 That's a new world coming, everything gonna be turning. This is how it's going, those that my meek and hunger Would rise that we're shuddered on the bottom Would rise and sisters to the south of us They're all a just place for it. Good afternoon. So glad to see all your lovely faces. My name is Ebony Noel Golden. I'm so glad y'all are here. Yes. It's a good day to be a black feminist. So I want to just introduce this series by saying a few words about what we are about to witness. This particular conversation, engagement, body rock is what we're calling it, is a way for us to get into some of the messiness about what it means for black women to occupy public spaces with our voices, with our words, with our songs, with our dances, with our thoughts and with the ways we challenge what it means to be a human being. So the people that are coming up to share with you and this is a sharing, this is an interactive Amen and yes mammon type of situation here at the Brooklyn Museum. They're here from multiple public domains from the pulpit to the boardroom to the digital space to the theatrical stage. The people who are coming to engage in this dialogue with you are folks that are really renowned in all of the ways that we can describe them in terms of their work and their service to community but in doing so they're also challenging what it means to be a person in those spaces, to be a person that's in the pulpit, to be the person that is on the stage. So I'm going to get out of the way, I'm actually looking forward to hearing this conversation but I just wanted to say a few words to welcome you to triple consciousness black feminism in the time of now with body rock. Hello my name is Alicia Boone John Noel on behalf of the Brooklyn Museum I'd love to welcome you and thank you so much for coming today. We're thrilled to be collaborating with MAP International Productions as well as 651 Arts and hope that you will continue to enjoy this conversation and please engage. We're also live streaming it so we'll be taking questions from the live stream, hello live stream. Please have your questions come in and we'll make sure to have you represented here. Now Lisa Yancey and Shay Wafer. Hey everybody, hello. I am Shay Wafer, Executive Director of 651 Arts and on behalf of Board and Staff of 651 thank you all for showing up. This is our second collaboration with MAP International on a humanities event. Last year we collaborated on double consciousness which was about black male identity and it was a part of the Seikusundian retrospective that happened city-wide. So we're honored to be here again to do this again and as you guys all know this is the first part of a three-part series and we hope you join us for the second two parts. And we're briefly coming up at 651 Arts. 651 Arts, we have two events. First, next Friday we're doing a work in progress of a new play by Enthozake Shange directed by Rodessa Jones and choreographed by Diane McIntyre and it's happening at the Cumble Theater. Hope you'll join us there. And then we have another event that Lisa's going to talk about. This is a long collaboration with MAP International so I'm going to turn the mic over to her but again, thank you for coming out. Thank you, Shay. Welcome. Hi. God, it's beautiful. My God. You know, I moved from Brooklyn to Westchester and I don't get to see this many black faces that often anymore so I'm just going to soak this in and this conversation and this is a really amazing moment. My name is Lisa Yancey. I am honored to be the board chair of MAP International Productions and I'm here to welcome you to this conversation. In the world of art and issues, there are those who stay within familiar territory and those who step past its edges. And then there's MAP. MAP International Productions is a nonprofit producer of challenging new work of contemporary performing artists whose projects raise critical consciousness and spark social change. We support all phases, I mean from idea to stage of the creative process for artists. From concept to the premiere, we engage with audiences and we also look at opportunities to find funding and really bring the concept all the way to the front. Through this heightened focus, MAP International supports an ever-evolving and elite cadre of creators, those of whom you probably know and didn't know that we were always in the background. We do this because art that is fired by both brilliance and resistance empowers us as a community to imagine the world as it could be and compels us to act upon that vision. We also think fearless artists are catalysts for advancing ideas that can forge new alliances and transform lives. That's why we do what we do. In today's discussion, triple consciousness is in that same vein. Rasu Jilani, our director of community programs who's standing here to the right of you, my left and your right, he conceived of this program. He conceived of it as a vehicle for reimagining black female identity in America. We're excited to partner with both 651 Arts continuing that partnership and the Brooklyn Museum and we're thankful for the New York City Council of Humanities for funding this project and making the opportunities for us to be here today. I urge you. I compel you. I hope to inspire you to visit MAPInternationals.org to learn what we do, come to our events, know about our artists, and join our community. And with that, I turn it over to my sister. My sister in spirit and heart and I call her my cousin. I'm moderated for today. Miss Tony Blackman. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm just coming in from working with a bunch of future feminists up in the woods in Chappaqua. So we had a nice little site for workshops. I'm all warmed up. I hope you're warmed up. It's really important to keep in mind what Ebony said about interaction, energy, engagement. When Rasu conceived it, it's about us building community and conversation, dialogue. And I'm excited to be here. And should I mention Nina? Okay, so we're going to go on with the start of the show and the presentation, I should say. So the other panelists, it's I bringing them up, right? Okay. Just want to make sure I'm going by the rules here. So look, I didn't know every lady up here, but I knew of everyone's work who was going to be coming up. And then there are a lot of women here I see whose work I've known for years. And what's beautiful about being in this space today is that we are really at a crossroads culturally and politically and socially and spiritually. And so too, we have such an opportunity here this afternoon to really spark something within us. And I am honored to, where should we start? Check the hashtags for Twitter. Let the people know we're talking. You know it's really important, right? Triple consciousness, body rock and black film now. And Pastor Desiree Allen who has the best shoes in the room. I grew up in a church family. Well, they're still there, the church. It's still my family in the church and still part of the church. But I'm just so excited to know that Pastor Desiree exists. And can we, do we call you Pastor Desiree or Reverend Desiree? Des? Pastor Des? I've heard her call different things. And I just want you guys to bear witness. This is a woman's event, so if you don't mind don't think I'm shallow for looking at the shoes. Um, Amal Green. Green representing abundance in life. That's right. Can I get an amen? All right. But she's an associate pastor of arts and at first Corinth Baptist Church and the executive director of the Dream Center in Harlem. And, uh, yes. So she's doing some profound work and we're going to hear a lot about what she's up to. And her stage. Um, stage director Charlotte Breathway is coming on up. And Charlotte joined the renowned Lamamas, uh, et cetera, as Great Jones Repertory as an actor at only 16 years and performed in New York all over the world. She is a Globetrotter, Globetraveler, um, a director of classical and conventional text. Um, multi-talented, opera dance, multimedia, um, all kinds of stuff. And so we're going to hear more about her stage as an artist. She has awards. Um, do you mind if I mention a couple? Okay. The Princess Grace Award, the Open Prize, the National Performance Network Creation Fund, um, and is a graduate an MFA graduate of the Yale School of Drama. You still your professor right now? Okay. And currently an assistant professor of theater arts at MIT. Y'all ready for the brains and the beauty? I hope you're prepared. And, um, Shannon Washington, who I met when I walked in the door, she's a creative director and a content maker in the digital space. And, um, she's referred to as the next CEO by Refinery Magazine because her work is so profound and so impactful. Shannon has created so many experiences for a lot of major brands, including Sony and, um, Perrier, Maybelline. Um, she's got mad skills and has, you've worked in TV as well? Yes. And she's worked in television. And she's currently a digital creative director at Gray, New York where she focuses on Pantenas, your client? And new business. All right. So what I really am fascinated by is this, yeah, the feminist enough video storytelling. That's hard. We're going to talk about that. Thanks, Bill. And Karma, who you heard and saw and experienced Karma Johnson is a multidisciplinary performer. She's really pretty good at hot yoga too. She's in that class and I'm in the back like, look at Karma go. As I take breaks. But I've known Karma. I joke because I've known Karma for, um, 20 years or something and, um, as poets in D.C. And now we're we live in Brooklyn, baby. And, um, so, yeah, Karma sings. She's performed everywhere and brought from Broadway and to MTV at the kitchen. Sung with a lot of different noteworthy artists. Um, you were a part of Kave Connell, right? The, uh, and the writing program and has taught everywhere. And we're going to talk about what you do and all this stuff. Okay, so you guys ready to get started? Let's do it. That was amazing. Okay, so one of the things that we're going to talk about, what I love about Ebony Noel Golden's mind is that she's passionate. She's culturally committed. She's an activist and she's brilliant and always thinking next level. She doesn't get stuck in the density of information. And then she also doesn't get stuck in the righteousness of fight the power. Like she is just, like her heart is equally soft and strong and just so rooted. And when she talked about this discussion, yeah, she looked at me. As she talked about this discussion, um, and really emphasized this idea of space and what it is we're doing with space to empower black women and girls and women. And these are four different stages, right? We all share different types of, like stage means something different to each of you. I would love to know what it looks like for you on your stage. Like the abundance of your stage, the hope, the promise of what your stage. When you look out, let's say you're in a pulpit, right? When you look out, like what keeps you fired up? What brings you hope in terms of this space? I mean, I think religion is so in church and black church are so interesting, right? We kind of come with all these assumptions about what the space should be when we enter it. And so you have to take all that into consideration when you're going up there to preach. And so for me, I like to think that when I'm looking out that I'm presenting possibility. I'm something that is different or is being reimagined as a single black woman in a pulpit where I'm refusing to let my body be invisible, where I'm not in a robe, where I'm not in a moo moo, right? I'm in some good shoes and I'm not allowing us to be invisible in that space because even though women make up the majority of churches often when it comes to being in position and power, there are very few. And so what do I say? What does my body say and how do I come out of this space when I'm doing it and everything in that to me is an act of kind of rebellion against the status quo when I go up there to talk about God or spirituality. So do you use, do you access your style as a part of your weaponry? Yeah, honoring your own inner style. That's good. And you look good. Thank you. I mean, I would, my space, digital is such a vast term, right? We're all digital. You've got digital probably in your purse right now. But in the space that I actually work, I work in the business of images. That's what I do for a living. I create images and I daily walk this fine line of being a black woman creating images that aren't always for her. That's something that I deal with on a daily basis. But one of the things that brings me joy is because of the digital space is so open and it is, we're living in a time right now where we're actually able to own our own image. It is very much more possible. We are not, we don't have to deal with the images that are fed to us for the most part from my industry, we're more so looking at you. Nothing brings me more joy than a good selfie. No, I'm just, just to be real like not, of course there's like selfie for look at me's sake, but when a woman can stop and appreciate herself and say, I'm pretty or I'm happy or I'm having this moment and I feel really good and I want to share it with you, we are not used to even seeing ourselves happy on a mass media stage. And so if you really like take a look at that from that level in the sense where if I, if I'm concocting a campaign or something like that and I want women just to really show themselves there is so much power in that you know, there is, that is such a permission for a lot of women that we may not we didn't think that we always had the permission to be like, yeah I'm cute but yes you are cute and you should tell people that because by you doing that you are giving someone permission in a way to do it for themselves. Honoring the selfie. Carmen. Honoring the selfie. I love that that concept of the interventionist presence, you know, that just showing up are just showing up and just being here changes everything and changes the rooms that we're in. I feel like especially well in a room like this, you know when you look out to your audience what do you you know, I listen I listen to the room and to the frequency right and I'm wondering if if I can say that there's there's a gift inside of my being incarnated as a woman that makes my listening exponentially multi-dimensional. Well, I think a lot about multiplicities of stories and multiplicities of ways that stories can be told and I think my work as a director but also my work as an educator, my work as a human being is a lot about dignity and allowing people to have their dignity which crosses over from whatever language they speak, whatever religion they participate in whatever that selfie that ultimate image of themselves may be and through my work trying to always allow that to live and to thrive in like full multi-colourful dimensions multi-world dimensions so also thinking a lot about mythology and creating new mythologies and creating spaces where technology can live and be part of the stories that we tell ourselves. So you know this black woman conversation can sometimes get a little messy because there's a lot to unpack and there's a lot to explore right? And so as we look at the abundance and we look at the challenges and we start to break down some of those challenges we wanted to make sure that we give enough weight to the beauty and what I love about what you all just said in terms of the twist to your answers like each of your responses where things I like they kind of caught me like oh oh it made me think and so Ebony wrote this article essay where she talks about how futuristic black women are and often out there the perception is that we're not and so I wanted to ask you to pose this question how is futurism expressed through black women and girls? You can look at it historically, you look at it now you look at your own personal work girls are women you work with how do you see it living and breathing in our world today the futurism that black women and girls possess? No, no, no we don't need order One thing that I've been thinking a lot about lately because of various projects I've been working on is how the person I am today is a person that my grandmother my family is from Barbados so my grandmother would not have been able to really envision and how far away I am from her reality but at the same time you know I wouldn't be the person I am today without her I also think a lot about so the theater that you mentioned Lamama theater was founded by a black woman, Ellen Stewart and some of you may know her but also her exactly she passed away a few years ago but I met Ellen when I was 15 and meeting her at this pinnacle point in my life of changes going on we all know how that is when you're 15 I think that her whole life was about doing things her way and not allowing herself to be boxed in by anybody else's way of seeing her life and so I feel like I live my life that way that you talk about the international places that I've been also part of it I mean looking back and just realizing like yeah I think that it's necessary that the future involves as I said that whole colorful kind of spectrum of whatever it is that you want and need for your life but also allowing others to have what they want and they need for their life and like living in a space of dignity and living in a space the future is about more people getting access to information more people getting access to art I mean the fact that this is streaming I mean how incredible I mean all these things I mean I think this is all part of the future I think to not piggyback I kind of hate that word when I think about for instance the Bible right when we go and we come to this and we don't see our story and our experiences in it and we see it in a very kind of particular way and I love that in this kind of time and as we move forward that I feel like my story and the story of other black women can be found right because like the Bible doesn't end with like revelation right those are just happen to be individuals who their their their writings got canonized right but we all all of our experiences to me in a way are Bible they're all stories they are all things that speak you don't know how you don't have to know how scripture to speak scripture right so very much this idea when you talk about honoring the selfie by honoring my selfy right and talking about my experiences and reimagining the ways that I think about God and spirituality and bringing that there is a lot more space for women black women and black girls to find themselves kind of in this the space of a relationship with God but even when you say about you know sorry Charlotte actually touched on the topic of access right and you've been talking about allowing space for women to find themselves I think that when you put those two together that is definitely where we're headed in a sense on you know on an access level at making giving women the power especially young black women on a creative end to actually be in the fields to be empowered to make content to make media you know the only I might piss somebody off I think I am I'm the only black creative director at my agency I am the first I believe black female creative director that they've had maybe the second sorry Teri if you're watching and and in that you're very much in a proximity of not necessarily whiteness but really seeing kind of like what you've been missing and not missing in terms of the things that you need but the missed opportunities that our people have had the missed opportunities that black women have had to affect culture to affect media to affect the things that are coming through your screen whether you click off of them or not you know we're living in a space right now in terms of access we have the most access that we've ever had and it's still low it's still shamefully low and so when you think about putting those two together using your own story because you have to come with yourself in your work you can't lose that take yourself and put yourself in the position where you can use your story to affect others that is totally where we're going and it's at the point now it's like you know get on the train get left because we're making I mean frankly we're making the best making the best shit anyway so you know I think that it's only going to go from there but the most important thing is for us to really really own our voice and own our image and take it to a place where people know that it has to be authentic and it has to be authentically created by us when I think about us as futuristic people I think first actually of our ancestors who knew that we were possible and you know thank you because I feel like there's this foundational trope inside of blackness that means and that declares that our future is now and that we're claiming it and that I may be in bondage but I can see my child and her child and her child and her child so I'm going to set this up right now and get this as far along the road as I can but I know what's coming so in terms of the right now looking into the horizon I'll give a shout out for instance to the sisters who are doing the black girls code project and and thinking about our deep history with codes everything from quilts to our songs and then thinking about how you know this the computer codes can be harnessed and utilized like you said so that we are in authorship of our own rep so to speak I'll say one more because we're on this kind of access and you're talking about the past and so I'm thinking about something even with the future our ability to reach back into the past and what I find is with information for instance there are sometimes like my religion is not my grandmother's religion I couldn't speak to her about certain things but through providing certain information it has helped me knowing the kind of historical context of let's say a bible story we sit and talk about the fact that there's not one Noah story there too one story says they go on two by two one says they go on seven by seven that becomes kind of a conversation point for my grandmother who is like what is this and you kind of have these borrowed beliefs I believe it because my grandmother but there becomes there's something so amazing about watching the chains being broken off of like seniors and elders as children and those coming up but those who are older than us when you see them wrestling and fighting through these things and then there's this conversation that happens it's the past talking to the future and then this propelling forward and so the information being able to present because often even in churches we're told like we're not going to give them that because they can't handle that let me give you kind of your value your happy juice for the week until you come back next Sunday and you tell the house people to think you're taught not to question as opposed to being able to ask questions have conversation and come back with a hunger to be an engagement and not just take whatever pasta says and go away with really no new knowledge no more access because you're pretty much just drinking the Kool-Aid and so okay I'm sorry y'all I gotta I'm very carefully taking in because of my background and there's still a lot of healing that's very present for me so if you see me when she speaks she talks to my uncle you know I'll bring her home for Christmas you know but that's another story and my mom is going to be mad again that I said that on the live stream so here we are so my question that came up is you guys are talking and this is because young women keep asking me this and I don't talk about it well they checked me basically and said you didn't break it down enough so they want to know how you got it basically it's like how'd you get tight how'd you get so flawed and so what they were really trying to understand is how'd you evolve your stage how did you create this platform and these were young hip hop activists who were combatting a few things because of our chosen genre of art and so they were dealing with those politics and then trying to understand regular activism and then being black and brown sisters doing this that they were just like so their brains were just like but they were alive and excited and so I just want to throw that out really quick in terms of did it just show up for you did it evolve was it just a divine order and you just trusted the process did you with 21 or 22 say this is my vision this is what I'm doing like this stage like how did you end up with this this stage in terms of that you're using so powerfully I remember being 19 somewhere on U Street I'm a Howard woman and seeing the woman all the way to my right rhyme and being like I can't do that yet but you know and it was like Rob Brown it was like a bunch all these women just flowing these ciphers that's not what I can do I can do that but I can't be that I know that I can't be that right and I think I originally went to Howard to study medicine because that was what I was supposed to do that was what I was given permission to do there were no other options and you know like you know but that was also a part of responsibility you know when you are a first generation college student in your family you are carrying you are carrying an ancestry of weight along with you and so you know I took photography that is a very simple like photography and seeing how I could start telling my stories visually and you know that formed into like where I am right now but I knew that there were so many stories that were happening within me I was grappling with a lot in watching to Desiree's point you know your parents kind of break down preconceived notions of what life is and my mother was having her own metamorphosis happen at the same time I was having a metamorphosis and the only way I knew how to tell my story was visual because I didn't really have that much of an extroverted voice yet and so it was a very quiet and safe space for me and then it just really blossomed from there but you know from day one knowing that I could make an image just it just clicked within me and then I just kind of ran with it as a child the first time that I remember something coming over me the spirit coming over me was after my great-grandmother's funeral and we were all in my auntie's basement and I started dancing and the old folks were like ooh look at that baby dance you know and so I was like oh that makes them happy that's good because everybody had been crying all day you know and so I was like oh this is making them happy so let me keep dancing and then after a while I wasn't really there and I sort of came back afterwards somebody visited yeah so you know I started telling my mother you know what do you call it if you're an actor and a singer and a dancer at the same time she was like well an entertainer or maybe and I said okay mommy well that's what I'm gonna be and I'm gonna do the but then you know the path of course is winding so I was aware that that's what I was gonna do um what happened was eventually as a grown-up I had to take that step off the cliff to say I'm gonna stop doing other things right and eat some beans and rice every day I'm gonna stop doing other things because whatever I feed is what's going you know whatever I plant is what I'm gonna harvest so I better start planting over here if this is what I say I really want so the courage and the sacrifice is real as I'm sure we could all testify but was it a choice I mean because some people say they didn't have a choice it's like it pressed on them so hard oh yeah it's not optional because I will certainly become like mentally ill if I'm not exercising the craft absolutely yeah gosh I'm just listening to all the responses and I'm just thinking that they've been I continue to define myself on a daily basis so you know that those definitions have probably changed from when I was here to there to now so I guess with you know one of the really strong moments I remember was being 11 years old in Canada because I'm from Canada and I think my mother took me to go see the original cast of Seraphina and that was the first time I had ever seen like in a huge good show right like I ever saw in a big theater that many people who looked like me and they weren't just singing and dancing they were singing and dancing and protesting and it was political and it was like it was on fire and the whole theater and it's Canada so it's like people are not like stand up and dance kind of people you know like it was alive and I think that's probably the earliest real theatrical moment that I remember and I feel like that at that moment I was like I don't know what I'm going to do but I'm going to do something that makes people feel like that because I want to feel like that and yes I think that if I think back it's been a constant process of meeting collaborators mentors that have continued to kind of encourage me through their own example of how they live their lives and what they ask for in their life and giving themselves permission and so that has allowed me permission to give myself permission to keep wanting at this level that next insurmountable mountain to be taken over and so I feel like I've just continued in that way but yeah it's it's an interesting question because there hasn't been one particular moment and probably my family would also say since I've been a child I've always been a person who's just like well I want that and I don't want that forward and to really connect to that little voice inside of me that's saying you know what you want so keep going in that way also improvisation has been a massive part of my life going with the flow there's been a million times where I've been at one event and then you meet somebody and you exchange a phone number and then you're like five years later you're working with that person because for whatever reason you've asked for something in the universe and then that person has been there to kind of show you a light of that and so keeping on going in that way so what kept you though from taking a left turn what kept you though from I think I've taken a lot of left turns I left home at 15 I took a lot of left turns I think my whole life has been a process of like making mistakes and then trying to fix them and trying to move forward from them and learn from them and pick out the people and the situations and the books and the media that is actually feeding as you said feeding the parts of me that want to be fed and listening to that hunger and not ignoring it we'll save that for the strategies I have another question in my head but I was so getting to this idea of black feminism I mentioned to someone and I'm always still surprised now I mentioned to someone about the event and there was the silent teeth sucking and I'm highly sensitive and empathic so I know when you're sucking your teeth in your mind and um I just do like if you see me like touch my chest pressing the voice down because I am a Virgo Virgo's in the house yes but anyway and so and I thought about it because I actually grabbed on to being a hip hop feminist before I would stand in this idea of black feminism because I was just socialized like that's not a thing that is just not a thing and subconsciously even though I could speak the talk I would only speak it in front of certain people you know and now I'm all out and proud about it and only deal with brothers who are proud about it too that's right and so it's this space of when did you acknowledge that this concept of black feminism or when did it grab a hold to you or who brought it to you and how did you become enlightened with it can you tell I've been around like 22 years there's been asking me so many questions and so now I'm like thinking like that again like wondering yeah these questions that we sometimes gloss over because we're so busy doing our busy lives but when did it come to you like how did it I think first about my mom my grandmother and my mother because you know regardless of the terminology they were living a truth about women doing what they decided they were going to do regardless of what else anybody else thought about it so that's very black I mean I mean you know it's real real black you know so I think like my mother for instance was a captain in the military police you know like in the 70s where in her whole region in the Midwest no female person had done that before so it was she was you know like you said you know again that interventionist presence so for me I just I remember being like three and being at the when she got her bars officers yes whatever whatever and they say you know don't applaud wait until the end of course I was three so I was like that's my mother you know but I remember just knowing that you know whatever it is that you decide about yourself you know you create and you walk your own truth and so that to me is like where it came from but then I did have this amazing teacher in high school interestingly um real floofy elite private Catholic girl school um 62 of us in the senior class four of us black um so I had a women's studies class though at this really conservative Catholic school where they had like pictures of the stealth bomber outside the kindergarten classrooms and you know because we were next door to NIH these people were you know like this girl went to prom with what's his name Dan quails you know like those people you know what I'm saying so right so and you see and I was there growing dreadlocks and getting in trouble every day so but there was this amazing teacher Jenny who was teaching women's studies we had this honors track women's studies and I remember that all the other girls had this really ill notion about feminism was you know they didn't want to like claim that term it was definitely a nasty word um but she had me reading um bell hooks and gloria and salua and all these people when I was you know 16 17 so that gave me a frame work that I definitely activated on you know from since then and continuing I think I fell into the term feminism or the that concept actually when I was in seminary through um what's called womanism I don't know if anyone's ever heard of womanism which is kind of um we were kind of taught you know that feminism was kind of co-opted by white women and so that womanism was a way for black women to define themselves um so it comes from Alice Walker's definition of being womanish and loving women and loving people and loving and so it was it was that is how I kind of learned about all of this and I don't know whether I'm a womanist or a feminist and often times I didn't like the terms because they were they were put as a as opposed to allowing space for women just to be women and to be more opening it began to pit women against one another so I don't know whether feminist womanist I know that I like spaces and places that allow the opportunity for women to be present and to fully be present as they are to be four different individuals up here and we all kind of fit into the space um and to be heard on our own terms and not kind of put together as like a meta-narrative and so as I become you know as I read more bell hooks whatever I'm reading there's just I see more possibility that opens up with feminism I think for me when I knew I was a feminist definitely in my 20s but I think that I've just always been one the more and more I think about it and you know but just you know as Karma said like my mom you know when I think about when I equate whatever I'm going through with how would my mother deal with this and I learn and I have memories and I use those as examples right you know in watching my mother like yours my mother was one of the first you know black female sergeants you know and and essentially in military life with also single womanhood which was very single motherhood I'm sorry which was very unexpected and then you know going forward to get her education with me and Toa and dealing with that and respectability politics before we even knew what that was coming into play and really having a lot of these things you know kind of come to a head at the kitchen table late at night when she didn't think I was looking and really saying okay no matter what I'm gonna have to do what I'm gonna have to do and I don't know if that was feminism I think black women been doing feminism but we just you know like been had like like we like we've been like we wrote the book if you really really think about it in a lot of ways but definitely when it came to putting a name on it I would have to say Joan when someone handed me my senior year at high school I was gonna say when chicken heads come home to roost and my mind was like like it was like then you know then immediately it was like bell hooks and then Archie Lord and Barb Jordan like just I went on this voracious spree of these are all the black women I need to be friends in my head with and and then it just went from there and it informed everything that I did and so when she says Joan she's referencing Joan Morgan the book when chicken heads come at home to roost yeah isn't that interesting military moms single militants I've never been around that many at once on the stage alright well you know to be completely honest it's the first time this is the first time that I've ever been in a situation where I've been asked like well are you a feminist and I think I've just always lived in spaces or been blessed to be in spaces where there have been strong women who are leaders who are leading their lives who are taking care of the people around them which I think is a huge part of feminism that it's about a we not an I and this is where there have also been strong men who have you know let the space exist there for that so yeah so we think about the strength and the strength that's been passed down to us and what about when we look through the lens of where there's hurt and hurt as it relates to being able there are a lot of women who have a stage in their head they have a platform in their head but the hurt and the wounds that are there there's stuff in the way there's stuff in the way and I think for each of us the stuff that's in the way may be something different right and so what kind of stuff when you look out there from your stage maybe not personal but just amongst the girls and women you work with they're in the way of them positioning their voices to their stage their ideas their visions even themselves and just being able to honor themselves fully what's the stuff that's in the way well you brought up already the idea of giving permission and I think that that's you know being able to give yourself permission is a huge thing that needs to kind of establish itself in this life because everyone has hurt if you've got blood running through your veins you've got hurt in your life there's something that you have to deal with but that giving permission allows you whether that's if you're an artist I mean you know artists often make some of the most incredible work in their lives out of the places that hurt the most and so giving yourself permission to let that kind of drive you and not let that be a road block on the way but like okay this is something that I have to either work through bulldoze through or work around or you know whatever that is whatever your tactic is but working through it I think the shit stem is in the way wait the way you know I mean I was I was fortunate enough as a youth to be embraced by a Rastafari community and I learned a lot about dialectics and so I feel like that analysis is so pertinent and so useful so I think the economics of capitalism are in the way of us trusting each other because it's designed that way to produce mistrust I think that this idea of competition is in the way which makes me really grateful for the ways that I was invited into community by specifically older black lesbian women in Washington DC when I was a munchkin I think at age 16 when I was a young percussionist on the music scene and singing and stuff I had some older sisters who saw me and saw the full 360 degrees and said oh she's one of us meaning a creative person, a rebel or whatever so hey kid did you do your homework you wanna come get some spaghetti you know and then what you doing this weekend we getting ready to have a memorial for Audre Lorde who just passed away you know who that is, no who's that, well come with us come and play your drum and learn something and listen to all these women gathered here, these poets so yeah, having been raised raised by these these warrior women I feel so grateful for that because all that other stuff is really the structure of our lives is in the way I think the myth of thinking that there's something wrong with being whole is kind of in the way this kind of idea that you know you need sometimes a therapist and a good co-pay you need certain things to help you get to the point of being whole and you know I've heard plenty of women and plenty of like we don't go to therapy we don't do this, we don't do that so we deal with the dysfunction because we mistake dealing with the dysfunction as strength and so then we carry these things our sexual abuse our issues with our body we carry these things with us every day like extra baggage, extra pounds when you eat the extra bag of cookies like you carry that instead of doing the things to begin to remove that and say that no this is okay I don't have to accept that, I don't have to accept your words I don't have to accept what you did to me and we can't do that like you're saying a village we can't always do that by ourselves and sometimes our mamas and those in our communities can't help us do that because they're the ones who taught us to just hold on to that don't say anything don't talk about uncle so and so and so we don't deal with those things and then we can't how can we have a healthy view of ourselves or how do we even give ourselves permission to be when we've got that type of it's not okay to be we can't we can't, I mean it becomes one of these things where you do see these you know you can be the most not I don't want to say like out there woman but you can be the most you know self loving fully evolved modern black woman in the world but still be carrying around so much debt, you know what I mean it's like the debt the things that happen to you and I'm speaking from experience but also the things that happen to your mother by your grandmother or vice versa and it gets you carry it with you because it's not been dealt with by the way you answer your question Tony it was very similar to what Desiree had to say in the sense that there are a lot of things that as much as we progress as women that we still won't touch and it's the thing that's holding us back is really almost like an aversion to the ugly you know and just we're going to have to deal with it one way because it's starting to manifest itself into legit crazies you know with us and in a way that we handle certain things and how we'll have everything together on one end of the spectrum but we something you know if feather touches us we just crumble at a certain at a certain moment and that's one of those things when we talk about these spaces that we're in and you know exchanges of ideas and storytelling and things of that nature we need to really start embracing kind of the shit it's your shadow like there's a story in the Bible where the healing comes through the shadow when the person walked through the shadow that's where they're healing and if we do not willing to embrace our shadow or all of it then we don't we can't but one thing and I'll shut up but one thing to also remember is that you know a lot of that just comes from with you know don't talk to me like that I'm your mother you know I'm your grandfather I'm your uncle I'm your teacher like the things that we're taught to be that may have come to you there has to be a point where you're almost given permission or you have to be empowered to get permission to yourself to break free and just say I'm going to protect myself right now and then see what I can take from you and then what I just have to say you know what let's if we're not going to deal with it we're going to leave it right here but I'm not going to bring it along on my journey with me yeah that's great okay so I want to go I want to I want to let the audience know we're going to screen a short video and then we're going to have you present some like the strategies that you see work you want to hear a few people share and to really focus ourselves in so that before we leave this room we have we didn't have one and this is not a body rock is not a regular triple conscious is not regular panel right when you leave the room you're going to leave the room with something something to chew on something to meditate on something to sit with and we want you to be a part of that dialogue and just thinking about the work that exists out there like a clue so do I does the sister to sister summit which has become very successful I should turn in who I think is in the third discussion has the black girl project and so there are all these things going on and even the work I've been doing with girls and women with a girl there's a lot at work and I know a lot of women working we don't hear about it on cnn or anything but there's some profound changes happening so the video yeah okay so just to give you a bit of what you're about to see just one of I think eight I should know this eight or eleven videos, I want to say in 2011, I saw an opportunity to basically take all of this information, right? All of this academic text and theory or whatnot when we talk about black feminism and distill it down into something that was a bit more personal because if you're not really coming in contact with these directly and if you're not in a position where you can understand what is actually being told to you, it really does go over your head in a lot of ways. And so it's a very, you know, feminism, we know feminism is very simple if you really, really think about it, but what is feminist work? What is living a feminist life? These are something because it's so subjective, it does become a very uncomfortable thing for a lot of people to even accept about themselves. And so I said, well, how can I kind of put the personal and academic, which is both important together, but also how can I reach girls, especially, and I mean girls, with women that look like them with like their fly older sisters and men who want to, you know, do it when no one's watching on YouTube. And really, really show, not define what feminism is, but show what feminism looks like. And so what you're about to see is just I think the first of the second iteration that we did, and this is feminist enough. And you can just. I'm feminist enough to ask for what I want, what I need, and what I deserve on all levels. All of them. I am feminist enough to uphold and celebrate other women's accomplishments. I'm feminist enough to know the difference between flirtation and harassment. I am feminist enough to drive on the first date and let him open the doors and pick up the tab. I am feminist enough to be a strong, independent woman, but also know how to empower my man to be a man. I am feminist enough to know that vulnerability is powerful. I'm feminist enough to ball so hard, like, you know, really, really ugly cry and still be a boss. I am feminist enough to make my own rules as I go and take life by the horns. I'm feminist enough to not deny rape culture and to tell my friends what they need to know about it. I am feminist enough because I am in a long-term, loving relationship that is not defined by or influenced by the pursuit of marriage. I'm feminist enough to be feminine and not feel bad about it. I am feminist enough to know that I can have it all, a fabulous career, a wonderful family, and an amazing life. Oh, you know, I'm a performer speaker and so the pressing of things, like, I get into this zone, press another button. But I'm learning, I'm learning. This is just one of the ways that women talk back to the project. It is a very social-driven project and those women represent a very small percentage of the different types of voices and communities in women that participate. But this was one of my favorites. This came through Instagram and Young Woman, I don't know if Salome is here, but came to a speak, I did at NYU and wrote this just beautiful piece from her heart about what feminism not only is to her, but how she embodies it. And so the wonderful thing about this project is that it's a self-driven space. It is very much what we call user-generated content, but it is very much a woman-made space and it really does change depending on who actually participates. And you can participate on any level that you wish. So you can actually do things like this or you can submit a video or you can email me and I'll post it. And it's one of those things where, you know, it's kind of like as fly as we are because it just changes and shifts just much like we do. Am I feminist enough? So you all gonna post yours? Yeah? Okay, good. Yeah. Okay, good. Okay, so is there anyone in the audience that wants to share a strategy that they see working in terms of creating a stage for identity, clarifying our identity, really affirming our identity, making a statement about honoring girls, black girls and black women. What's working? What strategies are effective? Does anyone have feedback? Yes, can you go to the mic, please? So everyone can, I want everybody to hear you. Yeah. We're live streaming, so everybody can come to the mic, please, thank you. Yeah. Well, as a mom raising a young feminist, she's six years old, one of the things that I've been doing is to be honest with her about my life, what I'm doing, whether I'm happy or I'm sad because I think when I reflect back to my mom, I'm learning things about her life that I didn't know as a child. So as a mother, being honest and showing her what it really is, what the real, real is, as much as I can as she progresses in life, so. Anyone else? Yes, thank you. And if there's someone on this side, you can go to the mic now. Really heartened listening to you women speak, and I'm very conscious of the generations that are in the room, your generation on the stage and my generation, and the transition I'm going through now as I past 60, and come into this, I don't know. What? Yeah. As I come to grips with that, my life up until this point, up until my mid fifties was what I had envisioned for myself as a teenager, the work that I would do, the things I would be involved in, I didn't envision now, so I'm creating new history, and it's terrifying and exciting at the same time. So what works for me is being in the question, feeling the discomfort and waiting to see what happens, asking different people, going to therapy. What works also is some of the commitments I made in the past as a woman, as a daughter of Africa, and living in this economic environment, which was, for example, conscious of where I get help. So my dentist, my gynecologist, my doctor, my lawyer are women of color, because I know that we have something to say to each other. Yes. When I dress, at this point now, every day I wear at least three things that are made by a woman, artist, jeweler, designer, tailor, or I bought from a woman's store. Those are some of the commitments that I keep to empower all of us. And then finally, for me, and it's hard to remember sometimes what I do, and it's always to be grateful for whatever comes, and waiting to see the gift that is inside everything that looks like turmoil. Yes. A little short. That's hard to follow, but I love what was just said, and then what Karma said as well about this idea of competition. I think we have so much, especially in younger generations, this competition against each other, especially when another woman of color walks in the room, you're immediately assessing how long she's been natural, or what her shoes look like. And you know, so just, it's almost cliche, but empowering each other and thinking almost similar to what was just said, I'm supporting you, and I'm buying from your business, and I'm becoming one of your constituents instead of shutting you down, and tearing you down, and this side chick theory, and being against each other. I think that empowerment of each other is what we really need right now more than anything. So thank you. There's a theory about being a side chick. What'd you say? There's a theory about being a side chick. Have you seen Scarlett? Yeah. Oh, sorry, I haven't watched in two weeks. Oh no, there's a whole science now, and there are tweets in Instagram about being the best side chick possible. There's a celebration of side chick culture, and yes, yes there is. But next? I had to say on the stage here today, I never ever think of myself as a feminist because I just didn't know how to embrace that term, but I'm a feminist in every way possible. Woo! Because I was born in Aries, so I can't help myself. But I see my feminism in my sisterhood. I just love women. I honor women. I have women who support me, who are there for me, no matter what in my life, and I think that a lot of the new generation, the younger generation, don't know about sisterhood in that kind of way, real sisterhood, not about just getting together to shop or make your hair fly. But women who will come together to pray with you, to do rituals for you, et cetera. And so, that's how I gain my strength, and thank you so much for this forum. Hello. It's funny because this made me notice a trend in my own family, and I hear a lot of, like, speaking out to your friends and people and creating relationships with new people. But I find, for me, it's my old relationships that need the repairing. Yes. I see in my family, I feel like it's something called the Superman Theory, where you have black women waiting for men to come and save them. And it's like, you don't need to wait for anyone. You have to get up and you have to pick it up for yourself. You have to want it for yourself. And I see my mother, I come from a generation of single mothers. Like, it dawned on me, single mothers struggling. And it's like, I don't wanna be that. I don't wanna be that single mother. And it's like, heads up to everybody who has gone through that struggle. But you can make better choices and, like, feminism is very, it's very empowering. And I don't know if I'm effeminate with feminists. I had to look up the definition well. Like, before I started putting my hand up, let me know. Or you can write your own. That's right. Write your own definition. Yes. Right. And I think it's just beautiful to see, like, women really embracing. And I can barely see right now, but you are on the end. I think you have this. Charlotte. Charlotte. When you, it's hazy, the journey is hazy. I feel like you make left turns and right turns and it really spoke to me. Cause I was like, what am I doing wrong? What am I doing wrong? And I'm like, I'm not doing everything wrong. I'm doing something right. Cause I'm here right now and I'm hearing you beautiful lady speak. But thank you so much. Woo! Alec, can I just say something to respond to that young lady? The one thing that I've also realized now that I look back and I look at the lives of other people who inspire me, women and men who inspire me is also that every day, every minute, you have the possibility to make new choices, you know? And I think that's really important cause we've all have, you know, if you go back in anybody's closet, there's a few spider webs and cobwebs and stuff that we'd rather not mention, but it's just that every day, every second, you standing at this mic and saying, I'm here, that's already starting something new, a new path, right? So that's great. Okay, and then we're gonna come to this side cause I forgot we had another side. Sorry. Sorry, I don't know what your name is. Woman in the Plague. Lady in red. But yeah, and I think this idea of how we order our lives thinking it along the binaries of like right and wrong and making right and wrong choices. One of the things that have stuck with me, I read this book called Holy Play. It's one of my favorite books and it has this idea of that in your, you know, we're not robots. We weren't created to be robots. And so this idea that God wants to play with us in our lives. And so this idea that if you come to a fork and a road and if you can either go right or left, what if God just says to you, I'm with you either way? So this idea that no matter which way you go and what choice you make, that God is with you as opposed to if I go left, there ain't no God, no model, or is it, go right, you know? But God is just with me because God is in me. You've been a priest, that's your choice. Listen, she's bringing churches out today. Oh my God, oh my God. There's a church also, we can take a time. The nice shoes on. No, this is good. This is good. This is what 651 Arts and Map International in Ebony and Rasue wanted to have, but it's perfect. Yes. Actually Rasue is one of the reasons I'm gonna say this. Yeah. It's not just about the women that surround us and bring us up, it's about the men. Yes. So it's about finding men who support powerful women, see us, allow us to see them, and support us like putting on events like this for us today. Yes. Yes. I'm so glad to be here. My name is Candice and I am an ordained interfaith and interspiritual minister. And one of the things that I feel is really critical for all of us is daily spiritual practice. And that can look all kinds of ways, but going within and experiencing the light within yourself and then listening to it and acting upon it is a way to heal, to experience creativity. There's a lot of pain in my extended family around alcoholism. And when I was in seminary studying Yerba, I decided to call on my grandmother who died at the age of 39 from cirrhosis of the liver. And then when I talked to my mother about it, who was much more of a traditional Christian, rather than looking at me like I was crazy, she just opened up and started crying because she had never really talked to me about her mother. She was crying that burden. And I feel that by going within and trusting and being open to whatever kind of experience, it really enables us to heal, it feeds our creativity, and it allows us to connect with other people knowing that there really is no other. Tony, can I respond to that? Just, no, just go, go. I'm like, no, we fall in. But, sis, and I'm sorry, I forgot your name, but one thing that that really, really speaks to in terms of like strategies and the way that we think about our lives is giving ourselves, and I hate to use this term, but not a permission, but knowing that it is okay to rest. Like, it is okay to chill. It is okay to turn everything off. It is okay to just buy a ticket and leave. It is okay to just... And that is so not a part of our traditions. Yeah, it's not. I learned that via a Jewish boss. Yeah. Oh, because they were... Like, how about every boss? So me and her mother taught her, and then there was a mentor who self-proclaimed herself my Jewish mother at one of my jobs, and it was just this space where I've always been global and so I was just seeking out the information, but it was just like some keep it, she was so raw and keep it real with me. And we had these discussions, you know, we used to have, we had fights too. It was the first elder I fought with like that. But 20 years later, like I sent that woman a card, a copy of my book, and I'm like, yo, you set me up. And so I find myself having this conversation with women every month where I'm giving them permission as if I'm somebody to take the day off, or to go away for the weekend, or to not call that girlfriend back who you told me was toxic and why she's still at your house on Friday nights with her husband, because you don't even like her no more. Like, you know, and she's like, oh, well, you know, you're working on your... No, you, you got to take care of you. You're so powerful. That is deep and profound for us. I even want to start like a circle, like a support group, but take a day off. Listen, I started a website dedicated to it. Like, Parler magazine, like it is dedicated to, I mean, it definitely evolved, but what we are about right now is the power to rest and the power to chill and discover yourself, go somewhere else. It could be 20 miles away. It could be 2,000 miles away, but you're not really going to get anywhere unless you start listening to yourself. And if you have to literally go in the middle of a cornfield, or on a glacier, or anywhere else to find it, by any means necessary, rest. Yes, rest. Turn down for this. Turn down because I'm tired. Turn down because you're tired, said the pastor. Good afternoon. My name is Alana. Actually, to speak on your whole point of rest, I just thought about that, that's actually in the Declaration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is the right to rest. I don't think that a lot of times we do rest as black women and women of color, just in general, because we're always told we have to keep going, we have to keep doing, and we're like the pillars of our community. But I actually, to answer your question, originally which was, what are we doing right? I think having panels, having forums is what we're doing right. I actually learned about this panel in my class. I took a break today from writing. I know it's live though, it's live. Yeah, I learned from another girl in my class, and we were talking, we were discussing, she was like, you should go over to the Brooklyn Museum this weekend because they're gonna have a panel. And I was like, really? So we were always talking, because in my major, I'm studying at John Jay, and so my major's humanities and justice rights, and justice studies actually. So I'm writing a paper, my prospectus is on black hair politics, and Eurocentric beauty ideals and standards. She said, go check it out, and I said, okay, and I think that's what's really great right now, living in this social media world. We get to exchange ideas, and we get to talk to each other about it. So, thank you. Yes. I just wanna mention really quickly, I don't know if some of these sisters are in a room, but black women's blueprint, I don't know if any of those people are here, but they have a, yeah. That's a, the sister who just spoke, you reminded me of them, because they are doing some of that work, providing space like having, holding sister circles once a week, you can just show up. So Google black women's blueprint, and there are discussions, conversations, forums, workshops, panels, and a lot of transformative moments being created. And I'm hearing Brooklyn through, so make sure you look them up. There's another website, fearsforblackwomen.com, which is doing a lot around black women's health issues, and just did a really comprehensive study on fiber tumors and some other things like that. So, I love this, there's some stuff bubbling right now. Wait, who's next? Oh, you were, oh you were. Go ahead. Leaders, so you have to learn to sort of, your range, your ability to speak up, your ability to exist is, it's sort of calm that down, because it's not okay in a culture where it's patriarchy, in a culture where your mother, your grandmother, they do a great job raising you, they do a great job having a family, but they don't like this, this thing that's been created by bringing you here and coming across women that are so powerful, and coming across women that I love themselves and women that fights for women, not only anything, but women that fights for feminism, the notion of just, hey, I can be who I am, I can, you know, I'm in science and research, where you don't see black women, you see white males, but the fact that you have to sort of and make yourself invisible tells you why even these things are available to us, and I was really taken back by Shannon because you have this thing where it's like, you know, it's power that, like, you know, also like Charlotte had said, it's many, many left turns where you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, should I be black and I'm proud, should I be radical? Oh, I don't think that's for me. Or, you know, or do you say, can we just be existing? Can we just be who we are? So I think to me, coming here and seeing so many faces is not only teaching me about what I need to do to sort of speak louder, because it's something that, you know, so it's conditioned, it's something that you learn to don't speak and not speak in a sense of verbally speak, but to allow yourself to opend and say, hey, I'm gonna let my solitude be loud. You know, I'm gonna do that. And I think that's why I'm just so taken back by just hearing all of the stories and hearing these women in front of me and their journeys and their continual journeys and there'll be a time where I'll say, hey, there's a time where I'm quite unsure what feminism is because feminism, to me, seems political, but feminism doesn't have to have a word, feminism in its existence. It's about just being you, not only being black, but being you because you are divine. And that's why I feel like I needed to share my story with everyone because it's so powerful just to see that. Yeah, and thank you for sharing. Thank you for sharing and thank you for sharing and being so transparent and so vulnerable on the mic. And I was raised in a patriarchal family and I was taught to not be too much of a leader. I am that, I don't know if that poem is a Carolyn Rogers poem, not too hard, not too soft, not too this, not too this. I mean, just two years ago, my mom gave me a lecture on running them in a way because I was too strong and she meant no harm. God bless her for loving me, but let me stop. I have to say though that even though we disagree with that particular message from our mothers, they're actually right in the sense that patriarchy is universal on planet Earth right now. Regardless of the specifics of your nuclear family and who was expressing what, like I talked about my mama being a soldier, but she was a soldier in the patriarchy. So it is not, yeah, right. So it's not like anybody has escaped from that. Right. So, you know, big ups to the men who are evolving through their feminism so that they can take it, yes. Right. Okay, over here, over here. Just touching on the idea of, like you said. Make sure you speak into the mic because we're live streaming. Okay. The norms and your family's norms and it's okay to actually tell your mother your ideology and your theory is not okay for me. And that's not you taking a left turn or going against your mother or whoever's in your life holding you back in your evolution. It's, you have to at some point say no and know that it's okay. Saying no. I've got no saying no. Rituals. Yes, yes. That's powerful. Thank you so much everyone. My name is Beatrice. My contribution or what I have acknowledged as what is working are safer spaces, safer spaces where we can be our full identity. So for me, even in my most recent experiences acknowledging that on the path to peace I somehow skip over anger and find sadness. But anger is such an important part of the evolution of who I am. And so creating safer spaces, specifically of women of color, to have opportunity to allow either through pen, through song, through dance, through movement, through shouting, primal screaming is wonderful. But having safer spaces to actually exercise that anger, to release it, to use it, and then to fine tune it through practice because I very much believe in that, to fine tune it through practice to then continue to transcend or work through it is such an incredible tool that I think that is something that I have experienced being done, not specifically in an all women of color group, but in a people of color group. I'd like to offer love circle sangha. They meet every third Sunday at the Brooklyn Zen Center. And the purpose of this is to use practice of the Dharma, practice of mindfulness, practice of listening in, tuning in, to activate and see how we can see ourselves as clear as possible, love ourselves as much as possible, and to find our liberation by accessing our tools that we walk with. So that is what I wanted to offer, thank you. Awesome, thank you for that. We're gonna go through these four really quick and then realize time is of the essence. You guys got me open and we need to make space for at least one question for the panel and if the panel has something else they need to say. So I'm gonna be quick. I'm Whitney Hunter. I took notes because I went to Howard University and there is a woman there, the late Dr. Charelle Berryman Johnson. Yay! Okay, the key thing that she taught me was come correct. Yes. I'm taking notes. So the notes I'm taking in reference to strategy, it's anecdotal. My cousin several years ago went to Hawaii all by herself out of nowhere. I didn't understand what in the world she was doing and never really got to the bottom of why she did it but sitting here today dawns on me that she did it because she needed to empower herself. She needed to sit with herself and be with herself and give herself permission to do what she wanted to do. So I don't know if the women in my family who raised me considered themselves feminists, womenists or what but based on today and based on my still very ignorant information, I would say they are. So I think that this idea of empowering and giving oneself permission is a strategy that should not be overlooked at all. Thank you. Hi, Tony. Hi, good afternoon, everyone. So one thing that I'm constantly trying to do and I surround myself with women who are doing the same thing whether they know it or not is to come out as a feminist. Lots of similar movements have their coming out, period. If you're queer identified, maybe you come out. If you're a victim of violence, maybe you stand up and testify to that and share your story and then people can understand and come to you through that. And maybe a lot of times people say, I didn't know this person was whatever that box you checked next to that person, but I like that person or I have access to that person. And now that I know that they're identified in this particular way, it opens that up to me. So I have a jacket where I wear a pin and it says feminist or I have a tote bag and it says feminist press on it or I have all kinds of things that are very small but then people see you, they're on the subway, they look at you, they're like, that's a feminist, what? Or like you're in a space, everywhere I am digitally in all my profiles it says this is a feminist. I'm very clear about how I'm purposefully identifying myself and the people I'm around do that as well. And so whenever you are in your place of business or in your artwork or just with family and friends, people might be drawn to you in a particular way because they like you, they think you're fun and special or pretty or whatever, I don't know what it is. And then they also see and that's a feminist and it broadens their mind and then maybe they can come to you and ask you about it. So that's a thing to do to just invite people in to let them know. You don't have to be a feminist in the closet, you can be a feminist out. And then when you do that, you might just wanna have your little elevator pitch ready so then people are like, what's that thing about? You're a feminist, that's crazy. You're like, well, actually. And then you can give them a little information. So you just bring them in, I'm sure, like let's just throw up there. That's part of the clergy. You can bring people in with the shoes, right? Girl, look at those shoes. By the way, I was blessed and I got these shoes and let me tell you, you know what I mean? So like, you just talk about it. That's all. Okay, thank you for that. Thank you for that. Hi, so going along with that, I think that it's become increasingly important that we address and explore and express the fluidity of feminism that there are women out there who can be, I can do bad all by myself and they can open their own doors, they pay for their own tasks, but then there are other women who would like the door to be open for them, would like to be catered to, and there are women who like both those things. It's not a binary and it goes in many different places and it goes in many different areas. And I think the problem with, or the why men and women and gender non-conforming people attribute words and phrases and theories to this word that are no longer really true at this point or because of the stereotypes that have been around since first wave, since this word feminism first came about and even if those things weren't true, that's how people still see it. And so it's just letting people know that this is not actually what the word means, it has grown, it has changed, it's different for every single person. And just because you identify doesn't mean that you hate men or you are sticking to this one idea of what the word means. And there's womanism, there's feminism, there's black feminism, there's all these different things and you don't have to, it's more about letting yourself define the label than letting the label define you. Absolutely. Yes. So thank you so much for the conversation. I feel like there's so much that I learned that it's hard to sort of pick one thing that I kind of wanna piggyback off of. But I'm a historian, so I found the question about futurism really fascinating, some of your responses. And what I love was how what was said was that sometimes we can go to our elders and sort of have them rethink things that for them is a norm. And that is also a kind of progress, right? That's a kind of advancement. Because often what happens is we only think of our children as the future, right? We don't see the people that came before us as also a part of our future. So I kind of love how this conversation opened that up. And then thinking in terms of futurism as well, I've been thinking a lot about Madam C.J. Walker in terms of the ways that now like black haircare has exploded. But there's a way in which she is still so, she's light years ahead of anything that I see in terms of like black women owning their own businesses, owning the means of production with our own haircare line. So again, there's a way in which the past is not just like this static dead place, right? It's constantly being refashioned and we can use it to inspire us to move forward. Thank you. Yeah. Karma. I'm gonna press the. This is so perfect. The sister who just spoke. Because this, oh okay, well there's that also. This Sankofi principle, right? Of going back to go forward is something that keeps coming back to me when I think about what this whole thing means, black feminism. There's a little video clip that I wanted to show because the whole is, it's in there like the next thing. Because I'm thinking about the generational changes in the conception and oh that's the beautiful, oh there's Beatrice, Beatrice look at you, right? Beatrice is one of the performers in this photo which comes out of my blues opera. But that's about women circling and creating community. That's why I put that photo in there. But this one right here, in Chicago, I have to wreck my hometown. So in Chicago, particularly on the west side. Okay, I'm looking at a lot of videos and doing some research right now about specifically the way that young black women are embodying complex concepts within quantum physics and mathematics in the way that they work with fractals in their footwork. And a lot of the specific movements that I see them doing look like the specific movements that manifest when certain West African deities, particularly Akan deities manifest, particularly Sankofa. The angles of the feet and the patterns that they're creating, Sankofa dance. Now these assistants on the west side of Chicago would definitely say no if you ask them if they were African, definitely say no if you ask them if they're a feminist. And yet they're embodying this thing that says, I'm gonna take this physical power that I have, I'm gonna express it artistically and I'm gonna conquer this male dominated space so. The war zone returns October 30th. It used to be jukin, originally they called it jukin, which again is an old, but now people know what it is now, so it's footwork now, Chicago footwork. So in 30 years you'll see the international footwork championships and they'll be. Absolutely. And the winners will all be blonde, but right now. In Denmark. Yeah. Yeah. That's keeping it real. Okay, so it's 358, we wanted to just make space if there were one or two questions for our panelists. If not, it's okay, cause we can have them speak, yes. What brings you joy is the question, what brings you joy? My couch. But yeah, rest, it could be the couch, it could be the car, the floor. Any flat surface. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what I'm talking about. I don't know what I'm talking about. Yeah. The first thing I thought of when you said that was you. Like this brings me joy, yeah. But music, music, music. It's a big question. I mean, a lot of things bring me joy. I mean, I would also agree that, you know, being with people, so traveling gives me a lot of joy, like getting a ticket and going somewhere where I don't understand the language, I don't know what I'm eating, like just really always sitting myself in situations where like things are new and cause me to rethink. Yeah, and I struggle between, I don't know if it's the cipher, like I love hosting ciphers, being a part of ciphers, being in the cipher, which is basically this kind of thing. And food. Yes. And so I love to cook. And even though I'm now on a healing diet that demands that I do less cooked food, I find myself now absorbed in raw food preparation and my dehydrator. And so I love this idea. And I think I got it from my grandma. And so although if I eat what she cooked us, I'd probably be in the hospital with my sensitive self, but I ate that for the first 20 years of my life, but that idea of preparing food and sharing it and having people enjoy it, I just like, when my apartment got robbed, broken into that night, I was gonna cook anyway because my boyfriend was coming by, we're gonna cook and eat. And I ended up cooking like 20 people were coming over. And then everybody looked at me like I was crazy. Like you just got robbed, the police are coming here. I realized that I was in therapy. I made stuff I couldn't eat. I made casserole. I baked some fish. Like I was just like, I was it, but I couldn't stop cooking because it was the second time my apartment got robbed. And that was it. But I love, yeah, so I love food. Food, I love food. I wish we had some food, Shayway. Why don't we have food today? Right. At least it's 51, Map of the National, because maybe that should be a conversation. Yeah, so we don't have food, but I just wanna remind everybody, before you leave and before this ends, that we do have some samples from Cabin Kings, from our new who's here, for our natural hair. So be sure that you, our new essentials, excuse me. So please make sure you take a sample. And we've talked a lot today about taking care of ourselves and about hair, about Madame CJ Walker and we have someone who is creating her own products and are missed right here, so. Really important. Those are available. Really important. So anything you all need to mention, we, in terms of the folks here, Ebony, Rasue, before we wrap up, is there anything we need to bring? We shouldn't, do you have the other two events available? Ebony has it. The card, yeah, I don't have it. Ebony, let's do it. Okay, hey, thank y'all so much. I'm Southern, so we, I say y'all. But before I do that, I wanted to make sure we didn't have any questions from the live stream. Do we have any questions? Okay, okay. Hey, everybody, just wave to the live stream people. Thank y'all for being here with us, Cyberspace. Okay, so we have two more encounters, engagements. On November 8th, Mythologies of the Diva, reexamining the image of black women in popular culture. This engagement will be moderated by Shawnee Jamila. And our final engagement will be beyond binaries and boxes, deconstructing and re-envisioning black feminisms, and I will be facilitating that. It won't be a panel, it won't be a conversation. It'll be a strategy session. So come back for the next two. Next time on November 8th, we're going to have a reception and a live DJ mixing, so come back. Every week is gonna be something different, so thank you. And make sure you tell folks about the dialogue. A lot of people are talking about this stuff over the coffee table, on the phone, and these conversations, it's a lot of this is coming up, and so it's really great that there's an organized space for learning, for venting, for building, and for connecting, and I think it's really important that when we get information, we share it. And so even if you're not sure, to just let 10 people know who you think might be interested to find out, because there's a lot of information out there and it's kind of hard for the land, because some of us can get so busy, and then we hear about it, like the sister who showed up because of the class today. Oh, you over there. Yes. So I'm honored to have been a part of this conversation. I'm sending my praise up for my sister, Nina Angela Mercer, and who's not here with us, and. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks everybody. Okay, and so if you want to cypher in the lobby. Yes. Highlight. We can cypher out front.