Tuesday, May 31, 2011

This Thursday 6/2 at 6pm Lucille Clifton Rebirth Summer Begins!!!!

Lucille Clifton ShapeShifter Survival School Summer Session 2011!!!!

Thursdays in June

6pm at 204 Rigsbee Ave. #201 in Durham, NC

In honor of the great poet Lucille Clifton, who was also a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, a mother, an artist and self-identified Amazon warrior through her poetry, the Lucille Clifton ShapeShifter Survival School is especially designed for families that are committed to ending childhood sexual abuse and all forms of gendered violence. Informed by Generation 5 and the regional plan of the Atlanta Transformative Justice Collaborative, the ShapeShifter Survival School is part of a holistic process of ending child sexual abuse by creating healing community.


Lucille Clifton Rebirth Summer

2011

F0r 5 Thursdays in Lucille Clifton's birth month of June we will gather as survivors of child sexual and physical abuse and sexual violence and parents and caretakers committed to ending cycles of abuse in our families and communities to do writing activities based on Lucille Clifton's poetry and the ShapeShifter Survivor Rebirth Broadcast video series. (See videos here: http://blackfeministmind.wordpress.com/category/shapeshifting/). Participants in the series will also receive digital mixes of the music we work with to create a sacred space of memory. We can use the digital music mixes at home to activate memories of safety from the group writing space.

Rebirth Summer Thursdays:

Thursday. June 2

Unapologetic: Reclaiming Our Memories and Voices

Thursday, June 9

Bright: On Clarity and Power

Thursday, June 16

Gentle: On Cultivating Self-Love

Thursday, June 23

Futuristic: Towards the World that We Deserve

Thursday, June 30th

Planetary: The Depth and Urgency of Our Healing

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Happy Birthday Sakia Gunn!: A Podcast Celebration


Start your day celebrating the unstoppable, unkillable, unforgetable power of BLACK QUEER YOUTH! Today would be Sakia Gunn's 23rd Birthday and SO in a special Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind/SpiritHouse collaboration and as part of our ongoing leadership development project 18 year old visionary Matthias Pressley and yours truly (Sista Docta Lex) collaborated to create this podcast celebrating the life and legacy of Sakia Gunn. We love you forever Sakia!!!

[audio http://brokenbeautiful.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/sakia-gunn-birthday-podcast-1.mp3]

Direct link: http://brokenbeautiful.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/sakia-gunn-birthday-podcast-1.mp3

Want to see a whole album of pictures of us making the podcast and exuberantly celebrating Sakia?

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.894854362522.2423816.103868&l=a798c6bb5a

Want to donate to the ongoing leadership building collaboration between Eternal Summer and SpiritHouse?

Donate one time:

Or sustain:

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Register for the 5th In The People's Hands Arts and Activism Project workshop, in Durham NC.! Free.




4th Annual In the People's Hands Arts and Activism Project Presents...
The LIBERATION INTENSIVE

Location: TBA
Cost: FREE
Contact: Ebony Noelle Golden-ebonygolden@bettysdaughterarts.com,
Nia Wilson-spirithousenc@gmail.com
tel: 919.283.9032

www.inthepeopleshands.synthasite.com

Registration: email or text- ebonygolden@bettysdaughterarts.com or 919.283.9032.


Join SpiritHouse, Alternate Roots and Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative for the 4th In The People's Hands Arts and Activism Intensive. This year we are focus is LIBERATION. The weekend we will offer creative performance, spoken word, writing and community action workshops for the community.

Agenda

Thursday June 30th 430 pm
Meet and Greet and Opening Session
530 Introductions and Ice Breaker
600 Opening Session
Why Liberation? Why Now: A Creative Imperative
In this session, Ebony Noelle Golden will lead an interactive session with participants exploring creative approaches to liberation, RSC's principles of community engagement while framing the scope and range of the weekend intensive.

Friday July 1st 430 pm
430- Light Dinner/Snacks
5 pm- Session 1
630-645 Break
645 pm - Session 2
815- Wrap Up

Saturday July 2
10 am- Performance/Manuscript One-on-Ones with Visiting Artists (20 minute sessions)
11 am - Light Brunch
1130- Session 3
1pm- Break
115- Session 4
245- Break
330
Cultural Arts Direct Action: The Creative and the Strategic Road Map
In this session, Ebony Noelle Golden will lead participants in a process of mapping out the next steps for using art and culture for change. Participants should come prepared to talk about a tangible shift they want to see in their communities and how they want to use art and culture to do that work.

530 Break

7 pm Community Performances

Monday, May 09, 2011

Blue: 'Once I Was Pregnant': Stories of Abortion, Miscarriage and Rebirth



Sunday, May 22nd

5pm at the Inspiration Station

(email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com)

By popular demand and with infinite love WE CONTINUE a seven month process called Rainbowed Reclamation, a colorful women of color juicy poetry and food-filled space of sacred discussions that reclaim our bodies, collectivize our spiritual energy and the brilliant choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf.

These monthly discussion/rituals are love in practice towards creating a spiritually aligned, intimately interconnected, queer affirming and self loving community of women of color and genderqueer people of color ready to support each other in transforming the world.

This discussion is particularly about healing and rebirth with a special focus on experiences of pregnancy, abortion and miscarriage.

*****Please wear BLUE and bring some food to share if you can!
Childcare will be provided by SpiritHouse Youth co-directors Mya and Heather *******

If you are a woman of color and/or a genderqueer person of color anywhere near Durham…COME! If you are a woman of color and/or a genderqueer person of color anywhere in the world email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com to find out how to host your own event and send folks in North Carolina to us!!! If you are an ally spread the word and please send this to people who need this space!!!!

Friday, April 22, 2011

May 15: Everyday Brilliance: Resilience Practices from Black Lesbian Elders

brought to you by the MobileHomecoming Project (mobilehomecoming.org)

amplifying generations of black feminist LGBTQ brilliance!


2pm-6pm Sunday, May 15 2011

Stone House

6602 Nicks Rd.

Mebane, NC



Join us for a day of immersive wisdom where black lesbian elders in North Carolina share the practices that have kept them awake and amazing for decades in an interactive, intergenerational, skillshare and dialogue!!!

Invited featured speakers include:
Dr. Anjail Ahmad
Ed Swan
C. C. Wiggins
Janice Vaughn
Carolyn Grey
Harriet Alston

Bring a dish to share and be prepared to be inspired everyday from now on!

email mobilehomecoming@gmail.com for more info!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Indigo Days: June 9-15th, Durham, NC

Indigo Days is a resource for black warrior healers remembering ourselves and reclaiming our traditions of magic, love and transformation. Inspired by the black girl healer folklorist, revolutionary character Indigo in Ntozake Shange's 1982 novel Sassafrass, Cypress and Indigo, Indigo Days is a context for every day as sacred space for the sacred task of healing our planetary selves and deepening the meaning of life.

Get everyday wisdom here: blueblackblessing.tumblr.com

or submit your own wisdom at blueblackblessing.tumblr.com/submit

Indigo Days (June 9-15, 2011) will be a week of celebration, learning and healing specifically centered on the power of black women and black genderqueer people to be healers, spiritual leaders and transformative warriors in our communities and on the planet. For more info on the event visit indigodays.wordpress.com

The week will include:

A Blues Porch Concert

Workshops on black healing traditions

Herb Walks

Blues Woman Bible Study (blues as sacred texts in the tradition of black feminist healing)

Sharing family remedies and herbal wisdom

A Blue Lights in the Basement House Party

Film Screenings

The gathering is FREE and all participants will be provided with food and housing for the week. Email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com for more details, and to confirm your participation.

To donate food, various materials, time, money or other resources check the contribution page: http://indigodays.wordpress.com/contribute/ or email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com or donate via paypal here:


Educational Materials:

Art Supplies of All Kinds

small notebooks/journals

photocopies

Transportation:

borrowable cars

driving help

Housing:

Couch, futon or guest room space for out of town participants

Airmattresses

Sleeping bags

Food:

Gift cards to Whole Foods, Kroger, Food Lion or Harris Teeter

Healthy vegetarian-friendly and protein-rich dishes

Assorted Items:

Stones

rosewater

birtwort leaves

magnolia incense

lady's fern

candles

flowers from your garden

mint

honey

roses

damiana leaves

cubeb berries

cloth

rasberry tea

cinnamon

vanilla

laurel leaves

wild hyssop

white water lilies

red sunflower

strawberries

mandrake berries

squaw weed

ginger/wild ginger

clay

chammomile

angelica

lemon tea

silk

ribbons

caraway seeds

bowls

linen

Monday, April 18, 2011

Dedicated: Request Line of the Black Feminist Future!!!!


Greetings loved ones!

Because black feminist bass is the unstoppable heartbeat of the universe transforming. Because I revise every song I hear to praise your name. Because a movement is only a movement if it moves...I am excited to announce that my inner internet DJ (Sista-Docta Lex on the ones and zeroes!!) is finally launching a project to amplify black feminist healing and love all over your airwaves!!!!!

Yay!!!! Welcome to Dedicated: The Request Line of the Black Feminist Future! Here is how it works:

ask:

Ask for some advice about love, life, the practical or impractical pursuit of black feminism, foolishness at work, self-care, dilemmas or anything that might be on your mind. Typing a rant about a situation in need of healing in your life followed by the words "help a sista out" counts as reaching out for help and support.

You can reach out to me at

blackfeminismlives.tumblr.com/ask

or formspring.me/blackfeminism

Whether you leave your name or reach out anonymously you will get a song dedication towards your healing, affirmation and transformation of whatever situation inspired you to reach out with much much love from me!

listen:

You can listen to songs dedicated to you and everyone else at

blip.fm/blackfeministbass

or see the links at blackfeminismlives.tumblr.com

@alexispauline on twitter

I will also periodically be making podcasts with song dedications that fall into themes. You can subscribe to BrokenBeautiful Press for free on itunes to make sure that you get the newest podcasts when they come out. (Just search BrokenBeautiful Press in the itunes store)

collaborate:

You can also dedicate a song or affirmation to someone you want to affirm or to an ancestor you want to honor! Just go to the "ask" site above and type in your dedication and the name and artist of the song you want to dedicate and I'll amplify it on out.

We will also be having planetary release parties when the themed podcasts come out where people can share digitized mp3 mixed tapes with their own take on the theme of the podcast. Email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com if you'd like to host release parties in your town!!

And if you are creating awesome black feminist music that affirms us all email me at brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com to send me links to your music so I can put it out too!

Yay!!!! And as always if this inspires you and you are able....donate!


love always,

Sista Docta Lex about to bring Black Feminist Flava to ya Ear!!!! :)


Sunday, April 17, 2011

Announcing Lucille Clifton ShapeShifter Survival School Summer Session 2011

In honor of the great poet Lucille Clifton, who was also a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, a mother, an artist and self-identified Amazon warrior through her poetry, the Lucille Clifton ShapeShifter Survival School is especially designed for families that are committed to ending childhood sexual abuse and all forms of gendered violence. Informed by Generation 5 and the regional plan of the Atlanta Transformative Justice Collaborative, the ShapeShifter Survival School is part of a holistic process of ending child sexual abuse by creating healing community.

Lucille Clifton Rebirth Summer

2011

F0r 5 Thursdays in Lucille Clifton's birth month of June we will gather as survivors of child sexual and physical abuse and sexual violence and parents and caretakers committed to ending cycles of abuse in our families and communities to do writing activities based on Lucille Clifton's poetry and the ShapeShifter Survivor Rebirth Broadcast video series. (See videos here: http://blackfeministmind.wordpress.com/category/shapeshifting/). Participants in the series will also receive digital mixes of the music we work with to create a sacred space of memory. We can use the digital music mixes at home to activate memories of safety from the group writing space.

Rebirth Summer Thursdays:

Thursday. June 2

Unapologetic: Reclaiming Our Memories and Voices

Thursday, June 9

Bright: On Clarity and Power

Thursday, June 16

Gentle: On Cultivating Self-Love

Thursday, June 23

Futuristic: Towards the World that We Deserve

Thursday, June 30th

Planetary: The Depth and Urgency of Our Healing

Our intention is that after this summer month of Rebirth the Shapeshifter Survivor writing group will continue on a monthly basis hosted by participants as an ongoing source of support and healing drawing on work by Lucille Clifton and other writers.

For more information or to add your name to the reminder list email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com

to donate click here:

Saturday, April 09, 2011

Spring Reading Recommendations from Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind Library!


Hey family! Stop by tomorrow (Sunday 4/10) between 1pm-6pm to pick up these books and more...or email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com to pick up any of these books on an afternoon next week!



Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind

Lending and Reference Library

Spring Reading Recommendations!


Spring into Action!

*Sisters in the Struggle : African-American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement

*Selma, Lord, Selma: Girlhood Memories of the Civil Rights Days

* June Jordan’s Technical Difficulties: African-American Notes on the State of the Union

*This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (several copies available!)


Reading in the Park

*Sacred Cows...and Other Edibles by Nikki Giovanni

*Woman Hollering Creek: And Other Stories by Sandra Cisneros

*The New Moon's Arms by Nalo Hopkinson

*Miss Muriel and Other Stories by Ann Petry

*Dreaming in Cuban : a novel Christina Garcia (she went to Barnard…like me, my sister, Zora Neale Hurston, June Jordan and Ntozake Shange!)

*The used world : a novel by Haven Kimmel (she's from Durham)

*Some things I never thought I'd do by Pearl Cleage

*Not without laughter by Langston Hughes


Twisted (like a Spring)

*Volunteer Slavery: My Authentic Negro Experience by Jill Nelson

*Sally Hemmings. a Novel by Barbara Chase-Riboud

*Passing by Nella Larsen

*Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor

*Venus by Suzan Lori-Parks

*Soul on ice by Eldridge Cleaver


Books That Help Us Grow!

*The World Has Changed: Conversations with Alice Walker

*Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall

*Sisters of the yam : black women and self-recovery by bell hooks

*Claiming an Identity They Taught Me to Despise by Michelle Cliff


Especially for Youth

*Words By Heart by Ouida Sebestyen

*Let the Circle Be Unbroken by Mildred Taylor (one of June Jordan’s favorites!)

*Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Puffin Modern Classics) by Mildred Taylor

*Crick Crack, Monkey by Merle Hodge

*What Your Mama Never Told You: True Stories About Sex and Love (featuring a piece by our very own Shirlette Ammons!!!)

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Lavender: "Love Between Us": Beyond Competition and Scarcity (Rainbow Reclamations #2)




By popular demand and with infinite love WE CONTINUE a seven month process called Rainbowed Reclamation, a colorful women of color juicy poetry and food-filled space of sacred discussions that reclaim our bodies, collectivize our spiritual energy and the brilliant choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf.

These monthly discussion/rituals are love in practice towards creating a spiritually aligned, intimately interconnected, queer affirming and self loving community of women of color and genderqueer people of color ready to support each other in transforming the world.

Take a deep lavender infused breath and....
If you are a woman of color and/or a genderqueer person of color anywhere near Durham...COME! If you are a woman of color and/or a genderqueer person of color anywhere in the world email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com to find out how to host your own event. If you are an ally spread the word!!!!

Sunday April, 17th

5pm-8pm

La Casita De Amor (email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com for directions)



*****Please wear LAVENDER and bring some food to share if you can!
Childcare will be provided and I hear there will be delicious lavender infused cookies by Kukia in the place!!!! *******

Here is the schedule for the rest of the series (FYI):

In Blue : "Once I Was Pregnant" :Circles of Rebirth: Sharing and holding stories of abortion, miscarriage and healing (Sunday May 22nd, 5pm---special Indigo Days session)
In Green: For Sechita: Sex Work and Solidarity (Sunday June 19th, 5pm preferably outdoors!)
In Yellow: Graduation Nite: A Sex Positive Queer Inclusive Intergenerational Conversation about SEX (full of juicy and complicated stories about "the first time") (Sunday July, 25th, 5pm)
In Red: "Keep Your Sorry": Break-Up Poetics: On letting go, rituals of release and positive relationship transitions (Sunday August 28th, 5pm)
In Orange:(Sunday Sept 18th, 5pm) Butterflies and Bad Girl Legacies: Sex, Survival, Revenge and Healing

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

4/10 Library Day #1: Eternal Summer Lending and Reference Library Grand Opening


At long last the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind Lending and Reference Library is open, mostly cataloged and ready for circulation! Come and celebrate! Check out a book! Scan a digital copy of a rare article. Make an appointment to read in the reading room. Get a spring spirit cleaning reading prescription from sista-docta Lex!

For a preview of the available books look here: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/BlackFeministMind

Join us at the Inspiration Station (email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com for details)

1pm-6pm Sunday April 10th 2011

Yay!
There will be cake!

And if you live far away email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com about how you can donate a book OR click here to donate through paypal:


Or push the button to sign up to be a monthly sustainer (the big blue number is how much you'll be donating each month automatically)!

Friday, March 11, 2011

Rainbow Reclamations Session #1: A Laying on of Hands: Rooted Reclamation and Ancestor Grounding


Sunday, March 20th 5pm at the Inspiration Station

(email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com for the address!)

By popular demand and with infinite love I am planning a seven month process starting this March called Rainbowed Reclamation, a colorful women of color juicy poetry and food-filled space of sacred discussions that reclaim our bodies, collectivize our spiritual energy and brilliant choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf.

These monthly discussion/rituals are love in practice towards creating a spiritually aligned, intimately interconnected, queer affirming and self loving community of women of color and genderqueer people of color ready to support each other in transforming the world.

If you are a woman of color and/or a genderqueer person of color anywhere near Durham...COME! If you are a woman of color and/or a genderqueer person of color anywhere in the world email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com to find out how to host your own event. If you are an ally spread the word!!!!
*****Please wear brown and bring some food to share if you can!
Childcare will be provided. *******

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_4RA3-ymU8&feature=player_embedded]

Here is the schedule for the rest of the series (FYI):

In Brown: A Laying on of Hands: Rooted Reclamation and Ancestor Grounding (Sunday March 20th, 5pm)
In Lavender: Love Between Us: Competition and Scarcity Among Women of Color (Sunday April 17th, 5pm)
In Blue : "Once I Was Pregnant" :Circles of Rebirth: Sharing and holding stories of abortion, miscarriage and healing (Sunday May 22nd, 5pm)
In Green: For Sechita: Sex Work and Solidarity (Sunday June 19th, 5pm preferably outdoors!)
In Yellow: Graduation Nite: A Sex Positive Queer Inclusive Intergenerational Conversation about SEX (full of juicy and complicated stories about "the first time") (Sunday July, 25th, 5pm)
In Red: "Keep Your Sorry": Break-Up Poetics: On letting go, rituals of release and positive relationship transitions (Sunday August 28th, 5pm)
In Orange:(Sunday Sept 18th, 5pm) Butterflies and Bad Girl Legacies: Sex, Survival, Revenge and Healing

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Mississippi "Odd" Damn: Intergenerational Black Feminism is Unbelievable

Black women on the move have always been queer to the intersecting systems of oppression that rely on us staying in our interchangeable and demeaning place.

“It just sounds really odd. You know?”

This is what a white male police officer said to me several times after he separated my partner and I for questioning and we both explained to him that we were driving through Mississippi as part of our cross country journey interviewing black LGBT feminist elders.

And outside the matrix of uniforms, skin, privilege and visible weapons, ghosts and the bloody history of the state (in the specific sense and the general sense) his disbelief would be at worst a strange look to brush off and at best a conversation to have about intergenerational black feminist love in action. But in this case the fact that the officer could not believe our truth and was much more likely to believe that we were troublesome black teenagers joyriding across state lines in a stolen RV, could have been the difference between us driving through Mississippi and being locked up, or worse. We are inside a matrix where to be black and feminist, to be black and driven by love, where to be black queer women on the move together is unbelievable from the perspective of the state. And we still live in a time when to be black, queer, brilliant, feminist, driven, to be incredible, unbelievable, stunning, to be exactly who we are, is a threat to the state and a risk to our lives.

Officer writing a "courtesy warning" to us for being "odd" in Mississippi.

The Story:

While driving on 1-20 in Mississippi a police officer from the interstate crime division pulled us over, citing a traffic concern: our following distance. Once we were pulled over, he asked us who owned the RV and what we were doing. We explained that we bought the RV, which is in my name, together with the support our community in order to travel the country interviewing our elders. The officer then asked my partner to leave the RV and called for back up. He questioned us separately. He asked us several times where we were going, how we got the money to be able to travel, how did we find these so-called elders, why would we want to visit them, was this for school, where did we live, how were we going to get back home, how did we get connected to these so-called black feminists, how did we know there were black feminists in the southern and western states we were planning to travel, and who are we to each other.

To see the whole article and join the conversation visit:

http://www.thefeministwire.com/2011/02/16/mississippi-odd-damn-black-feminism-is-unbelievable/

or http://www.mobilehomecoming.org/?p=919

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Women on Wednesdays Teach-in & Healing Cipher

This year, WoW organizers are pleased to offer a day-long teach-in to deepen our exploration of our motto "Engage. Create. Empower". Save your spot by RSVP with an email to ebonygolden@bettysdaughterarts.com.



Agenda

10 am- Welcome and Honoring Toni Cade Bambara
1015 am-Yoga and Mindfulness w/ Dehejia Maat

1115 am- Workshop Selections (Descriptions below)

A-Define Your Personal Shine w/ BurnBright Lifeworks, Inc.
B-Finding Voice through Identity w/ Carmen Mojica
C-Lyrical Meditations: Using Freestyle to Free the Spirit with Toni Blackman

1215 pm- Lunch

1 pm-Safe Spaces w/ Ocean Ana Rising

3 pm-Break

315- Prepare Community Sharing from Workshops
330 pm-Community Sharing from Workshops
430 pm-Next Steps Continuing the Sisterhood
5 pm-Closing Activity



Workshop Descriptions

Yoga and Mindfulness with Dehejia Maat

All-Group Session 1 hr.

As a poet and writer I've come to a place where I can't write anymore, because the exterenal world impacts my internal. Yoga for Poets and Writers is a workshop that I've created to remove blockages thru meditation and yoga. Our focus: clearing the noise and drawing form the pool of inspiration.



Safe Spaces for Trauma to Triumph with Ocean Ana Rising

All-Group Session 2 hrs.

The Safe Spaces Workshop is designed to provide women survivors of violence with tools of creative expression to help them transform trauma into healing and liberation. Through this workshop, participants are encouraged to express their own sacred, magical selves, using cultural art techniques that can be revisited long after participation in the workshop. For this Safe Spaces residency, workshop participants will re-discover body awareness on their own terms through guided creative movement, body painting, & writing techniques. We will begin with free writing exercises using prompts that inspire participants to explore the initial and personal trauma. This writing will lead to creative movement techniques, focusing on breathing, flexibility, and rhythmic dance, utilizing an African dance fusion technique. The creative movement will gently guide participants through the memory of the initial wound/scar/trauma addressed through the writing exercise, toward a transformative process of re-memory through which the body experiences full expression and triumph. Participants do not need any formal dance training to participate in this workshop. Following the first portion of the creative movement aspect of the workshop, workshop participants will further celebrate their bodies, self expression, and beauty through a body painting session, high-lighting spaces on the body with visual symbols, designs and colors that reclaim and reinforce personal ideas of affirmation. After body painting, participants will return to creative writing, emphasizing transformation and triumph.

Define Your Personal Shine with BurnBright Lifeworks, Inc.
1 hour


Artist Track:
The overall objective of this workshop is is to equip artists with a deeper level understanding of how they may use branding as a personal & professional tool for their artistic endeavors (networking, seminars, collaborations, exhibit, etc.)

BREAKDOWN

This workshop will take place as a free-form dynamic discussion/presentation followed by a break out Q & A where participants may pose questions.

Glow Assessment (What's working for/against me?) With their lives moving at a lightening pace, many artists rarely get an opportunity to see themselves clearly. This section will focus on teaching participants to do a 360 degree analysis of their current situation.

Selecting Your Candle (Formulating their goals) Selecting your candle will help artists prioritize their goals and by doing so, develop their OWN standards for success.

Burning Bright (Branding Statement) The purpose of this section is for participants to walk away with their own personal Branding statement. Please not that this statement is quite different than an Artist's Statement. Participants will be coached to create a Branding Statement that will speak more to how they want to be SEEN as opposed to what their artistic vision is.

Voice and Individuality with Carmen Mojica
1 hr



Lyrical Meditations: Using Freestyle to Free the Spirit with Toni Blackman

1 hr.

Toni Blackman will lead a session using the spoken word to heighten creativity, inspire self-expression, and improve one's ability to go with the flow. Toni's participant centered wkshp provides a transformative experience that empowers those present to exist beyond their comfort zones. She facilitates the process of "getting open", guiding the energy so that both artist and non-artist benefit from the exercises. Be a part of the cipher.

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Join Us as WE Celebrate Girls and Women of the African Diaspora!!!

Sunday, February 06, 2011

Lending and Reference Library! Coming Soon!!!!

Greetings loved ones!!!!

We are in the final stages of opening something called the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind Reference and Lending Library in my community (out of my living room) so that people can have access to great books that can inspire and empower them to think about race and gender and sexuality and politics and everything that they may want to think about more. I'm particularly collecting books that are not in the local libraries and I'll be having library days starting in March in addition to the events I have here at the Inspiration Station when folks can look at the reference books, scan themselves copies of articles and chapters and borrow the lending collection to take home!

I'm really excited about it. Since this summer when I started the process over 700 books have been donated!

You can see the books that I have entered so far (about half) here: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/BlackFeministMind


You can see the books that we are still "wishing for" on this amazon wishlist: http://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/9JXRNX84Z3R9/ref=cm_wl_act_vv?_encoding=UTF8&visitor-view=1&reveal=


Hooray! Maybe you'd like to donate some books that you already have? Email me at brokenbeautifulpress at gmail dot com. OR maybe you'd like to start your own lending and reference library in your community? OR if you live in Durham...maybe you'd like me to show you how you can catalog the books that you can share! Get in touch!

Much much love and booklust to everybody!!!

Lex

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Bootcamp Podcast: The Sound of Mothering Ourselves



Loved ones!!!! For those of you who didn't get to participate in the MotherOurselves Bootcamp in Durham NC this January here is a podcast featuring the insights of the participants and some beautiful music!!! Playlist below.

[audio http://brokenbeautiful.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/bootcamp-podcast-1.mp3]


direct link: http://brokenbeautiful.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/bootcamp-podcast-1.mp3


Also know that for the next week...if you become an Eternal Summerian (monthly sustainer of the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind) your first gifts will be a mixtape of the meditations of release we did during the bootcamp and the motherourselves manual so that you can bring this work into your life and your community!!!



We can make something out of anything.

Insight from Mariel Eaves and

The Revenge of Ricky Williams "Sweet Wolf Shirt"

We recognize and nurture the creative parts of each other without always understanding what will be created.

"Dear Mom" by Adele Nieves and

Climbing Poetree "I Wonder"

We establish authority over our own definitions.

Affirmations from Miya Binta

Doria Roberts "Dying Man's Wish"

We claim power over who we choose to be, knowing that such power is relative within the realities of our lives.

Estas Mujeres: Covenant by Fabiola Sandoval

Amel Larrieux "All I Got"

We provide an attentive concern and expectation of growth, which is the beginning of that acceptance we came to expect only from our mothers.

"When I Crave Mama" by Fabiola Sandoval

Me'shell Ndegeocello "Solomon"

We affirm our own worth by committing ourselves to our own survival in our selves and in the selves of other black women.

"I Am My Mother's Daughter" by Rashida James-Saadiya

Lauryn Hill "If They Only Knew"

We refuse to settle for anything less than a rigorous pursuit of the possible in ourselves, at the same time making a distinction between what is possible, and what the outside world drives us to do in order to prove that we are human.

"Mother Ourselves" by Julia R. Wallace (JDub)

Santigold "Unstoppable"

We recognize our successes and are tender with ourselves even when we fail.

"My Mother Ourselves Covenant" by Dara Montaque

Res "Bittersweet"

We learn to love what we have given birth to by giving definition to, to be both kind and demanding in the teeth of failure as well as in the face of success without misnaming either.

"Letter of Release to the Next Generation" by Miya Binta

Erykah Badu "My Life"

We lay to rest what is weak, timid and damaged without despisal and we protect and support what is useful for survival. We explore the difference together.

"Mother as Savior" by Miya Binta

Georgia Ann Muldrow "Runway"

We stand toe-to-toe inside rigorous loving and speak what has always seemed like the impossible to each other.

Truth Booth Conversation between Miya Binta and Manju Rajendran

Tata Vega, "Miss Celie's Blues"

As we speak the truth to each other it become unavoidable to ourselves.

ESG "Keep on Moving"

Infinite love,

Lex

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

MotherOurselves Materials! Gifts for Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind Monthly Sustainers!!!!


Happy January beloved and far-flung supporters of the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind!!!!!!

Since it is a beautiful new year...we have a beautiful new gift for our beloved Eternal Summerian monthly sustainers! All existing Eternal Summerians and all NEW monthly sustainers who sign up before the end of the month will receive their very own digital copies of crucial priceless curriculum materials from the MotherOurselves Bootcamp:

*The MotherOurselves Manual (including the mother ourselves manifesta, playlist, activity station descriptions and a 5 cycle meditation of release including direct quotes from across Lorde's body of work...especially Eye to Eye: Black Women Hatred and Anger.

*The MotherOurselves Meditation/Dance Party Mixtape: guide yourself or your group through the cycles of meditation and release with music, poetry and the mesmerizing sound of my voice :)


AND Eternal Summerians who sign up at levels of $20 or more will receive hardcopies of both the Manual and the Mixtape (well CD actually) and a one of a kind collage in the mail!!!


Hooray!!!!! Sign up today or on payday! Thank you for making another year of ETERNAL inspiration possible!!!!

Love,

Lex

Sunday, January 23, 2011

nomad lullaby for kai


1/23

may your birth be easy

as one two three wants to be

(free)


may you have exactly the hot drink and black skirt you want

wherever you happen to be


may your bright black brain be ever enough

light to paint by


may markerstained hands map you

back to drawing board belief


may the flavor of sunset stay singing

in your ear as praise


may you keep dreaming

next millennia dreams

set in the place you were two days ago


may your circles whirlwind you up to hope


may you see yourself in our bravest most beautiful faces


may our hearts beat and victorious dance your echo name

deep footprints bootsunk

heeled


may we know where you have walked by our reshaped pulse


and may you always know you are right

here

Saturday, January 15, 2011

MotheringOurselves (Manifest!)



(distilled from Audre Lorde's Eye to Eye: Black Women Hatred and Anger)

We can make something out of anything.

We recognize and nurture the creative parts of each other without always understanding what will be created.

We establish authority over our own definitions.

We claim power over who we choose to be, knowing that such power is relative within the realities of our lives.

We provide an attentive concern and expectation of growth, which is the beginning of that acceptance we came to expect only from our mothers.

We affirm our own worth by committing ourselves to our own survival in our selves and in the selves of other black women.

We refuse to settle for anything less than a rigorous pursuit of the possible in ourselves, at the same time making a distinction between what is possible, and what the outside world drives us to do in order to prove that we are human.

We recognize our successes and are tender with ourselves even when we fail.

We learn to love what we have given birth to by giving definition to, to be both kind and demanding in the teeth of failure as well as in the face of success without misnaming either.

We lay to rest what is weak, timid and damaged without despisal and we protect and support what is useful for survival. We explore the difference together.

We stand toe-to-toe inside rigorous loving and speak what has always seemed like the impossible to each other.

As we speak the truth to each other it become unavoidable to ourselves.

We can learn to mother ourselves.

We can make something out of anything.