Looking Forward

Join us next week!

Over the last week, I've talked a lot, read a lot, watched a little, written, waded into the cesspool of comment sections, listened, raged, analyzed, and consoled. I think that about covers it. What have you been up to?

I suspect we've all been doing some combination of the above in the deep stages of processing the election results and feeling fear, doubt, anger, angst, and determination. 

In the uncertainty of what's to come, we are looking forward to next week's Zoom meeting as a space to commune and perhaps kvetch in this small but beautiful community we've been building with a group of cool, curious souls. I am proud of us, everyone who has been exploring how the written word has amplified abolitionist dreams throughout history to the present day.

“Without community there is no liberation”

– Audre Lorde

So, even if you haven't finished reading (or even started) A Map to the Door of No Return by Dionne Brand, we want to ensure you know the invitation is wide open to share space next week. We'll take time to explore some threads from the book in the context of this moment.

And we'll also invite folks to share one thing we're looking forward to and one we're grateful for. A liberatory practice and praxis include participating today in the essential components of the abolitionist world we are imagining. In that world, joy and rest will be a given. For now, we must be intentional about claiming time to rest and experience the joy that will be abundant in our future.

“You were not just born to center your entire existence on work and labor. You were born to heal, to grow, to be of service to yourself and community, to practice, to experiment, to create, to have space, to dream, and to connect.”

– Tricia Hersey, Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto

We were not made to toil only. Not in service to racial capitalism, nor our liberation struggles.

We hope to see you next week, and in the meantime, we encourage you to take advantage of this incredibly generous offering from Haymarket Books: Ten Free ebooks for Getting Free.

Among the selections are two of the books we've read and learned so much from in this group: Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis and Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba.  So yes, we highly recommend!

Take good care, and we'll see you on Zoom next week!