This past week’s Evidence Intensive online and Evidence writing workshop for futurists in Durham were miraculous.  I am so grateful to everyone who participated, I am so moved and honored to be living in this time with you.  Today is the half-birthday of my father, Clyde Gumbs who joined the ancestors in late October.  My half-birthday is tomorrow. The last communication I got from my father was the name of a maternal Shinnecock ancestor of mine seven generations back. Granny Tatum.  I wonder what she did on Sunday mornings while she survived colonialism, and especially the complicated adoption of church practices within Shinnecock community.  I wonder what she prayed for and how I am living into those prayers.

I am honored to share with you a group poem created by the online participants in the Evidence Intensive, which I also used to open and bless the space of the in-person Evidence workshop in Durham.  It means so much to me to be supported by a far-flung and local community of people who care deeply about the future and who invest in my work to play a visionary role in this community in ways that quite literally put food on my table and keep me alive.   In the short story “Evidence” a future researcher named Alandrix is trying to historcize this time.  Alandrix (Drix for short) wants proof of what we did in this “time of the silence breaking” and longs to theorize exactly how it impacted the current world of the story, a world free from sexual violence.  At some point though Alandrix wonders in the research notes whether they are looking for external proof for something their soul already has evidence for.

This poem honors that part of you that travels generations, that knows beyond knowing and that allows love to travel from this moment beyond everything we currently understand.

Again, if you want to be on the list to get emails about next year’s online courses, sign up here.   If you want to be on the list to know about local events happening in the Durham area, sign up here (and check the box for “local”).  And if you want to get Without Apology, my father’s book of poems in honor of Black women, check it out here.

***********************************************************************************************************

My Soul is Evidence

 

by the participants in the Evidence Intensive

 

my soul is evidence of intentional laughter

my soul is evidence of truth telling children

 

my soul is evidence of mountain strength

my soul has evidence of the sacredness of horses

my soul has evidence that rocks and stones are alive

my soul is evidence of waves crashing and receding

my soul is evidence of the healing power of salt

my soul is evidence of the iridescence of the walls of caves

my soul shows evidence of my father’s eyes

 

my soul is evidence of the trail of tears

my soul is evidence of the dreams of MAAFA

my soul is evidence of the dreamers’ power

my soul is evidence of the resilience of the elders

my soul is evidence that genocide fails and empires fall

 

my soul is the evidence of my ancestors laughter and prayers

my soul is evidence that Black is vibrance

my soul shines black with evidence of refusal and rebellion

my soul is evidence of queerness at its sparkliest potential

my soul is evidence of the strength of the daily strange

my soul has evidence of the secrets and mysteries that allow my people to survive that which was not meant to survive

my soul has evidence for miracles in dark places

my soul has evidence that Harriet actually saved millions

my soul has evidence that Black slang carries the secret codes of freedom

my soul has evidence that we have always been brilliant, that we are brilliant right now

 

my soul is evidence that the harm is real and not just in my head

my soul has evidence of receipts on receipts on receipts

my soul has evidence of wounds that scar but not kill

my soul is evidence that the shift is possible

my soul has evidence that truth is the way forward

my soul has evidence that Audre was right to say speak, though we are afraid

my soul is evidence that it is okay to break, break wide open

my soul has evidence of the power of the breath

my soul has evidence that Black feminism LIVES!!!!

 

 

my soul has evidence of you now all up in it

my soul is bursting with evidence of baby love

my soul is evidence that survival is sweet

my soul is evidence that tenderness is powerful and profound

my soul has evidence of sacred storytelling

my soul shapes evidence out of longing and listening

my soul is evidence that we can heal, we are healing, we will continue to do so

my soul has evidence that can and will be used in the service of truth and witnessing and healing

my soul carries evidence for the truth tellers to come

my soul has evidence for future archivists to know how much we fought for justice

my soul is a reflection and whispers of unborn legacies yearning for us to make the way

 

my soul has evidence that stars are using right now

my soul looks back and does not wonder but knows what it knows

my soul lives to love you

my soul has evidence for every dream you’ll ever have