0:00:00.251,0:00:03.219 [ MUSIC... ] 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 Afraid is a country with no exit visas 0:02:07.907,0:02:10.498 a wire of ants walking the horizon 0:02:10.498,0:02:13.866 embroiders our passports at birth 0:02:13.866,0:02:17.154 Johannesburg Alabama 0:02:17.154,0:02:19.515 a dark girl flees the cattle prods 0:02:19.515,0:02:22.313 skin hanging from her shredded nails 0:02:22.313,0:02:24.427 escapes into my nightmare 0:02:24.427,0:02:27.237 half an hour before the Shatila dawn 0:02:27.237,0:02:30.543 wakes in the well of a borrowed Volkswagen 0:02:30.543,0:02:34.602 or a rickety midnight sleeper [br]out of White River Junction 0:02:34.602,0:02:37.519 Washington bound again 0:02:37.519,0:02:40.385 gulps carbon monoxide in a false bottomed truck 0:02:40.385,0:02:42.606 fording the Braceras Grande 0:02:42.606,0:02:44.994 or an up-country river 0:02:44.994,0:02:47.876 grenades held in a dry calabash 0:02:47.876,0:02:49.603 leaving 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.