(Lex’s wardrobe provided by Ammoliscious and sister-comrade Leah Burke)

I LOVE THE SCHOOL OF OUR LORDE WEBINARS!!!!!!

After reading and discussing Audre Lorde’s “Poetry is Not a Luxury”  the participants in the School of Our Lorde Poetry Webinar collaboratively created these two poems about what poetry IS and what it IS NOT!!!!   Much love to Monchel, Chantal, Rosa and Leana for being badass cyber cypher warriors!!!!

not

poetry is not a mask

poetry is not a commercial

poetry is not homogeneous

poetry is not an excuse

poetry is not perverse

poetry is not linear

poetry is not just for white guys with nothing better to do

poetry is not canonized

not a classroom unit

poetry is not a bunch/of line breaks/in random/places

not a grade

poetry is not taught or learned–it’s the language we were born with

not death without a birth

poetry is not inhibited

poetry is not brought to you by hallmark

a competition

poetry [will] not be televised

not a “10″

poetry is not about meter

poetry is not an accessory in a psuedo-revolutionary lifestyle

poetry is not oppressive

poetry is not convenient

poetry is not always easy

poetry is not boxable

not a bindi on a dreadlocked white girl’s forehead at a powwow

poetry is not the destination — it is the journey

poetry is not standard english

poetry is not patchouli

is

poetry is my son’s smile

my fingers walking across his belly and squirming back

poetry is a heartbeat

yes

poetry is what i say to my reflection when i think no one is listening

poetry is a place to live

poetry is goosebumps!

poetry is breath

poetry is prayer

poetry is a breath of fresh air

poetry is italian ice on a 90-degree day

lol

poetry is your hand in mine

poetry is laughing out loud

hee!

poetry is an ecosystem

YES

poetry is painful but not in vain

poetry is a lifeline

poetry is family

poetry is an open heart

poetry is a safe space

poetry is knowing when you’ve met The One (or The Ones)

poetry is an exorcism

poetry is jabberwocky

poetry is knowing when you’ve met yourself

poetry is a new spelling of my name and everything else

poetry is the sound of sitting still

the sounds of getting up

poetry is raw

sdrawkcab si yrteop

poetry is forwards

poetry is a yes followed by an oh yes!

poetry is circular

poetry is everpresent

poetry is old

is silent when we’re not listening, but still persistently there

poetry is about to happen

poetry is our only hope

poetry is wanted and feared

poetry is your skin knitting itself back together

poetry is omnipresent

poetry is an open door

this language is beautiful

poetry is love

poetry is stinky funky lust

poetry is knowing when to stop

and start again

poetry is what makes you say “aww” when you see a little kid

poetry is putting into words what had no words before

poetry is putting into words what never existed before

poetry is what my heart is saying to my hand

poetry is constantly naming what is so it doesn’t get lost

poetry is mothering myself

poetry is how my mom calls my cell phone whenever i say (or type) the word “mother”

poetry is calling for my attention

from For SHE So Loved the World: The Lorde Within

I don’t know if Audre used to call those Lesbian party lines back in the day. My hunch is that probably not so much, because she did a lot of her work in the time of a telephone monopoly, when long-distance service was really expensive and I can tell you…plenty of telephone disconnection services show up in the archived papers of Black feminist writers. Considering the miracles that Lorde participated in with sister-comrades, Pat Parker, Barbara Smith, Cheryl Clarke, Honor Moore while not living in the same state, or on the same coast or in the same country, through snail mail letters, it blows my mind to imagine what they might have done via skype!

At the same time…I’m grateful that some of those profound, world shifting, publication creating, discourse transforming conversations had to happen in letters, sometimes literally carbon-copied (the original “cc”) to multiple people. Because as a scholar, retro-stalker and Black feminist devotee having those letters available to read and reread means everything. Provides a trail and a trace. How are we documenting our brilliance now?

At any rate I think Audre would be tripping with glee at even the glitch-filled experience that those of us in the School of Our Lorde publishing webinar had in an audio-visual enabled internet chat room in her name! Blowing each other kisses from Durham, to Cairo, to New York City to the Rio Grande Valley, to New Hampshire, Fayetteville, to DC to Minnesota, to California, to Albany…you get the idea. I wonder if the energy of those kisses and the speed and delight with which they are received is having an internet butterfly effect, creating a storm of warrior wisdom and transformation, fanning the flames of our hearts and the ferocity of our words.

All I know is that I wake up everyday looking for another way to commune with the brilliant, complicated, warrior energy that I call Audre Lorde. And these past three weeks in the webinar I have been blessed to experience the playfulness, wisdom, hopeful spirit, critical insight, flirtatious naughtiness, and unblinkawayable beauty of Audre in the faces and typing fingers of all of the participants in the webinar. I am so grateful for this experience and I’m looking forward to how the poetry webinar (Mondays at 7:30 EDT starting June 2 at www.tinychat.com/schoolofourlorde) will print you further on my heart. (email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com for the readings for the next webinar!)

In the hands of the many,

Lex

This excerpt is from a section of my first chapter which is entitled “Survival: An Intervention into Meaning” this section of the chapter looks at poems by Audre Lorde that use survival as key terms (A Litany for Survival, The Brown Menace, On My Way Out I Passed Over You and the Verazzano Bridge, and Prologue) and has a major loving shout out to the reinvocations of A Litany for Survival by the UBUNTU family and the Be Bold Be Red crew!

Enjoy!!!

Audre Lorde and the Poetics of Survival Excerpt

direct link:

http://brokenbeautiful.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/audre-lorde-and-the-poetics-of-survival-excerpt.pdf

love,

lex

My godmother Aunt Andie (Andria Hall) died from breast cancer a little over a year and a month ago today. To honor Aunt Andie and Audre Lorde, and June Jordan, and my stepsister Kyla’s mom Diane and Mama Nayo Barbara Watkins and so many more beautiful ancestors who are so powerfully with us, my mom, my Aunti Akosua and the brilliant and inspiring Mary Anne Adams who is a breast cancer survivor collaborated on this podcast.  May it be healing for you and may it be an invitation to the energy of all of your ancestors to fill your heart and kiss your face.

love always,

lex

http://brokenbeautiful.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/audre-lorde-survival-podcast.mp3

you can also find the recent podcast on itunes if you search “brokenbeautiful press”

<3<3<3<3<3

Because it takes a whole month to prepare for the day of the dead. Because some of us have to create eclectic Sunday morning rituals to hear our own truth. Because I want you to have this for when you need it. This podcast is based on letters from my black feminist ancestors. For more about the “In Your Hands” project check out www.motherourselves.wordpress.com.

I hope this piece grounds you and reminds you where you are from. You can save it for Sunday or you can listen right now.

Much love,

Lex

in your hands podcast

p.s.

You can also see video of the In Your Hands Project at Beloved the Mangos with Chili Day of the Dead celebration on November 7th in the San Francisco Bay Area and participate in an installation at the conference of Ford Fellows in Newport Beach California this coming weekend!