Thursday, May 30, 2013

Combahee Pilgrimage Podcast: Join Us in Sound and Spirit!!!

Combahee_Pilgrimage_Logo-final
“The Combahee River Collective was a Black feminist group in Boston whose name came from the guerrilla action conceptualized and led by Harriet Tubman on June 2, 1863, in the Port Royal region of South Carolina.  This action freed more than 750 slaves and is the only military campaign in American history planned and led by a woman.”
-Combahee River Collective Statement 177
June 2, 2013 will be the 150th anniversary of Harriet Tubman’s successful uprising where 750 enslaved Africans freed themselves and each other at the Combahee River.  This uprising was also the inspiration for the Combahee River Collective a Black lesbian feminist socialist collective founded in Boston in 1977 who created an analysis of interconnected liberation centered on the lived experiences of Black women and designed to free us all.

In the spirit of the Combahee River Collective, Harriet Tubman and all the people who stood for their freedom that day the Mobile Homecoming Project and Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind will be coordinating a pilgrimage to the Harriet Tubman Bridge on the Combahee River for a weekend of celebration, clarification, community building and ritual.

Registration is closed and 21 black feminist pilgrims are packing their bags to converge at the river as we speak!!!  But we know there are so many of you who wanted to come in person and who wherever you are in the world will be joining us for this liberation moment in spirit!

So TODAY only!!!  Anyone who makes a donation of any size to the Mobile Homecoming Project and includes the word "podcast" in the notes will receive a downloadable copy of the special hour long Combahee meditation mixtape, travel music compilation that Lex made for the participants!!!  And spread the word to your friends so we can all meet at the water!


Monday, May 06, 2013

Brilliance Remastered Blooming in Durham May 2013!!!!

 Hi Family!

 I am so excited about this set of Brilliance Remastered innovations which are specifically designed to keep me here in Durham doing the work I love!  Please check these out and see if there is a way I can support your purpose and journey as an individual or through the organizations you are building and renewing and spread the word to your loved ones and friends!

This is the season of transition that every species participates in!  Everything around us is growing pollinating and responding with unbelievably bright enthusiasm to grey skies and rain.  And what about us? This life-changing May Brilliance Remastered has a number of ways to honor transition and to prepare for the best summer ever! Scroll down or click on the links below to learn more about:
Locally Grown Garden Walks Continue
Special Online Office Hours in May
Community is Not A Luxury Summer Cohort Sign Up
Summer Lovin' Custom Organizational Retreats in NC
Remastered Tools 101 Downloadable Course

Garden Walks Continue!!!

historic-terraces-at-duke-gardens-6
I enjoyed April's Garden Walks so much that I am continuing to  celebrate my favorite season in Durham, focusing my energy on the community I love!!!!!  Are you or someone you know someone who could benefit from a personalized Brilliance Remastered Conversation this Spring?
Maybe you are about to graduate from something or about to embark on your own social justice minded project.  Maybe you are ready to have a breakthrough around making your creative or intellectual work more community accountable.  Maybe you are hoping to launch an art project that will make our world a better place.  Maybe you need to quit your job and are looking for a way to transition out.  Maybe you want to make your side project the center of your life.  Maybe you just know a walk and conversation with Sista Docta Lex about your passionate work would increase its value for our whole community.  If that is you or someone you love you should sign up for a garden walk!  (Also if your accessibility or allergy needs call for it we can certainly sit in a garden or walk near a river or do something else.)
So here is how it works!
1.  Sign up for one of only 6 available one hour walks (Monday and Wednesday afternoons from May 8-27)
2.  Send an email to Lex at brillianceremastered@gmail.com about what you are up to right now and your hopes and dreams for our conversation.
3.  Recirculate the love!  Donate $50 to Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind (the same donation that folks not lucky enough to live in or near Durham pay for a phone consultation) OR donate $25 and a delicious healthy vegetarian meal that can feed Lex and Julia!

Talk with Lex During Transition Time: Special May Office Hours

Since May is a time of major transition for many intellectuals, during May 2013 I will be conducting special online office hours on Wednesdays 10am-2pm EST free for existing participants and at the regular hourly ($50) rate for new folks!
The theme for May's office hours is transition.  Has Spring outside shown you how much you have grown inside this season?  Have you outgrown a previous intellectual/activist role and into something new?   Are you starting a new organization? Are you graduating from a program and thinking about how to prepare for what is next?  Are you simply determined for next semester to be significantly more sustainable and community accountable than this semester has been.   Holler at your girl :)
Email brillianceremastered@gmail.com with the subject heading "office hours" to sign up.
Community is Not a Luxury Summer Cohort:
It is about time to sign up for the Community is Not A Luxury Summer Cohort!!!!

"Look how you print yourself on my heart." -Audre Lorde
This intermediate stage of the coaching curriculum trains you to implement and build a community of accountability outside of the limits of your university setting.  Community accountability is what distinguishes meaningful intellectual labor from elitist word games.  This coaching module is for scholars who are committed to making a difference in the lives of the communities that inspire them and also activates community as a superpower to sustain your wholeness and to support and celebrate you in your degree process.
The cohort model allows a set of aligned visionaries to experience the life-changing curricula and to benefit from one-on-one attention from Sista Docta Lex while building community with each other.   Doing it together also allows Brilliance Remastered to provide this service at a lower rate.  (However the one-on-one version of this curriculum is still available for those of you who want me all to yourself! :)
Cohort Participants Commit to a 3-Month Experience with:
  • weekly transformative assignments
  • bi-weekly google-hangout discussion sessions with fellow cohort members facilitated by Lex
  • weekly email check-ins with Lex
  • access to Lex's online office hours
  • song dedications and motivation
all for $750 per participant.  Payment plans are available.  I am committed to making this accessible to you!
Participants join the cohort through a phone assessment conversation where we will determine the best way to engage the curriculum.  Email brillianceremastered@gmail.com to schedule a phone assessment for $25.  More on phone assessments here.
Summer Lovin' Organizational Retreats in NC
Another part of the Brilliance Remastered Durham Advantage!  Summer 2012 is all about the brilliance of deepening and strengthening relationships.   As part of my long-term investment in the important and experimental community institutions in and around Durham, NC  I am offering custom organizational retreats focused on relationship building for shared leadership and long-term victory.
DSC_0277Drawing on a unique curriculum based on Audre Lorde's body of work these retreats will be customized to the emergent breakthroughs of your organization or group and will use embodied, creative techniques that will allow your group to access many dimensions and generations of wisdom.  These retreats are an especially timely opportunity for organizations transferring leadership, working through conflict, changing structures or just getting started.
To see if your organization is a good match for some Summer Lovin' and to start a conversation about designing a retreat set up a phone consultation.
Remastered Tools 101 Available for Do It Yourself Download!!!!
After the major success of the Remastered Tools Webinar Series,  I am offering them as downloadable courses that you can do anytime with my love and support at about half the rate of actually taking the webinar.  Get started now with Remastered Tools 101 with special audio support, brilliant poems and mantras by the Remastered Tools 101 graduates and full access to my online office hours included!
Remastered Tools 101 is an opportunity to examine our relationship to knowledge and our theories of change as they relate to the work we do as scholars and the work we empower with our scholarship.   We will investigate how dependence on systems that are NOT community accountable are cultivated even in the most seemingly radical fields and support each other in creating visions for our own community accountability.
Click below to preview the course:
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I also have a couple coaching slots so if you want to set up one on one coaching set up a phone consultation so we can see if we are a perfect match and as always if you want specialized feedback on your thesis, dissertation, statement of purpose or syllabus hit me up for a PhDoula belly blessing!
Love,
 Lex

Friday, May 03, 2013

Registration Now Open for Combahee Pilgrimage May 31-June 3rd!


“The Combahee River Collective was a Black feminist group in Boston whose name came from the guerrilla action conceptualized and led by Harriet Tubman on June 2, 1863, in the Port Royal region of South Carolina.  This action freed more than 750 slaves and is the only military campaign in American history planned and led by a woman.”

What and Why

June 2, 2013 will be the 150th anniversary of Harriet Tubman’s successful uprising where 750 enslaved Africans freed themselves and each other at the Combahee River.  This uprising was also the inspiration for the Combahee River Collective a Black lesbian feminist socialist collective founded in Boston in 1977 who created an analysis of interconnected liberation centered on the lived experiences of Black women and designed to free us all.
In the spirit of the Combahee River Collective, Harriet Tubman and all the people who stood for their freedom that day the Mobile Homecoming Project and Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind will be coordinating a pilgrimage to the Harriet Tubman Bridge on the Combahee River for a weekend of celebration, clarification, community building and ritual.   Special invited guests include Combahee River Collective Statement co-authors Barbara Smith, Beverly Smith and Demita Frazier, and Black Feminist Retreat Attendee and Mobile Homecoming Interviewee Cessie Alfonso.

Who

This journey is for self-identified queer, LGBTQ or queer affirming Black people who are committed to fulfilling our freedom legacies in our daily lives and our communities.
(Allies who share this commitment are welcome to contribute financial or in-kind donations, to spread the word to loved ones in the core constituency, to contribute organizational scholarships and to support their loved ones in being able to attend.  Thank you for your love!)
Why name it after one person? … I think if we had called ourselves the Harriet Tubman Collective, there wouldn’t have been any problems, because she stood for so much.  But why not name it after a liberation, a very specific instance of a liberation struggle and liberating action? That’s how the name came about.
Combahee River Collective co-founder Barbara Smith in an interview with Alexis Pauline Gumbs in 2011

Where:

Mobile Homecoming and Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind will be leaving from Durham, NC on Friday May 31st and caravaning to the Penn Center on St. Helena Island in South Carolina where we will be together until Monday Morning (June 3rd) when we will return to Durham, NC to bring the liberation energy to the Eno River.   Participants are free to fly in to Charleston and meet us at the Penn Center or to attend whatever part of the events speak to your soul and resonate with your schedule.

A rough idea of the daily breakdown is
Friday: arriving by evening and settling in
Saturday: liberation workshops at Penn Center and community connections with Sea Island Black Farmers
Sunday: dance, ritual, music, celebration  at the Combahee River
Monday: travel to NC and celebration at Eno River with Durham community

Location:

Harriet Tubman Bridge is located on Highway 17 over the Combahee River
32.652406, -80.683246‎     +32° 39′ 8.66″, -80° 40′ 59.69″

How:

Online sliding scale registration will open on May 1st.  There is limited housing which will be reserved on a first come first serve registration basis.  Registration options are available that include transportation (from Durham), housing, food and all events OR just housing, food and participation in SC OR just day passes for folks local to SC or who can provide their own housing.
Our funding model is characterized by grassroots partnerships.   Individual registrations will pay for logistics, housing, facilitation, documentation and transportations for our esteemed Combahee River inspired Black feminist lesbian elders.  We encourage participants to fundraise and we will help spread the word about individual or group fundraising campaigns.  We are also working with our favorite Combahee inspired organizations to provide scholarships for participants.

Register Here:
https://www.artful.ly/store/events/1212

email mobilehomecoming@gmail.com to make other payment arrangements

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Co-sponsors can provide scholarships at 3 levels

$500 for one participant
$375 each for two participants ($750 total)
$300 each for 3 or more participants
Co-sponsors can choose to use their scholarships to send LGBTQ or LGBTQ affirming Black participants in their own organizations or to make participation available for participants seeking support directly from Mobile Homecoming/Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind.
Individuals who are not attending can also provide scholarships named after loved ones who they want to honor by supporting this work.
Location of the Harriet Tubman Bridge on Highway 17 over the Combahee River:
https://www.google.com/maps/ms?msid=216283980164012257864.0004db9d2365d247f474a&msa=0
View Harriet Tubman Bridge in a larger map