symbiont collection 4/27/21
+one timely announcement!
Hello you. This week has felt relentless. I keep noticing slow, thick, unfocused feelings; I keep thinking about Ma’Khia Bryant, and her mother, and all those that mothered her. I hope you are finding moments of sudden something (joy? beauty? sharp grief instead of ambient?) that click you into yourself anew. I get them most dependably at the dinner table when Renn and I sing a blessing song and Bill kind of sways and beams at us. I wonder what is dependable for you these days… please let me know. It is hard to be so far apart when there’s so much to process.
The timely announcement: I’ve reached the part of my wonderful Anne Braden program where I learn to do some for-real grassroots fundraising. So, you may be getting a letter from me in the next day or two, asking for an amount that feels bold and intimidating to ask for, because I am trying to get $2500 to the amazing Center for Participatory Change and learn how organizing is fundraising is organizing. If the ask makes you feel weird: I get it. And I fondly invite you into this world with me. We can talk about it. This helped me: a short chapter, “fundraising is not a dirty word,” by my faves, Project South, in the legendary book “The Revolution Will Not Be Funded” by INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence. Or you can listen to this which is the same-ish thing. <3
Ok, so. Here’s some of what has mattered to me lately:
Pickin for Progress: a radical banjo song about the life of Dreama Caldwell, the new ED of Down Home NC. She cries listening to her story told this way. Me too.
Black Queer Tarot project from kendrick daye
Eyes As Big As Plates: gorgeous photo project of elders draped in nature
Loamlands: a country queer band (including my fellow Braden participant Kym!). On spotify and pandora too. It’s better than I can handle.
MAJOR! A documentary about Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a trans woman elder and activist and gift to the earth. To rent on amazon or vimeo. You will feel fired up.
If you don’t get a fundraising letter from me this week, but you want to get in on that, I really, really want to include you. Please reply to this email with your mailing address <3
Have you read "Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer?