Dear Radically Connected Friends ~
Just one month ago I was hunkered down, writing in my little attic office hovel, wrapped in fleece, feeling like this was going to be it for the long haul. And now I find myself thinking about bike trails and being sort of stunned when I open the porch door and a blast of icy air doesn’t greet me. Feels like it happened overnight…just like it did when one day I didn’t need reader glasses and then, boom! I did. Time is weird. I hope you’re feeling all of the weirdness too and just going with its flow.
This newsletter is all about voices. It’s actually probably more about listening. Listening to the voices that come our way that offer us new perspective and truth and allow us to witness and feel others’ humanity. Allowing humanity. If we can do that – quiet ourselves for a moment to allow others their voice and humanity – we, by default, expand our own.
So a few of the many voices that have been moving me lately are shared below. Please don’t let the many links overwhelm you. Rather, just take a deep breath or two, scroll along, and click on a couple or a few that call you to explore them more deeply; flag a couple to come back to another time. Everything isn’t for everyone, but trust that there’s something here for you and allow it to speak up.
Take care,
Ellen
Time Sensitive!
Exhibit up through March 21, 2021
You guys, this is such a beautiful, profound, important exhibition. Last summer we followed DJ E-Clyps (Blacklight Media) and his breathtaking, honest photographs during the George Floyd and BLM protests via his Instagram. And then he put all of those photos into a book that I bought because I wanted to feel those images and listen to those voices up close like an old-fashioned photo album that I could flip through over and over. And now…NOW…30 of those images are framed and on the walls of Artlink, enlarged, at eye level, quite literally pulsing with aliveness. If you live in or near Fort Wayne, please don your mask and wander through and let them speak to you. Listen. Remember the truth of last summer.
The exhibition is free. Artlink accepts donations. And 10% of any art sales are donated to the Family & Friends Fund for Southeast Fort Wayne.
Hurry! Exhibit ends March 21st ~ Artlink is open Thursday – Sunday
VOICES: Juried Online Exhibition
Wait! There’s more!
There’s also an online component to the VOICES exhibition, so no need to be in the area to enjoy this part. The submissions for this exhibit were open to ‘international BIPOC artists who focus upon the current social crises and/or amplify Black voices.’ Six artists & 16 pieces were selected to be in the show. As you view, please feel free to go down the rabbit hole of each artist’s link. Their stories and images beyond the pieces they have in the Artlink show are yet more opportunities to be still and listen. Witness humanity.
The show was juried by DJ E-Clyps (see VOICES above) and Lyndy Bazile. Lyndy is the brilliance behind Afroplump. To me her artwork is the sacred feminine embodied – beautiful female figures, strong, elegant in their wholeness. Please get to know her via: her Etsy shop, her Facebook page, her first mural, an article written about her.
ChangeMakers Fort Wayne
More than a protest group
Two women, Daylana ‘Daisy’ Saunders and Alisha Rauch, formed the ChangeMakers Fort Wayne group last summer during the George Floyd and BLM protests, helping to guide those protests and bring folks together. And they’re still going. Our Fort Wayne political leaders created the Fort Wayne’s Commission on Police Reform and Racial Justice after the protests in an effort to address some issues. As is often the case, creating a commission and having it actually follow through with its intention in a way that heals and truly shifts things are two different things. This commission is no exception. Thankfully, the ChangeMakers are there to ensure that our political leaders are held accountable and are transparent in their actions.
“ChangeMakers Fort Wayne is a group of Community members, Social and Racial justice activists who are committed to amplifying and uplifting the voices and concerns of the Black community as we work to knock down the barriers that hold us back.”
Fort Wayne Ink Spot just featured them in an informative article. I love how they speak about ‘situations’ and ‘systems’ – distinguishing between the two in their work (our work) and how addressing both are critical in this movement.
To connect with them, you can email ChangeMakersFW@gmail.com so they’ll add you to their email list or you can follow them on Facebook.
Their Instagram account is a great way to see the multiple ways to support their work with a donation – $2 Tuesdays or $5 Fridays!
Speaking of Fort Wayne Ink Spot… it’s a black-owned newspaper that tells local, regional and national stories about the BIPOC community. I receive a hard copy delivered to my home every other week and truly value its voice. You can get a subscription to support their voice and/or follow them on social media.
Hold on, please.
Remind me again what Black Lives Matter is?
It feels important that we understand the formation of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. It’s something we say with ease these days (I’ve referenced it twice in this newsletter thus far), but it’s only been around since 2013-2014. Reminding ourselves of the why and how it began is critical so we can truly be effective supporters of it.
Three Black women – Opal Tometi, Alicia Garza and Patrice Cullors – co-founded #BlackLivesMatter after the 2013 acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer, George Zimmerman. A hashtag born out of deep sadness and anger and frustration from women who live, see and understand the truth + global grassroots energy and organizing = ‘an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. It is an affirmation of Black folks’ humanity, our contributions to this society, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression.’
That BLM links above give you an overview. I gently-but-firmly nudge you to the compelling and profound A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement by Alicia Garza to hear and feel a deeper narrative. When I read this, I felt the multiple, radical layers as well as the intentionality of it all and I became a more engaged supporter.
More BLM origins…
A movie can also help us hear and feel
If you haven’t seen it yet, Whose Streets? is a movie that documents another aspect of the formation of the BLM movement and features the activists and leaders who led the protests following the Michael Brown killing in Ferguson in 2014. Relevant, necessary learning, emotional, a powerful story, realness. Available on Netflix as of this writing.
Austin Channing Brown & Rachel Ricketts
Sometimes hearing the truth is tough ~ let’s do it anyway
OK, so there’s a new book coming out by Robin D’Angelo, the author of the 2018 book White Fragility. Robin is white. And some prominent voices in the Black community are frustrated with this new release as well as the framework of fragility she outlined previously. Just a couple of reasons for this frustration: she speaks alone and does not bring any Black voices with her in her writing or speaking which is problematic because those Black voices are clear and powerful and know the truths of whiteness intricately and have been telling us this same info for decades AND because she is deeply mired in and profiting off (significantly) the system she seemingly works to dismantle while Black authors and activists are rarely compensated for their emotional labor & work. A conflict of interest, as they say.
Austin Channing Brown, author of I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, had a real conversation on Instagram live with Rachel Ricketts, author of Do Better: Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing From White Supremacy.
The interview is nearly an hour but it is one well spent. I suggest that you take a couple of deep breaths, open your heart and mind, have a notebook ready, and be willing to suspend the knee-jerk reactions we white folks often have when faced directly with the truths of our whiteness. These are two of the brilliant clear voices we need to hear.
Also feel free to snoop around each of their websites. They offer classes, newsletters, podcasts, social media platforms, etc. that provide several options to hear their voices.
A couple of other movies to consider
featuring a couple of other powerful voices to open to
Are you more of a movie person than books, articles, podcasts or social media? Cool. These two movies felt right to share with you. A chance to hear a newer and an older voice. Both flicks are on Netflix as of this writing and probably elsewhere (your local library??)
Radha Blank writes, directs and stars in her movie, The Forty-Year-Old Version. So, like, seriously, HER voice. It’s beautifully filmed, funny, serious, powerful, poignant, great music (her own and others) on and on and on. Joel and I give it two thumbs up.
~ and ~
James Baldwin was a prolific, profound, honest, Black, American author. (Note: I’ve written that sentence about eight times now and cannot find the right words to describe him…the list is endless.) Anyway, he wrote lots of books, plays and essays during his life, but he died before he finished one he titled, Remember This House. But it had a lot of stuff we needed to hear in it, so a visionary filmmaker used Baldwin’s written words from the manuscript plus some interviews to create the film, I Am Not Your Negro. So every word in it is solely his voice. And I’m telling you it’s powerful. Again, we give it two thumbs up…obvs…and so does everyone else. Honestly this one should be required viewing and listening.
Enough? OK, enough. xo
