This week as everyone was reminded again of the urgency of our political, creative and intellectual work at this time, a group of us went underwater to hear the voices of our ancestors whose warnings, wisdom and ways are seeking to guide us in this moment. Water holds sound and the love of our ancestors holds us as we make braver and braver decisions. The Breathe Underwater: Baptismal Intensive was a sacred space of remembering and renewal. We brought our ancestors into the space, embodied each other’s ancestors, dove deep into the ancestrally co-written works of M. Nourbese Philip, M. Jacqui Alexander and June Jordan, broke our contracts with slavery and internalized capitalism, cleansed ourselves with divine memory, listened to whales, coordinated our breathing, let words wash over us and laughed and raged and rose up renewed.
Below we are offering some poems that we created. We were inspired by Kitsimba’s commitment (voiced across generations in Jacqui Alexander’s Pedagogies of Crossing) that “all life is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean” to create an invocation that articulates our connection AND we each wrote poems inspired by June Jordan’s Who Look at Me to prepositionally describe our ancestral relations. Take a deep breathe and let these words hold you, like how water holds sound, like how our movement holds contradiction, like how our ancestors hold us and we hold each other.
P.S. If you want to learn about future online intensive or in-person Brilliance Remastered gatherings join the email list or the facebook group. Registration is also open right now for the Nobody Mean More to Me retreat in Durham on September 9-11.
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an invocation for and by the participants in the breathe underwater: baptismal intensive
(we recommend starting with three deep breaths and ending with seven)
“all life is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean.”
-Kitsimba in Pedagogies of Crossing by M. Jacqui Alexander
all light is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all love is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all memory is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all prayer is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all discernment is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all clarity is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all passion is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all singing is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all dance is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all freedom is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all resistance is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all abundance is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all playfulness is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all silliness is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all joy is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all power is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all sacred ritual is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all gratitude is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all compassion is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all forgiveness is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all rage is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all wonder is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all hope is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all transformation is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all wisdom is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all grace is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all elevation is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all rest is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all connection is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all breathing is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all dreaming is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all spirit is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all blessings to overcome are shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all that was, is and shall be is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
all of who we are is shared with those at the bottom of the ocean
Beyond and Across
by Njeri Damali Campbell
Who look at me?
Who speak to me?
Who laugh at me?
Who fight with me?
Right beside me?
Who stand above me?
Who rage with me?
Who cries on me?
Who move through me?
Who come for me?
Who be with me?
Who womanifest as me?
Who want for me?
Who travel across me?
Who remember for me?
Who remember as me?
Who exists in me?
Who persists as me?
Who endures despite me?
Who loves between me?
Who knows through me?
Who knows as me?
Who cannot without me?
Who wait beyond me?
Who speak through me?
*
by Beth Bruch
Who laugh with me
Who sustain with me
Who walk with me
Who dream through me
Who dream of me
Who remember in me
Who move through me
Who live in me
Who return to me
Who love through me
Who exist around me
Who work with me
Who sing through me
Who speak in me
Who dance around me
Who whisper to me
Who remember for me
Who create for me
Who run around me
Who receive from me
Who give to me
Who remind to me
Who help with me
Who challenge against me
Who slip from me
Who return to me
Who return to me
Who return to me
Who play with me
Who love in me
Who burn in me
Who yearn for me
Who are of me
*
by Natalie Clark
Who dreamed me into dreaming
Who held me in DNA
Who witness me now
Who unfold me yesterday
Who swims me
Who is me tomorrow
Who is me yesterday
Future ancestor.
My daughter
Who my daughter me…
*
by Sheena Sood
Who hold onto me?
*
by Laura Sullivan
who lives within me
by ife kilmanjaro
who breathe with me
by alexis pauline gumbs
who breathe with me
who sing as me
who dance through me
who kiss upon me
who laugh around me
who bless over me
who love in me
who guide beside me
who open up between me
who designate exactly me
who fly through me
who hope inside me
who whisper into me
who rise under me
who radiate across me
who smile surrounding me
who protect by me
who teach above me
who love all of me