“Loves music. Loves dance. Loves the moon. Loves the Spirit. Loves love and food and roundness. Loves struggle. Loves the Folk. Loves herself. Regardless.” –Alice Walker (From the definition of Womanism)
Last night during the Brilliance Remastered online intensive Dig: Womanist Archeologies we dug more into the meaning and impact of womanism as a poetic term and a sensual possibility. We engaged the moves in Alice Walker’s definition of womanism from adult discipline of girl-children to transformative mother/daughter conversation/provocation mode. And we focused on what it really takes to love ourselves and the folk regardless. We made long luscious lists about our love and pondered about the relationship between all that love and those mountains of work. We reveled in the abundance of our love and its specificity. And then we thought about what David Scott says about the “the archeology of black memory” and what is disappeared and obscured. And what about us? What about the dirt we don’t own up to, to preserve the sense of self we have right now? So we asked ourselves again what loving ourselves “regardless” meant. Regardless of what? And we named all those things that come up for us as obstacles to loving ourselves, and all that stuff in the dirt that disguises itself as self-love but is really just personalized capitalist aspiration and we dug it up and declared our love more powerful. And then we asked ourselves what loving the Folk “regardless” meant. And who are the Folk anyway? And we looked at what comes up between us and our Folk, and even the people who would not identify as our Folk and even the Folk who would not claim us as their Folk and we declared that love IS love regardless. And we celebrated the power of love to be enough it itself. We celebrated the power of love to have infinite forms and not to have to meaning liking and being around all the Folk at all times. We celebrated the enduring presence of love REGARDLESS of where we are on our journey and where are Folk are on their journey too. And love forgave us for all that hidden regard we had been giving to the not-love outgrowths of systemic oppression and reminded us that she has always been here regardless. Dirty and divine.
With the clearing, composting and transformation we experienced we decided to name what we are growing, what we desire, what we are searching for right now, as fecund and creative and in plain sight and subversive as the garden. Enjoy!
And again if you want to join us in the future…here is the email list! http://eepurl.com/bsb6rj
Love,
Sista Docta Lex
searching: possession and possibility
by the participants in Dig: Womanist Archeologies
after Alice Walker’s “Searching for Our Mothers’ Gardens”
searching for our ancestors’ truth
searching for our ancestors’ voices
searching for our grandmothers’ drive
searching for our grandmothers’ grit
searching for our mama’s resilience
searching for our mother’s wisdoms
searching for our fathers’ words written on our hearts
searching for our brothers’ love
searching for our sisters’ hands
searching for our sisters’ communion
searching for our sisters themselves
searching for our mentors’ archives
searching for our teachers’ wisdom
searching for our loved ones’ messages
searching for our lovers’ hearts
searching for our folks’ forgiveness
searching for understanding of the complexity of loving others
searching for our own magic
searching for our womanish knowing
searching for our full moon’s illumination
searching for our memory’s secrets
searching for our longing’s songs
searching for our destiny’s signposts
searching for our spirit’s nourishment
searching for our intuition’s brilliance
searching for our ability to self-care ourselves
searching for our childselves’ playfulness
searching for our moments of remembering to breathe
searching for our own fire
searching for our flesh’s sanctuary
searching for our hearts desires
searching for our dirt’s divinity
searching for our spirit’s hope
searching for our oldest knowing
searching for our deepest healing
searching for our highest good
searching for our guides’ trust in the universe
searching for our belief in our own power
searching for our place among the stars
searching for our plot of ground to dig up and be reborn
searching for our silver lining
searching for our purpose’s birth
searching for our life’s callings
searching for our moment’s tools
searching for our city’s redemption
searching for our community’s home
searching for our society’s conscience
searching for our love’s calligraphy
searching for our time’s anthem
searching for our society’s turning point
searching for our waiting portals
searching for our movement’s breakthrough
searching for our revolution’s dances
searching for our community’s understanding
searching for our community’s blessing
searching for our communal healing
searching for our blackness’s blessings
searching for our leaderless leap
searching for our mothers’ smiles
searching for our daughters’ futures
searching for our children’s freedom
searching for our freedom’s names