It is a dance comprised by a group of people holding hands. A rushing towards, a leaning down inspiring a solar smile from the girl with the computer in her hands. It grows toxic if I keep it around after it has already offered its gift. And I practice surrendering to that inarticulate memory. “Sista Docta” Alexis Pauline Gumbs is well-versed in the intersections of harm. Soft spot of memory. If what is within is less dense than what surrounds me, I can float. who radiate across me. who protect by me. called father        float       foundation. And openness is a form of strength. What I see in my face is the innocence of not knowing how the pendulum swings and the joy of my father’s silliness. What faces do we make to brace for the brightness of sun, the razor sharp wind of sand. Alexis Pauline Gumbs’ transportative poetry calls attention to dreams, families, sustenance and persistence. If I can really be with the dark parts of myself, the underground, the shadowed aspects of my life and my journey I will learn so much more, love myself deeper, rest enough to grow in invisible ways. A significant percentage of the food I eat is grown by people who I am growing with spiritually and intellectually in this lifetime. Skies full. Our superpower is presence, the presence of multitudes in our every breath. Right now, I am clear that there were many times in his life, and especially as he faced death, when he thought about what structures would support his children after he was not longer embodied on earth. Lionheart, you got here right on time to teach me what all this strength is for. [1] The name of a Taino dance of healing that continues in Cuban spiritismo communities to this day as the Cordon. How it burns to become bright on behalf of those who have left us here to hold their light while we can. Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs identifies herself in many ways. growing hot and irresistible I don’t know exactly why my mom decided to take a series of portraits of me and my dad in the dark near these trees during our first joint birthday party, I’ll ask. Am I looking out of the frame into this barely imaginable future? Ignore the currents and chase currency. To be strong enough to open my heart to you. Joy on the other hand can’t wait. Alexis Pauline Gumbs reads her poem, "Mixed Use." It is the support of my loved ones. The part mama combed between my afro-puffs, portal where dreams come to earth. And wow i just want to extend so many thank yous for sharing these powerful thoughts dreams intentions realities words, for the heart and energy that went into laying them out, and for opening up the process to many different kinds of community. Alexis Pauline Gumbs describes herself as a queer Black troublemaker, Black feminist love evangelist, educator, poet, and time-traveler. how would our whole selves shift? Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a queer Black feminist love evangelist who lives in Durham, North Carolina. The coming fall. What I mean to say is I am exactly where I need to be. We get close enough to receive light, to offer light. Between the corporate credit computer crash My birthday (in June) is the day after my father’s and for many years we had joint birthday parties. Share. At the peak of the Leonids meteor shower. It has taken me until right now to realize what the Care Bears were teaching me this whole time. Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a poet, independent scholar, and activist. PMS during #negrosolstice. And what I am learning is supported by my study of trees and butterflies and my reclaimed practice of play. Alexis Pauline Gumbs: “I am a queer black troublemaker and a black feminist love evangelist in Durham, North Carolina. What can we keep? And every day I am held and grateful. She is the author of Spill and M Archive, both also published by Duke University Press. This is the Stardust and Salt Daily Creative Practice Intensive. Like a waterfall, breaking even through stone, joy comes through. So many of us feel far away from love and with no quick hope of traveling nearer during this season. Which means this year, multitudes have the opportunity to relive not simply the mythology of the (historically inaccurate) “first thanksgiving” but also the consequences. To beam rainbows of love upon you like the care bears do. What would it take to see the planet beyond our own mythology of need? Maybe it is. This is also your annual reminder that in 1985 Audre Lorde wrote “I’m going to go out like a f**king meteor” in her journal in response to a liver cancer diagnosis. then vehicles that transport gas But what I have is my face. And is it not?”. I listened to “Let it Go pt.2” by the Beautiful Chorus this morning and allowed their ocean of repetition to unclench me. I certainly look like I don’t know what is going on. who rise under me. God? But that feeling of longing and reaching, of loving and becoming, I wonder if even this whole universe is but an index for that uncontainable energy. But you can see it in the picture, the way joy spreads, the way our connection to each other’s joy teaches us that joy, like any energy, is not individually held but already shared. — Image: detail from “Message received. must crack
be The portal of every pore cleared. What I see in the photograph is comfort and familiarity. We make time into units of productivity. who sing as me. I love you. This is my prayer. Wondering if you are even worthy of support? wake tongue Glad you enjoy them, Karma Tenzing! It’s an opening. I don’t know if you are like me, but sometimes I feel shy about celebrating who I am, especially in times where so much is hard. 

After Audre Lorde’s “Thanks to Jesse Jackson”, say it like bridge Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a poet, independent scholar, and activist. She studied and got her PhD from Duke University in English, African-American Studies, and Women and Gender Studies. In the afternoon you will dive deeper with excerpts from her forthcoming Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons for Marine Mammals. like a tread in the sloop And I know he would have very much wanted to do that. Twitter Feed. She is widely published in the fields of … "More about them: They made the radical and brave decision to publish writings only by … The through line, the grounding place to return to the present reality, the passage way for being. who dance through me. What a gift that all this joy will not be contained to my one life here on earth. i’m so glad the retreat was/is so filling, and you continue on. How supportive the ocean actually is to my life. a veggie fuel rocket engine Time is not as much of an intervention as I thought it was in the infinity of love. almost out of gas, tires pattern bald https://www.akpress.org/undrowned.html#pubday #praisethelorde. Table of Contents Back to Top Path through the tangled places. “What if food was to daily practice what breath is to meditation? Binary star systems orbit each other, offer light to each other and then something happens. With open pores all over the surface of your life. The sacred unseen. This picture reminds me to remember that what supports and protects me is not actually the clarity of my vision. May our words, fresh with presence align our spirits and feed the moment. Not to clothe in armor. your mouth as if you’re saying something funny, behind you concrete wall and splitting trees, you left me on the ground      gone          to chill in the sky, cause swingsets swing us only but so high, the laughing man will wither         fade away, the smiling girl will cry and say not yet, the laughing man will do his best to stay, the curve of life is sure the swing is set. Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a poet, activist, and educator based in Durham, North Carolina. I remember before everything I know now. The prayer of your perfect … Her work in this lifetime is to facilitate infinite, unstoppable ancestral love in practice. It is that cleansing. Rare opportunities where loved ones have off of work and time travel to the context of favorite foods tinged with disbelief, dressed in a lie we don’t believe in but still use and live inside of in the supposed absence of a better story. At Guernica, Lisa Factora-Borchers interviews Alexis Pauline Gumbs about her latest collection of poetry, Dub: Finding Ceremony (Duke University Press). While with every new accomplishment I feel the longing for his witness, the sound of his voice in celebration, the hug, the words of pride and affirmation, I am grateful for the undeniable presence of his energy with me and in the world through those same moments. Her doctors gave her 6 months. And then there are my mother’s photographs, my face close to my father’s face and both of us nearsighted. Turn to her when you long to be reminded of how connected and resilient we all are. Mass death. Share. Each of the poems below is dedicated to someone who has tangibly supported my work to study with black feminist elders and to take sacred journeys to places of spiritual significance in the history and legacy of black feminist brilliance. This salt-water writing feels like fire coming through. First the banks Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a Queer Black Troublemaker and Black Feminist Love Evangelist and an aspirational cousin to all sentient beings. To receive love from every direction, in every form. Something bright happens. Now sing. This year the time travel will not be visiting a childhood neighborhood or eating familiar foods inconsistent with my current dietary practices. The concluding volume in a poetic trilogy, Alexis Pauline Gumbs's Dub: Finding Ceremony takes inspiration from theorist Sylvia Wynter, dub poetry, and ocean life to offer a catalog of possible methods for remembering, healing, listening, and living otherwise. A queer black troublemaker, a black feminist love evangelist, a prayer-poet priestess, an Afro-Caribbean grandchild, a scholar, an educator, and an author just to name a few. My every day writing practice shapes my days into vessels for generations of love. Alexis Pauline Gumbs. who open up between me . I want to affirm that my joy, my future, my success is not limited by what I can see from here. She is the author of Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity , also published by Duke University Press; coeditor of Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines; and the founder and director of Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind, an educational program based in Durham, North Carolina. But I deserve to float. That when a loved one dies, what was an earthly relationship becomes a cosmic relationship. I want you to know how much I love you. In this time when many of us are feeling the grief of not being able to share joy in person with the loved ones we have lost, or who we cannot be with because of the safety concerns brought on by a pandemic that never had to go this far and kill this many, it is important to me that we remember that joy is not limited by space or time. Over at the City Lights blog: Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs, the founder of BrokenBeautiful Press, talks about Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, founded circa 1980 by Audre Lorde, Barbara Smith, "and other Black feminists after a meeting of African American and African Caribbean women in Boston. This set of poems is inspired by Toni Morrison, June Jordan, Marlene Nourbese Philip and many more.” How your impact moves through air. She is the author of Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity and the co-editor of Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines. And the edges of the picture and the finitude of our embodiment, the fact that sun could burn us, that salt wears us away, that this is all that there is left to touch and neither my touching hands nor this well kept photo album will live forever…all of that is painful. Alexis Pauline Gumbs is an American writer, independent scholar, poet, activist and educator based in Durham, North Carolina. May everything that is not love fall away. My father passed away the October my first single-authored book came out. Thank you. My father’s joy is here with me right now because it was never only his, just like it will never be singularly mine, it always belongs to all of us. There is some good news I would love to celebrate with him. Wearing a VERY similar outfit to me in this picture and also reaching. In this poem I receive instead of resisting my father’s wish that I have all good things and grace and ease in life. But knowing that my ancestors and all the no longer embodied can only come be part of this celebration on earth if I create one, a celebration, a portal for their love to stream through for me but also beyond me to you and all of us makes me realize that the work of celebration is crucial. We keep a pact with the universe to help each other return to the source that we came from. 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