Last month I had the honor of facilitating the online intensive Begin: Seven Possible Futures for Black Feminist Artists and what do you know? We were all being reborn. Was it the demand of the Summer Solstice? Was it the moon in Cancer? Was it Octavia Butler’s birthday? Maybe it was all of that. Or maybe that’s just the nature of showing up. We are all at the end of something important, and at the beginning of something that makes us vulnerable. What a joy and a resource to support each other in that. During the intensive, I revealed that I am at the beginning of a relationship to my creative practice that requires MUCH more trust. I am at the end of series of patterns that have led to me to believe that I had to make everything happen by myself. Some of us were at the ends and beginnings of relationships, new career paths, transformed relationships to community, embodiments of love. What about you?
We know this Summer is transformative for you because you have reached the end of something that used to seem to work just fine and you are opening yourself up to something possible, based in your beliefs, that may also be challenging and scary. So today, we offer the poem that we created to guide ourselves through our process. And if you want to join us for this month’s online intensive: Become Turquoise: On Intergenerational Accountability, there are still some spots left. The intensive is July 24-25 3-6pm eastern. Sign up here by Friday (July 21st).
Enjoy the poem. It works best out loud.
Love,
Sista Docta Lex
“this is the dark water of renewal. offering only one message: begin.”-
“Seven Possible Futures for the Black Feminist Artist” by Alexis Pauline Gumbs in Obsidian
begin
by the participants in Begin: Seven Possible Futures for the Black Feminist Artist
prayers unlocked and loaded
begin
early morning everything
begin
shining alchemical desires
begin
connection to the earth, connection to the sun
begin
knowing happens in the dark
begin
black body radiance all love all directions
begin
harvesting goodness from the shadows
begin
harnessing ancestral magic
begin
unhesitant confident musings
begin
root work, root chakra, root vegetables
begin
reciprocal relationship with my creative self
begin
purple crown energy clearing
begin
love as lifeforce simply sustained
begin
green heart chakra lights
begin
peacefully profound precise presence
begin
quenching confidence. radiant being
begin
being breathing becoming
begin