Last night community accountable intellectuals from all over the United States and also from northern Haiti came together to discuss survival and the academic industrial complex.  The conversation was rich, rigorous, honest and brave and included the participation of many of our beloved given and chosen ancestors.  At the end of our time together we created this poem, riffing off on of Audre Lorde’s unpublished definitions of survival that we offer right now towards your broadened, abundant ancestor-activated survival of the institutions and possibilities you are navigating right now.

Sounds Like a Promise

a group poem by the participants in the Shape of My Impact Webinar

“I love the word survival, it always sounds to me like a promise.  It makes me wonder sometimes though, how do I define the shape of my impact upon this earth?”

 –reflection cut from an early draft of “Eye to Eye: Black Women, Hatred and Anger” by Audre Lorde (Audre Lorde Papers, Spelman College Archive)

health and joy sound like a promise

freedom sounds like a promise

courage sounds like a promise

 

the future sounds like a promise

reproduction and birth sounds like a promise

 

being here and being well sounds like a promise

a university that loves me like the universe sounds like a promise

survival sounds like a promise

 

my body sounds like a promise

black love sounds a promise

healthcare sounds like a promise

 

hearing you sounds like a promise

loving you sounds like a promise

 

time with the earth sounds like a promise

evolving perspective sounds like a promise

ancestors sound like a promise

the orisha are a promise

 

our community is a promise

kinship is a promise

 

being celebrated while you can still enjoy it sounds like a promise

my truth reflected back to me with love sounds like a promise

 

saying yes and no sounds like a promise

the broadness of my vision sounds like a promise

defiance sounds like a promise

 

worth keeping