first, an offer: This coming Sunday is an open session from the Catalyst Project’s Anne Braden Program. Anyone can come and I super hope you do! “Visionary Organizers: Fighting Colonization from the US to the Philippines to Palestine.” Details here + panelist bios (they are amazing). Sunday, March 21, 2021, 2-4pm (PT) 5-7 pm (ET). Register Here/ Facebook Event Here. If you are coming please tell me so I can sense you across the distance.
Ok! So: rhizines. Risings, wry zines, rye signs. (I don’t know which! all, probably.)
This is from my beautiful book. Rhizines look like roots but aren’t; they are “organs of attachment” and I love that phrase. I can’t show you a pic I’ve taken of a lichen I know has rhizines because I don’t know which do and I am enjoying that mystery. I know they can be “dense” or “sparse.” Like a holdfast, they keep a lichen attached to a good spot that has clean enough air and clear enough sunlight to nourish and sustain itself.
We all need good spots. One that nourishes and sustains me even at a distance is Highlander Research and Education Center, formerly Highlander Folk School, usually just “Highlander.” Personally: my dad was there in 1957, worked for Septima Clark in the office, lifeguarded at the lake, and roomed with Pete Seeger. Politically: they are connected, in some way, from a hill in rural TN, to what seems like every movement ever. I am so heartened lately by the overdue respect being shown to Southern organizing—its history, what it’s winning now, and how. You don’t need to live in the South to learn from Highlander’s weekly “View From the Hill” and you might just find a political home somewhere in its links, national campaigns, opportunities to learn, cultural organizing soirees, +++. You can subscribe at the bottom of this page and I advise it <3
Lately I’ve been practicing attachment to good spots in new conversations I get to be in. As part of the Anne Braden program, we are randomly assigned a buddy. Mine is Heidi. She co-founded Motherful in Columbus, Ohio, dedicated to supporting, empowering, and nurturing single mothers and their families. She is RAD, she is about healing, and talking with her attaches me to really good spots. She came to Braden as a white person with no white friends, but an openess to making some. So, I’m getting to be her white friend. When we hang up, I take a deep breath and feel really lucky. I just gave Motherful $20 and I feel like if you read about them, you might too.
How about you? You can reply to send me an email, or leave a comment, or text your friends, about what you are practicing, or what good spots you’ve found or are seeking, or whose friend you are enjoying becoming <3.
ok whoops it turns out I can’t not share one picture of lichen! I took this Friday, on one of my “forest days” where I take a day off and go to a forest by myself and bring good snacks and daydream.