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.