1 00:00:00,251 --> 00:00:03,219 [ MUSIC... ] 2 00:00:13,766 --> 00:00:15,162 Hello loved ones! 3 00:00:15,162 --> 00:00:19,833 Welcome to week 8 of Audre Lorde Resurrection Sundays. 4 00:00:19,833 --> 00:00:21,363 I'm Sister Doctor Lex. 5 00:00:21,363 --> 00:00:30,592 I'm especially excited today because I am getting ready to go to Cuba very soon, 6 00:00:30,592 --> 00:00:38,300 and I am thinking so much about Audre Lorde, who went to Cuba in January also, in 1985, 7 00:00:38,300 --> 00:00:41,599 along with a lot of other brilliant Black women writers 8 00:00:41,599 --> 00:00:49,799 like Alexis DeVeaux and Jayne Cortez, and Mari Evans, and so many more. 9 00:00:49,799 --> 00:00:58,599 So I am excited about this video because I'm getting my energy up for that trip, 10 00:00:58,599 --> 00:01:03,335 I'm really excited to participate in a cultural exchange, 11 00:01:03,335 --> 00:01:08,329 and I'm able to go with a delegation of amazing people of colour who I love, 12 00:01:08,329 --> 00:01:10,406 who I'm doing work with here in the united states, 13 00:01:10,406 --> 00:01:16,614 and I'm very excited about how what we learn in Cuba will influence the work we do together. 14 00:01:16,614 --> 00:01:21,929 So this week I'm sharing with you the poem "Diapora". 15 00:01:21,929 --> 00:01:26,729 That we know of, and, um, biographer Alexis DeVeaux also said 16 00:01:26,729 --> 00:01:32,584 that we don't know of a place where Audre Lorde wrote publicly about her experience in Cuba, 17 00:01:32,584 --> 00:01:37,793 but this poem "Diapora" is about her transnational work more generally, 18 00:01:37,793 --> 00:01:41,884 and how she thought about the experiences of people all over the world, 19 00:01:41,884 --> 00:01:47,621 including folks in Lebanon, including people in South Africa... 20 00:01:47,621 --> 00:01:55,192 and I think that as I think about what it will mean to engage with other Black folks in Cuba, 21 00:01:55,192 --> 00:01:59,379 I want to have these words in mind. So this is "Diaspora". 22 00:02:02,951 --> 00:02:07,907 Afraid is a country with no exit visas 23 00:02:07,907 --> 00:02:10,498 a wire of ants walking the horizon 24 00:02:10,498 --> 00:02:13,866 embroiders our passports at birth 25 00:02:13,866 --> 00:02:17,154 Johannesburg Alabama 26 00:02:17,154 --> 00:02:19,515 a dark girl flees the cattle prods 27 00:02:19,515 --> 00:02:22,313 skin hanging from her shredded nails 28 00:02:22,313 --> 00:02:24,427 escapes into my nightmare 29 00:02:24,427 --> 00:02:27,237 half an hour before the Shatila dawn 30 00:02:27,237 --> 00:02:30,543 wakes in the well of a borrowed Volkswagen 31 00:02:30,543 --> 00:02:34,602 or a rickety midnight sleeper out of White River Junction 32 00:02:34,602 --> 00:02:37,519 Washington bound again 33 00:02:37,519 --> 00:02:40,385 gulps carbon monoxide in a false bottomed truck 34 00:02:40,385 --> 00:02:42,606 fording the Braceras Grande 35 00:02:42,606 --> 00:02:44,994 or an up-country river 36 00:02:44,994 --> 00:02:47,876 grenades held in a dry calabash 37 00:02:47,876 --> 00:02:49,603 leaving 38 00:02:52,452 --> 00:02:53,946 So for me that poem has to do with 39 00:02:53,946 --> 00:02:58,858 what is at stake for people of colour to be in solidarity with each other, 40 00:02:58,858 --> 00:03:03,876 and all of that means in terms of the conflicts that exist all around the world, 41 00:03:03,876 --> 00:03:09,767 and especially the economic violence that is part of systems of domination and globalization, 42 00:03:09,767 --> 00:03:14,665 that people of colour face differently in different places. 43 00:03:14,665 --> 00:03:21,896 And I'm excited! Sometime soon, a chapter that I wrote about Audre Lorde's theories of solidarity, 44 00:03:21,896 --> 00:03:29,220 especially in relationship to majority Black spaces and nations in the world, 45 00:03:29,220 --> 00:03:34,852 um, will be coming out in a book that's about Audre Lorde's transnational impact. 46 00:03:34,852 --> 00:03:38,197 So of course if you are following the School of Our Lorde blog 47 00:03:38,197 --> 00:03:41,401 you will know when you will have access to that. 48 00:03:41,401 --> 00:03:49,348 And! I also wanted to make a somewhat self-serving assignment to you, 49 00:03:49,348 --> 00:03:53,422 in addition to thinking about your impact on people of colour 50 00:03:53,422 --> 00:03:58,308 in other countries than the country that you may be situated in right now, 51 00:03:58,308 --> 00:04:02,979 I would love it if you could make a donation to Witness For Peace. 52 00:04:02,979 --> 00:04:10,184 I'm so grateful to that organization for sponsoring this people of colour specific delegation to Cuba, 53 00:04:10,184 --> 00:04:14,986 and I have information on the School of Our Lorde site 54 00:04:14,986 --> 00:04:17,642 and also on the Doctor Alexis Pauline Gumbs site 55 00:04:17,642 --> 00:04:21,246 about how you can make a donation to that project. 56 00:04:21,246 --> 00:04:23,894 I strongly hope that you will, 57 00:04:23,894 --> 00:04:25,474 to support not just our trip 58 00:04:25,474 --> 00:04:28,775 but also the practice, the continued practice 59 00:04:28,775 --> 00:04:35,935 of people of colour delegations to be able to exchange in a particular specific and nuanced way 60 00:04:35,935 --> 00:04:37,843 around the world. 61 00:04:37,843 --> 00:04:39,642 Thank you so much for listening. 62 00:04:39,642 --> 00:04:41,513 And... 63 00:04:41,513 --> 00:04:43,405 happy Resurrection Sunday.