Of Generators and Survival: Listening for Audre Lorde When the Power's Out 

Alexis Pauline Gumbsis a queer black troublemaker, a black feminist love evangelist, a prayer poet priestess and has a PhD in English, African and African-American Studies, and Women and Gender Studies from Duke University.  Alexis was the first scholar to research the Audre Lorde Papers at Spelman College, the June Jordan Papers at Harvard University, and the Lucille Clifton Papers at Emory University.  She has also researched in the archival papers of Toni Morrison, Toni Cade Bambara, Fannie Lou Hamer and many more.Alexis is the author ofM Archive: After the End of the World (Duke Press, 2018),Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity(Duke University Press, 2016) and the co-editor ofRevolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines(PM Press, 2016) andhas also published widely on Caribbean Women’s Literature with a special interest in Dionne Brand. Her scholarly work is published inObsidian, Symbiosis, Macomere, The Routledge Companion to Anglophone Literature, SIGNS, Feminist Collections, The Black Imagination, Mothering and Hip Hop Culture, The Business of Black Powerand more.Alexis is the author of an acclaimed collection of poems101 Things That Are Not True About the Most Famous Black Women Aliveand poetic work published inKweli,Vinyl, Backbone, Everyday Genius, Turning Wheel, UNFold, Makeshiftand more.Alexis is the founder of Brilliance Remastered, a service to help visionary underrepresented graduate students stay connected to purpose, passion, and community, co-founder of the Mobile Homecoming Project, a national experiential archive amplifying generations of Black LGBTQ Brilliance, and the community school Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind.

Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Much of Puerto Rico had still not recovered from the devastation of Hurricane Maria when the recent earthquakes again destroyed homes, lives and left the island in the dark.  Just a few month's ago pre-emptive power outtages in response to the fires in California did not take into account the lives of disabled community members who need electricity to survive.  In this time of volatile earth movements, climate changes and political and corporate lack of accountability disempowerment is not a political metaphor, it is a daily reality that threatens, changes, and clarifies the terms of survival, especially for the communities with the least political power. 
In times like this, I am once again turning to the Lorde.  In 1989 when Audre Lorde was surviving the devastation of Hurricane Hugo in St. Croix and the compounding harm of the US government and the gas corporations colonial predation, she wrote us a letter, begging us to learn the lessons of that natural and social disaster and warning us that if we did not, it would be repeated.  At this point, the repetition of these lessons has happened so many times that it's not even poetic anymore.
This online writing workshop builds on my research on Audre Lorde's theories of survival and practices of getting into right relationships with land (especially in the Caribbean) and community (especially majority Black communities around the planet) and offers us a space to reflect on power, what it is, how it moves, what it is doing in our lives.  How can we use the contingency of electric power itself in this digital space to connect to, transition to and reprioritize other forms other forms of live-saving power?
Of course the irony is that in order to attend a digital writing workshop some sort of battery or electric power via phone or computer is necessary.  So unlike my other online workshops this course will be recorded so that people living in Puerto Rico who register can participate on their own time.   However to respect the privacy of students and intergrity of the class the recording will only be shared with registered participants with a request that they do not share beyond the group without permission.  
Folks living in Puerto Rico have the option to sign up for free (email brillianceremastered@gmail.com) and a portion of proceeds will go to the rapid response fund for Puerto Rican communities created after Hurricane Maria.  You can also donate directly at <A HREF="https://www.mariafund.org/earthquakeresponse" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.mariafund.org/earthquakeresponse</A>
 
*photo of Audre Lorde in St. Croix by Dagmar Schulz

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Of Generators and Survival: Listening for Audre Lorde When the Power's Out

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Of Generators and Survival: Listening for Audre Lorde When the Power's Out

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