Revolutionary Hope

Tuesday, June 7, 2022

Makeba “KEEBS” Rainey – Cover Art for Penguin Classics: The Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde

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INVOCATION

Come closer, Spirit. Let us see you. 

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CLOUD OF WITNESS

In 1984 Essence Magazine article called Revolutionary Hope: A Conversation Between James Baldwin and Audre Lorde, the two Black queer icons spoke about the intersectionality of hope. Lorde showed Baldwin hope from her queer, Black, female perspective and Baldwin gave space for her experience. 

BALDWIN: Du Bois believed in the American dream. So did Martin. So did Malcolm. So do I. So do you. That’s why we’re sitting here.

LORDE: I don’t, honey. I’m sorry, I just can’t let that go past. Deep, deep, deep down I know that dream was never mine. And I wept and I cried and I fought and I stormed, but I just knew it. I was Black. I was female. And I was out – out – by any construct wherever the power lay. So if I had to claw myself insane, if I lived I was going to have to do it alone. Nobody was dreaming about me. Nobody was even studying me except as something to wipe out.

BALDWIN: You are saying you do not exist in the American dream except as a nightmare.

LORDE: That’s right. And I knew it every time I opened Jet, too. I knew that every time I opened a Kotex box. I knew that every time I went to school. I knew that every time I opened a prayer book. I knew it, I just knew it….

BALDWIN: I’m not even disagreeing – but if you put the argument in that way, you see, a man has a certain story to tell, too, just because he is a man…

LORDE: Yes, yes, and it’s vital that I be alive and able to listen to it.

BALDWIN: Yes. Because we are the only hope we have. A family quarrel is one thing; a public quarrel is another. And you and I, you know – in the kitchen, with the kids, with each other or in bed – we have a lot to deal with, with each other, but we’ve got to know what we’re dealing with. And there is no way around it. There is no way around it. I’m a man. I am not a woman.

This is a great reminder that revolutionary hope is practiced every time we make room for each other’s experiences.

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LITANY OF SURVIVAL 

By Audre Lorde

For those of us who live at the shoreline
standing upon the constant edges of decision
crucial and alone
for those of us who cannot indulge
the passing dreams of choice
who love in doorways coming and going
in the hours between dawns
looking inward and outward
at once before and after
seeking a now that can breed
futures
like bread in our children’s mouths
so their dreams will not reflect
the death of ours;

For those of us
who were imprinted with fear
like a faint line in the center of our foreheads
learning to be afraid with our mother’s milk
for by this weapon
this illusion of some safety to be found
the heavy-footed hoped to silence us
For all of us
this instant and this triumph
We were never meant to survive.

And when the sun rises we are afraid
it might not remain
when the sun sets we are afraid
it might not rise in the morning
when our stomachs are full we are afraid
of indigestion
when our stomachs are empty we are afraid
we may never eat again
when we are loved we are afraid
love will vanish
when we are alone we are afraid
love will never return
and when we speak we are afraid
our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid

So it is better to speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive.

BENEDICTION

from Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower

Create no images of God. Accept the images that God has provided. 

They are everywhere, in everything.

God is Change— Seed to tree, tree to forest;
Rain to river, river to sea;
Grubs to bees, bees to swarm.
From one, many; from many, one;
Forever uniting, growing, dissolving— forever Changing.

The universe is God’s self-portrait.