1 00:00:04,693 --> 00:00:07,984 Hi, it's me, Sister Doctor Lex, 2 00:00:07,984 --> 00:00:13,902 and welcome to week 5 of Audre Lorde Resurrection Sundays. 3 00:00:13,902 --> 00:00:17,357 Can you believe we've already been doing this for more than a month? 4 00:00:17,357 --> 00:00:19,030 Thanks for watching again. 5 00:00:19,030 --> 00:00:25,269 Right now, I am in Anguilla visiting my family, and I am so happy to be here, 6 00:00:25,269 --> 00:00:29,884 and definitely feeling very close to the energy of my ancestors 7 00:00:29,884 --> 00:00:34,341 and the divinity that I always feel when I'm here. 8 00:00:34,341 --> 00:00:39,743 So this week's poem is called "Call", 9 00:00:39,743 --> 00:00:44,448 from Audre Lorde's 1986 collection "Our Dead Behind Us". 10 00:00:44,448 --> 00:00:48,942 And she explains the name of the goddess that you will hear repeated in this poem, 11 00:00:48,942 --> 00:00:52,197 Aido Hwedo is the Rainbow Serpent, 12 00:00:52,197 --> 00:00:57,190 and also in this powm, the name for all those ancient divinities 13 00:00:57,190 --> 00:00:59,997 whose names and faces have been forgotten. 14 00:01:08,125 --> 00:01:10,442 "Call 15 00:01:12,793 --> 00:01:14,992 Holy ghost woman 16 00:01:14,992 --> 00:01:18,425 stolen out of your name 17 00:01:18,425 --> 00:01:19,794 Rainbow Serpent 18 00:01:19,794 --> 00:01:23,294 whose faces have been forgotten 19 00:01:23,294 --> 00:01:28,117 Mother, loosen my tongue or adorn me 20 00:01:28,117 --> 00:01:30,320 with a lighter burden 21 00:01:30,320 --> 00:01:34,965 Aido Hwedo is coming. 22 00:01:34,965 --> 00:01:38,327 On worn kitchen stools and tables 23 00:01:38,327 --> 00:01:42,194 we are piecing our weapons together 24 00:01:42,194 --> 00:01:44,935 scraps of different histories 25 00:01:44,935 --> 00:01:46,859 do not let us shatter 26 00:01:46,859 --> 00:01:49,183 any altar 27 00:01:49,183 --> 00:01:54,224 she who scrubs the capitol toilets, listening 28 00:01:54,224 --> 00:01:57,654 is your sister's youngest daughter 29 00:01:57,654 --> 00:02:00,386 gnarled Harriet's anointed 30 00:02:00,386 --> 00:02:03,133 you have not been without honor 31 00:02:03,133 --> 00:02:06,359 even the young guerrilla has chosen 32 00:02:06,359 --> 00:02:09,523 yells as she fires into the thicket 33 00:02:09,523 --> 00:02:13,756 Aido Hwedo is coming. 34 00:02:13,756 --> 00:02:18,325 I have written your names on my cheekbone 35 00:02:18,325 --> 00:02:20,492 dreamed your eyes 36 00:02:20,492 --> 00:02:22,950 flesh my epiphany 37 00:02:22,950 --> 00:02:25,225 most ancient goddesses 38 00:02:25,225 --> 00:02:28,360 hear me enter 39 00:02:28,360 --> 00:02:31,293 I have not forgotten your worship 40 00:02:31,293 --> 00:02:33,455 nor my sisters 41 00:02:33,455 --> 00:02:36,392 nor the sons of my daughters 42 00:02:36,392 --> 00:02:41,123 my children watch for your print in their labors 43 00:02:41,123 --> 00:02:46,492 and they say Aido Hwedo is coming. 44 00:02:46,492 --> 00:02:49,790 I am a Black woman turning 45 00:02:49,790 --> 00:02:52,751 mouthing your name as a password 46 00:02:52,751 --> 00:02:55,593 through seductions self-slaughter 47 00:02:55,593 --> 00:02:58,962 and I believe in the holy ghost mother 48 00:02:58,967 --> 00:03:01,654 in your flames beyond our vision 49 00:03:01,654 --> 00:03:05,598 blown light through the fingers of women 50 00:03:05,598 --> 00:03:08,561 enduring warring 51 00:03:08,561 --> 00:03:11,795 sometimes outside your name 52 00:03:11,795 --> 00:03:15,121 we do not choose all our rituals 53 00:03:15,121 --> 00:03:18,585 Thandi Modise winged girl of Soweto 54 00:03:18,585 --> 00:03:22,317 brought fire back home in the snout of a mortar 55 00:03:22,317 --> 00:03:25,452 and passes the word from her prison cell 56 00:03:25,452 --> 00:03:30,253 whispering Aido Hwedo is coming. 57 00:03:30,253 --> 00:03:33,818 Rainbow Serpent who must not go unspoken 58 00:03:33,818 --> 00:03:37,184 I have ottered up the safety of separations 59 00:03:37,184 --> 00:03:39,591 sung the spirals of power 60 00:03:39,591 --> 00:03:41,687 and what fills the spaces 61 00:03:41,687 --> 00:03:44,885 before power unfolds or flounders 62 00:03:44,885 --> 00:03:47,514 in desirable non-essentials 63 00:03:47,514 --> 00:03:49,893 I am a Black woman 64 00:03:49,893 --> 00:03:52,417 stripped down and praying 65 00:03:52,417 --> 00:03:55,755 my whole life has been an altar 66 00:03:55,755 --> 00:03:57,458 worth its ending 67 00:03:57,458 --> 00:04:02,723 and I say Aido Hwedo is coming. 68 00:04:02,723 --> 00:04:04,896 I may be a weed in the garden 69 00:04:04,896 --> 00:04:06,785 of women I have loved 70 00:04:06,785 --> 00:04:09,558 who are still trapped in their season 71 00:04:09,558 --> 00:04:12,490 but even they shriek 72 00:04:12,490 --> 00:04:15,829 as they rip burning gold from their skins 73 00:04:15,829 --> 00:04:19,985 Aido Hwedo is coming. 74 00:04:19,985 --> 00:04:22,950 We are learning by heart 75 00:04:22,950 --> 00:04:26,384 what has never been taught 76 00:04:26,384 --> 00:04:29,087 you are my given fire-tongued 77 00:04:29,087 --> 00:04:34,392 Oya Seboulisa Mawu Afrekete 78 00:04:34,392 --> 00:04:38,191 and now we are mourning our sisters 79 00:04:38,191 --> 00:04:41,056 lost to the false hush of sorrow 80 00:04:41,056 --> 00:04:44,225 to hardness and hatchets and childbirth 81 00:04:44,225 --> 00:04:46,016 and we are shouting 82 00:04:46,016 --> 00:04:48,785 Rosa Parks and Fannie Lou Hamer 83 00:04:48,785 --> 00:04:51,784 Assata Shakur and Yaa Asantewa 84 00:04:51,784 --> 00:04:57,823 my mother and Winnie Mandela are singing in my throat 85 00:04:57,823 --> 00:05:00,084 the holy ghosts linguist 86 00:05:00,084 --> 00:05:03,277 one iron silence broken 87 00:05:03,277 --> 00:05:05,824 Aido Hwedo is calling 88 00:05:05,824 --> 00:05:07,090 calling 89 00:05:07,090 --> 00:05:08,588 your daughters are named 90 00:05:08,588 --> 00:05:10,180 and conceiving 91 00:05:10,180 --> 00:05:12,309 Mother loosen my tongue 92 00:05:12,309 --> 00:05:13,927 or adorn me 93 00:05:13,927 --> 00:05:15,821 with a lighter burden 94 00:05:15,821 --> 00:05:17,971 Aido Hwedo is coming. 95 00:05:18,202 --> 00:05:20,229 Aido Hwedo is coming. 96 00:05:20,383 --> 00:05:23,990 Aido Hwedo is coming." 97 00:05:30,335 --> 00:05:35,371 So of course, I love this poem. 98 00:05:35,371 --> 00:05:39,608 I love that this poem is about collective survival, 99 00:05:39,608 --> 00:05:49,838 about the survival of that black, feminine, transformative, warrior spirit, 100 00:05:49,838 --> 00:05:54,073 divinely flowing through Audre Lorde of course, 101 00:05:54,073 --> 00:05:59,098 flowing through anyone who reembodies and narrates this poem, 102 00:05:59,098 --> 00:06:02,497 flowing through, as she names, the sisters, 103 00:06:02,497 --> 00:06:05,793 the daughters, the sons of the daughters, 104 00:06:05,793 --> 00:06:13,304 even the closeted women who she loves and who treat her like a weed in their garden, 105 00:06:13,304 --> 00:06:17,575 still, that energy moves through. 106 00:06:17,575 --> 00:06:22,266 And I am so grateful for the way that energy can be with us, 107 00:06:22,266 --> 00:06:26,376 and the way this poem makes space for that energy to move through 108 00:06:26,376 --> 00:06:30,317 as faith, as wisdom, as each of us. 109 00:06:30,317 --> 00:06:34,868 And speaking of South Africa, and clearing space, 110 00:06:34,868 --> 00:06:38,296 and black feminine transformative warrior divinity, 111 00:06:38,296 --> 00:06:40,635 and calling names, 112 00:06:40,635 --> 00:06:47,570 Gloria Joseph sent out a very timely and pointed email recently, 113 00:06:47,570 --> 00:06:50,373 asking from a black feminist perspective 114 00:06:50,373 --> 00:06:55,365 why is it, that as we honour and uplift Nelson Mandela, 115 00:06:55,365 --> 00:06:58,264 and his recent transition to join the ancestors, 116 00:06:58,264 --> 00:07:04,566 the name Winnie Mandela has been conspicuously absent, 117 00:07:04,566 --> 00:07:09,119 and has not been lifted up in the way that it might be. 118 00:07:09,119 --> 00:07:16,488 And so in the spirit of honouring that inquiry, which I think we could all think about, 119 00:07:16,488 --> 00:07:21,987 and lifting up the name of Winnie Mandela as Audre Lorde does in this poem, 120 00:07:21,987 --> 00:07:25,196 I want to offer the Poem For The Letter W 121 00:07:25,196 --> 00:07:32,823 that I distilled when I was reading through, working with this poem, 26 times. 122 00:07:32,823 --> 00:07:36,566 So this is the Poem For The Letter W. 123 00:07:36,966 --> 00:07:41,795 Woman whose worn 124 00:07:41,795 --> 00:07:46,433 we weapons without written worship 125 00:07:46,433 --> 00:07:51,137 watch woman women warring 126 00:07:51,137 --> 00:07:55,125 we winged word whispering 127 00:07:55,125 --> 00:07:58,262 who? what woman? 128 00:07:58,262 --> 00:08:02,271 whole worth weed women 129 00:08:02,271 --> 00:08:04,836 who? we 130 00:08:04,836 --> 00:08:07,573 what? we. 131 00:08:07,573 --> 00:08:11,293 we, Winnie Mandela." 132 00:08:13,031 --> 00:08:15,721 And your assignment this week 133 00:08:15,721 --> 00:08:20,222 is to call the names of those ancestrally present, 134 00:08:20,222 --> 00:08:25,492 those living, those who you intend to live one day, 135 00:08:25,492 --> 00:08:32,984 who will carry this warrior, transformative energy that we so need in the times that we live in. 136 00:08:32,984 --> 00:08:35,922 So call the names of your own ancestors, 137 00:08:35,922 --> 00:08:39,349 call the names of the warriors you admire, 138 00:08:39,349 --> 00:08:42,354 call your own name in the mirror, 139 00:08:42,354 --> 00:08:47,384 this week, making space for that transformative energy that you may need, 140 00:08:47,384 --> 00:08:49,415 as a warrior in your own life, 141 00:08:49,415 --> 00:08:52,615 and that we certainly, collectively, need 142 00:08:52,615 --> 00:08:57,691 as those who have the stewardship for carrying this energy forward 143 00:08:57,691 --> 00:09:01,346 among our species and on our planet. 144 00:09:01,346 --> 00:09:07,294 As always, I am so grateful to Audre Lorde for giving us the space, giving us this poem 145 00:09:07,294 --> 00:09:10,367 as a ritual to bring that energy through. 146 00:09:10,367 --> 00:09:13,954 And I'm so happy to be able to share it with you. 147 00:09:13,954 --> 00:09:17,059 Please do check out the School of Our Lorde website 148 00:09:17,059 --> 00:09:22,400 and hit me up if you are interested in having your own custom poem, 149 00:09:22,400 --> 00:09:27,002 or in working more with the energy of the Lorde, 150 00:09:27,002 --> 00:09:31,964 and... yes! I will see you next week, from Anguilla again, 151 00:09:31,964 --> 00:09:34,164 on Resurrection Sunday.