation [br]to Witness For Peace.

0:04:02.979,0:04:10.184
I'm so grateful to that organization for sponsoring this people of colour specific delegation to Cuba,

0:04:10.184,0:04:14.986
and I have information on the [br]School of Our Lorde site

0:04:14.986,0:04:17.642
and also on the Doctor Alexis Pauline Gumbs site

0:04:17.642,0:04:21.246
about how you can make a donation to that project.

0:04:21.246,0:04:23.894
I strongly hope that you will,

0:04:23.894,0:04:25.474
to support not just our trip

0:04:25.474,0:04:28.775
but also the practice, the continued practice

0:04:28.775,0:04:35.935
of people of colour delegations to be able to exchange in a particular specific and nuanced way

0:04:35.935,0:04:37.843
around the world.

0:04:37.843,0:04:39.642
Thank you so much for listening.

0:04:39.642,0:04:41.513
And...

0:04:41.513,0:04:43.405
happy Resurrection Sunday.