It's just a lifelong relationship because she was in relationship with something that is so core that has to do with what life is, and how life is beyond even the experience of one body that I don't think it's possible to outgrow it. Also, when I was in high school, I just identified with him so much, and the way that he believes in our people, the expansiveness of who he understood to be his people, our people is something that has been a guide for me. I feel like in this book I wrote a lot of strangeness, a lot of queer Black possibility, a lot of out-of-this-worldness, but I think that everyone who reads it will find it all familiar at the same time. Shouldnt it be a given? With our breathless global attention set to registering the various way a virus connects all life forms, I cannot think of a better time for a book that tarries with and makes ceremony with Sylvia Wynter." . Is there anyone you want to thank today, best? But we are in the borderlands, in the sense that Gloria Anzalduaa major influence on Jacqui Alexander, by the way, and on me tootalks about it. I have been writing how perfect. $grfb.init.done(function() { Durham, NC 27701 USA, Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a poet, independent scholar, and activist. Durham, NC 27701 USA. This is exactly what, because this is like, where I have gone in my hour of need. And it's just it will never be, I don't see it. Alexis also discusses the process of writing a biography on Audre Lorde, a longtime teacher and guide. A beautiful and graceful text, Dub will inspire readers to return to and to rethink Wynter's work and her place within African Diaspora studies, Caribbean studies, and Black feminist studies. Lisa B. Thompson, author of Single Black Female, "Breath is an important theme in Dub. Alexis Pauline Gumbs is the author of Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals, Dub: Finding Ceremony, M Archive: After the End of the World, and Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity, and co-editor of Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Frontlines.In 2020, she was awarded the National Humanities Center Fellowship for her book-in-progress, The Eternal Life of Audre . 1), Roll Call: Gabrielle Civil vs. Black Time or the dj vu, Roll Call: Breaking the Line: A conversation about Black visual poetics. I don't have to be shy to be sacred about my time. BOMBs foundersNew York City artists and writersdecided to publish dialogues that reflected the way practitioners spoke about their work among themselves. MBS Youre addressing serious topics, but theres always a sense of play in the bookits one way you reach into the border areasbetween history and memory, myth and clich, invocation and critique. Okay, that's my breath. Her books include Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals, Dub: Finding Ceremony, M Archive: After the End of the World, Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity, and Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines. And I feel like Audre Lordes, Audre Lorde had this relationship to stones, but she, you know, she has this place where she says, Those stones in my heart are you. So it's like, how can I? , Yeah, if there's a fan club, I'm in it, so. Abstract "We Can Learn to Mother Ourselves": The Queer Survival of Black Feminism 1968-1996 addresses the questions of mothering and survival from a queer, diasporic literary perspective, arguing that the literary practices of Black . Because I'm like, oh, I aint never related to this before, but now, that's me! And I'm overwhelmed, right? You know what, youre right. It may be through me, but it's not about me. And there was like a different book of hers that I hadn't read yet, and I was like, okay, this is just, whew, it was giving me too many feels, so Ima have to pause this book and come back and read a different one of her books. Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a writer who politicizes the archivenot the rarefied commodity within gated institutions, but the daily practice of documenting, inspiring, and engaging with Black feminist resistance. Journals fulfilled by DUP Journal Services, Permissions Information for Journal Authors, Association for Middle East Women's Studies, Labor and Working-Class History Association, African American Studies and Black Diaspora. web pages Record the pronunciation of this word in your own voice and play it to listen to how you have pronounced it. If you are interested in cultivating a sustainable and sacred daily practice sign up for our 10-day self guided Stardust and Salt process. if (hash === 'blog' && showBlogFormLink) { And I think she felt that way about community. But at the same time, when you think you gotta hold onto something (like who you think you are), let go." But I don't mean in a shady way. I feel like she really absolved me of that feeling. }); That didn't matter. And I was like, Oh, okay. I didn't know like what she was talking about, you know, I was just like, oh, that's so beautiful. On the air? Engaging through a university press can influence the academic fields that have benefited from the labor of Black feminist thinkers. And I'm not rushing, but I look forward to that space (laughs) very much so. May you study the pink of yourself. I don't understand many of the references, definitely none of the ones to Sylvia Wynter's work, with which I'm completely unfamiliar. Alexis was honored with a Whiting Award, a 2022 National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, and a National Humanities Center Fellowship. one body. Like, I can't read about the way this animal's echolocation works, this dolphin's echolocation works in the river, and not be like, at the edge of myself (laughs). I am in the midst of an evolving practice that I call Black feminist breathing that is something like a meditative process of chanting words written and spoken by the ancestors who influence my practice of Black feminism. Alexis lives in Durham, North Carolina where she nurtures, and is nurtured by, a visionary creative community while seeming towards her dream of being your favorite cousin. In this impromptu speech where she was like, this is for the goddess in all of us. Awe and she is my favorite cousin now, listen. She is such an important mentor and example for me, and as I was writing M Archive I sat with phrases from Pedagogies of Crossing as daily prompts. Its not a trilogy because its not a plot-based narrative that continues to develop through the books. Im disloyal to form. I mean, what I know is that learning about Audre Lorde and reading her collected poems, I have it sitting right here, like, The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde is never far from my hand. APG The fact that we are always crossing, even though so much of the structure of our lives is designed to convince us that we are in a stable situation and to sacrifice everything and everyone for that fictional stability. Read it aloud, feel it as you stumble your way through an apartment's tender floors. Her new novel, Sketchtasy, will be out in October. The third book of Gumbs trilogy encourages readers to think critically about the connection between the individual and the collective, pushing the audience to consider marine life as a metaphor for the black social condition. And I feel like I'm gonna have to adopt some of these things in my own writing process. Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a Queer Black Troublemaker and Black Feminist Love Evangelist and an aspirational cousin to all sentient beings. [9] Because she does not work at a university, she has participated in conversations about how intellectual work can be more path breaking and widely accessible outside of the academy. And I think that it's not to say that then okay, well, I go to like a place in my brain where there has to be some research I can do about this, though, that has been a historical theme of mine. on the Internet. It feels like where I go hang out with Audre, and Im like, okay, no, I have to go. What about you? Yeah, it's true, though. And I think that frees up the space in my brain for writing. which is to say, breathing. Tell us more about this project. So this is the Oracle one. APG Luckily for me, academia eats poison. It is a portable ceremony for you to participate in for your reasons, and for your transcendence, and for your journey. Like three pieces of art facing each other at different angles but framing something with the ways that they are positioned. And I, in the navigation of my own ocean of grief, just felt so much awe about the fact that like, there is a whole set of mammals that they are just in the saltwater. Okay, great. It actually feels like you are in conversation. Original Combahee River Collective member Chirlane McCray has been organizing for more equality, healthcare, and services as the wife of Bill de Blasio, current mayor of New York City. It was like, oh girl, you ain't going deep enough. M Archive - Alexis Pauline Gumbs 2018 Engaging with the work of M. Jacqui Alexander and Black feminist thought more generally, Alexis Pauline Gumbs's M Archive is a series of prose poems that speculatively documents the survival of Black people following a worldwide cataclysm while examining the possibilities of being that exceed the human. Though, I'm not going to disclaim that. So I wouldn't say it was shocking that she had a machine in her kitchen to polish stones that she found because she just loved like she just loved earth that much, y'all. It's not something that is to, you know, be distilled into a set of facts, or even a set of approaches. I mean, right now, I'm just really geeking out about how much of a science nerd Audre Lorde was, and writing this biography, I've had to learn so much about geology, and about like, I didn't know there was something called astrobiology. To best understand your work. And I mean, like. And she really used the vibration of the sound of her voice in a way that freed people from the smallness and the fear of their individuality. Because our ancestors navigated so intimately through change, Gumbs sets out to prove, so can we. And it's something that surprises me about myself, sometimes, you know, I'm like, Oh, but I love everyone. Those theorists are very different from each other in style and in approach, but none of these three writers have published a traditional academic monograph so farthey have written essays directed at different communities and audiences. But that would be maybe for the historians but for people in general, if it's not loving them, they could let it go. Oh, wow. My process is, I mean, I think that maybe this is my kinship with Audre Lorde, is that my process is for me. I feel like the place that I stand theoretically is framed by all three. And honestly, all of it is inspiring, and I'm still very much in awe. And I honestly didn't know because all roads lead back to Audre Lorde, I didn't know that she was like that, you know, she was like, what? It's not like, you know, I live in a world where there's never any need for me to have a shield. Like a dub riddim, Gumbs iterates on the question of names and pronouns, changing each line slightly in the movement from non-human interstices ("we let the whales name us") to self-articulation ("we found new names") (205). BOMB's Oral History Project is dedicated to collecting, documenting, and preserving the stories of distinguished visual artists of the African Diaspora. Ooh, this is gonna sound shady. Breath After. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. Please note that Crafts default cookies do not collect any personal or sensitive information. But a lot of people who arent affiliated with the university in any way are reading my books, and its very important for me to share the work in a way that makes that possible and common. }); Just in case. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a queer Caribbean poet, independent scholar, and activist. Welcome, y'all. You have to see her paintings, but this is what I wrote. I don't have to be available to be eligible for breath. Its an embattled project, for the same reason Black feminism is a project, a political legacy and a poetic imperative. Unfortunately, this device does not support voice recording, Click the record button again to finish recording. She is author of Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity and 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. Well, this is what may end up being the epigraph to the whole book. Fannie Lou Hamer definitely be one. All Rights Reserved. So I love that sentiment. Alexis Pauline Gumbs is the Recipient of the 2023 Windham-Campbell Prize in Poetry. And that's my hope. In 2020, she was awarded the National Humanities Center Fellowship for her book-in-progress, The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde: A Cosmic Biography. You know like, every stone is precious. And the next day, I'm still marine mammals and for every day for nine months, or a year and a half or until I'm like, okay, that I'm with them. The poet is known for weaving the past, present, and future togetherfrom environmental issues to the transatlantic slave tradeand offering up possibilities for caring for one another in the face of widespread harm. Alexis Pauline Gumbs vs. Chasing Awe April 25, 2023 00:00 00:00 On this week's episode, Brittany and Ajanae sit down with Alexis Pauline Gumbs; during this interview, they discuss the gift of literary inheritance, unlearning the colonial lens, and allowing curiosity and awe to guide one's research practice. Lea Hlsen, KULT, "Inspired by the work of black feminist intellectual Hortense Spillers, Gumbs collection of poems appear as a series of powerful scenarios. [11] Gumbs teaches online seminars, writes blog posts, and runs webinars through her website Brilliance Remastered. Her work in this lifetime is to facilitate infinite, unstoppable ancestral love in practice. So if we're thinking like decades from now, and folks are studying your work, which duh, they should be, right? So I'm grateful for that. There's all sorts of fields of science I never even heard of, but in order to really talk about Audre Lorde's work, and also the scope of how she understood her own cosmic existence, I have to learn so much more. I'm really reflecting. The VS podcast is a bi-weekly series where poets confront the ideas that move them. For me, the support of the NEA at this point in my career may not mean that I have finally created something recognizable. The beautiful thing is that Jacquis language not only prompted my words, but it also launched my entire day. } else { LectureNotes. 377 likes, 19 comments - Alexis Pauline Gumbs (@alexispauline) on Instagram: "My great grandfather John Gibbs was the coal and ice man in Perth Amboy New Jersey. The research, research is just a way I know of getting next to who I need to be next to, and who I just want to be influenced by, and who I know will allow me to meet aspects of myself that I really need to be with, but I, I don't know how or I'm terrified to or, you know, whatever it is, and I never know really what it is that I'm supposed to learn from that experience. By becoming a patron, you'll instantly unlock access to 32 exclusive posts. What does it mean that what are what are these patterns in my relationships? I don't think, I think I had to surrender to the process that was Undrowned before I would really be able to write about Audre Lorde in the way that I spiritually believe that she would want me to write about her. But I felt that Audre Lorde was like demanding for me to be me. Following the innovative collection Spill, Alexis Pauline Gumbs's M Archivethe second book in a planned experimental triptychis a series of poetic artifacts that speculatively documents the persistence of Black life following a worldwide cataclysm. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. That meant o." Alexis Pauline Gumbs on Instagram: "My great grandfather John Gibbs was the coal and ice man in Perth Amboy New Jersey. But again, like, I think she made me think so much more about what it means to go deeper and deeper into a subject to grow more and more intimate with it, and that the more intimacy you foster with a subject, the more curiosity you can have, like. var showBlogFormLink = document.getElementById('show_external_blog_form'); I think I could have 25 Different dissertations on Beyoncs discography. showBlogFormLink.click(); And so, I have applied to the National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in prose years and in poetry years. Maria Velazquez, Cascadia Subduction Zone, "Gumbs seamlessly moves between historic reference, inherited memories, and a series of visions or a journal of dreams-the result is bigger than text itself. You cant have us participating in communal stuff, listen. And if I'm doing essays I pretty much those happen nonlinearly in that I text myself lines of them while I'm traveling or while I'm moving around until I got a essay. And I think that's what's so exciting about your work for me is that I can't read it and be detached. And we got to talk with her about love, and about Audre Lorde, and about sustaining research practices when you've been researching for so long. So sitting in my bathtub. I was just thinking about poems about mythology aren't typically the ones that draw me in, because I think I'm already expecting this very familiar story. I actually, like we were saying, I feel loved by these Black feminist writers who have come before us. And also, that in this I mean, for Undrowned in particular, before it was Undrowned, it was just like me meditating about marine mammals. Kim Adrian, The Rumpus, "[G]round-breaking. It really was this ocean of grief. adrienne maree brown is author of Emergent Strategy and Pleasure Activism and co-editor of Octavis's Brood. And so instructive, and so important. Yes, yes. And it made so much sense because I was like, oh, right, she is like, actually, for me to exist, takes a more expansive frame than anything that people around me believe is possible. So, you know, I think the most important work Audre Lorde felt that her most important work was really studying herself. When I start in everyday practice, I just know that I need to be in that practice. I'm thinking about Gwendolyn Brooks, you know, Gwendolyn Brooks, that I have hopes for myself. And I definitely have hopes, the most important thing to me is that people feel loved by the work, that's the most important thing. Samiya Bashir, Alexis Pauline Gumbs is the Recipient of the 2023 Windham-Campbell Prize in Poetry, 905 W. Main St. Ste 18-B Like, you didnt know you were this weird, did you? And me too. . But she also really studied herself and studied her emotions and asked herself, you know, like, having read all of her journals, she's asking herself, why did I respond this way? By Laura Flanders October 10,. She is currently co-editor of Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines.Gumbs is also the Founder and Director of Eternal . Alexiss capacity for curiosity was like, so inspiring and so stunning, I think is really easy for me to sometimes feel like okay, like whew, you can move on from this or you know, all there is to know about this. Not only because she gave me that piece of advice, but because she does that in her work and life. I can't listen to Etta James while I'm writing but I'm gonna shout out Etta for that album At Last. Can you talk about the contradictions between what academic study can allow, and what it prevents? $$('.authorBlogPost .body img').each(function(img) { Okay, we would ove to close by asking you to read us one more poem. . 10 out of 10 and like that idea that if you've spent too long somewhere that you're either wasting time or that you should have been finished, you should have had it all figured out. Alexis Pauline Gumbs is cherished by a wide range of communities as an oracle and a vessel of love. That's so cute and so very like you. I'm excited for the conversations we'll be able to have once, you know, folks have been able to read it. MBS Although the book is on an academic press, it is written more like poetry. It sounds really beautiful, but I'm just marketing that theres a train. . She honors the lives and creative works of Black feminist geniuses as sacred texts for all people. I'm sure, you know, at some point, I should stop revising this biography, but it's like, it feels like my favorite room in my house. We use cookies to personalize content and ads, and to analyze our traffic and improve our service. Because I do that, you know, like I do that, in a certain way, when I'm studying people's work, but just that the primary thing be that they feel that it belongs to them, they feel like it's for them, they feel like it's for their life. So I want you all to choose a number, but I just forgot how many times how many days I've been writing about her. [CDATA[ And I say best meaning like, most effective of shutting my heart off from the universe work without my awareness, right? The concluding volume in a poetic trilogy, Alexis Pauline Gumbs's. So yeah, I love, I love hearing that. Search for other works by this author on: This content is made freely available by the publisher. Gumbss trilogy embraces the lyric beauty in the acts of naming, remembering, and finding ones way back to the source. So I would say, if one day someone's like, I'm going to write a biography of Alexis Pauline Gumbs, I would hope that they would listen to Fannie Lou Hamer [The] Songs My Mother Taught Me. Craft's default cookies do not collect IP addresses. in sharing wisdom from Sylvia Wynter and from her own ancestors, Gumbs leads us on a meditative journey through grief, loss, pain, beauty, and always love. Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a poet, independent scholar, and activist. As an educator, Alexis Pauline Gumbs walks in the legacy of black lady school teachers in post-slavery communities who offered sacred educational space to the intergenerational newly free in exchange for the random necessities of life. Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore is most recently the author of The End of San Francisco, winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Oh, okay. Be the first one to, Undrowned : Black feminist lessons from marine mammals, Advanced embedding details, examples, and help, urn:lcp:undrowned__black_feminist_lessons_from_mar_-_alexis_pauline_gumbs:epub:6b047228-f974-47ab-bb74-450c539c9879, urn:lcp:undrowned__black_feminist_lessons_from_mar_-_alexis_pauline_gumbs:lcpdf:8955975f-b6d0-4f6d-a75f-a13ad9dcc922, Terms of Service (last updated 12/31/2014). What is it about these border areas that intrigues you? If I want to be sad, If I want to be sad, I can be sad. and love is why., Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a poet, independent scholar, and activist. The skillful blend of academic theory and personal introspection results in a luxuriously blended narrative that proves essential to honoring the legacies of queer black women." Alexis Pauline Gumbs, M Archive, xi . And that was never a waste of time, or a distraction from quote, unquote, the work. Like, you could not read it, then it would be at a distance. So it's kind of like, okay, I have this familiar thing that I listen to all the time. on March 30, 2021, There are no reviews yet. They are not chronological, though they have different timescapes. Towards a world far beyond what we can imagine. Or about myself because of Audre Lorde? Been loved. Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a poet, independent scholar, and activist. I just rewatched Moonlight and Pariah on a plane. [Recites poem]. Event.observe(window, 'load', function() { if (this.auth.status === "not_authorized") { Her writing blurs the lines between past, present, and future. But its true. [1] [2] Gumbs advocates for other POC queer women and is commonly known as a "Black Feminist love evangelist." Search Sponsored by BOMB: artists in conversation, since 1981. I think that that's I think that's my hope, because otherwise, yeah, I don't otherwise I don't necessarily need to return to it. [The act of] breathing itself is so poetically rich. There has to be another story. Kathryn Nuernberger, West Branch, "In this luminous, heartbreaking work, Alexis Pauline Gumbs highlights the art of Black feminist theorizing, showing us how Black feminism lives in the hair and legs and wombs and choices of individual Black women." Great. $j("#connectPrompt").show(); The popping, start-stopping poetry of. When I was writing, I was really surprised by the scenes that I saw and where I ended up, in the future and possibly on other planets. I think that is, of all the answers, that was that was the right answer for you, best (laughs). Like, what will, is there any end to this vastness of what grief and in particular in terms of my dad passing away; what does that mean? It's just that I have to follow my awe. It may not be redistributed or altered.
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