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Hello loved ones!

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I'm Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs,

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welcome back to Audre Lorde Resurrection Sunday.

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Um... catching up! I'm catching up [br]on the Sundays that I missed,

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and this past weekend we were in Houston,

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facilitating Mobile Homecoming, grounding,

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with a team of awesome facilitators,

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The Fullness: an all day institute [br]on erotic power and spiritual wellness,

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inspired by Audre Lorde's [br]"Uses of the Erotic/Power of the Erotic."

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And it was incredible,

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about a hundred people [br]participated throughout the day,

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and it was powerful to witness all these folks

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stepping into their full, embodied power[br]in relationship to their sexuality,

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their sexual practice, their political practice, [br]their creative practice,

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their spiritual and religious practice,[br]everything.

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So, one of the poems that we used, [br]and did an oracle with during the institute,

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is Audre Lorde's "Love Poem", from her collection [br]New York City Headshop and Museum.

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And I'm gonna share it with you right now.

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<i>"Love Poem"</i>

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<i>Speak earth and bless me with what is richest</i>

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<i>make sky flow honey out of my hips</i>

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<i>rigid as mountains</i>

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<i>spread over a valley</i>

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<i>carved out by the mouth of rain.</i>

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<i>And I knew when I entered her I was</i>

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<i>high wind in her forests</i>

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<i>hollow fingers whispering sound</i>

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<i>honey flowed from the split cup</i>

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<i>impaled on a lance of tongues</i>

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<i>on the tips of her breasts, on her navel</i>

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<i>and my breath, howling into her entrances</i>

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<i>through lungs of pain.</i>

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<i>Greedy as herring-gulls</i>

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<i>or a child</i>

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<i>I swing out over the earth</i>

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<i>over and over</i>

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<i>again.</i>

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So, I love this poem for many reasons.

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Two that are really important in terms of [br]this whole context of survival,

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and re-defining survival [br]with the guidance of Audre Lorde,

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are that this is a poem where she talks explicitly [br]and makes a connection between

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her sexual practice, her intimate embodied love [br]for women or for a woman,

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and her spiritual practice of connecting with nature, [br]connecting with the earth itself,

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and the valleys and the rain[br]and everything.

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And I think that the Fullness Institute [br]was really all about that...

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how can we activate our embodied practice,[br]and our intimacy with each other,

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and our intimacy with ourselves

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as a resource that has us be more alive, [br]more connected with nature,

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and more in tune with our spiritual power.

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So, we're really excited about what all the participants in the institute will do with that

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as they go forward.

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We are thrilled about all of [br]the co-sponsoring organizations,

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25 different organizations who are doing this work,[br]helping people live fully in their bodies year round,

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and you can check that out if you go to the[br]Mobile Homecoming tumblr:

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mobilehomecoming.tumblr.com

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And the other thing that I think is [br]really important about this poem,

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--and this speaks to your assignment should you choose to accept it--

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is that when Audre Lorde first submitted this poem for publication with her publisher at the time,

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Broadside Press, which is one of the most important[br]publishers of the black arts movement,

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her editor pushed back

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and said that <i>Oh, this is confusing,</i>

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<i>there's something you know about the pronouns,</i>

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*<i>"I" entered "her", you know, that doesn't...</i>

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<i>that doesn't really make sense...</i>

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And Audre Lorde was like

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<i>no, there's nothing wrong with the pronouns,</i>

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<i>y'know, I'm saying exactly what I want to say</i>.

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But the way that Broadside Press [br]had been marketing her work

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was as a mother, as a Black Nationalist woman,[br]as a teacher,

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not as her whole self,

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as a Black, lesbian, warrior, poet, mother,[br]who she was.

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And she took a stand with this particular poem,

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which Broadside Press did publish [br]in her next collection,

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New York City Headshop and Museum,

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and she also read the poem publicly[br]all around New York City

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as one of her acts of declaring who she was[br]and how she worked,

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how her spiritual practice worked,

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what the role of her love for women [br]was in her life,

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not just as an abstract idea, but also as [br]an embodied way of engaging with the planet.

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And it was really a poem that allowed her [br]to unapologetically declare who she was,

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and when someone interviewed her about why she named herself in these ways,

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why every time she spoke she came to say [br]"<i>I am a Black lesbian warrior poet mother,</i>"

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<i>doing my work, come to ask you [br]are you doing yours?"</i>

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Someone asked her, <i>y'know, why do you have this whole litany of words when you introduce yourself?</i>

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And she shared that she had not known that

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Langston Hughes, a poet who had mentored her,[br]who she knew personally,

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who was very important to her as a poet,

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as he's important to all of us,

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but also as a person who she knew,

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who gave her advice about her own poetry,

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she never knew about his sexuality,[br]about that aspect of his life until after he was dead.

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And she decided at that moment,

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she wanted everyone to know [br]the parts of herself that mattered to her.

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And she knew that she wouldn't be able to predict [br]who would find healing

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in her ability to unapologetically declare [br]who she was,

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who would be out there who could identify [br]with a piece of who she was

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and would live to see her example.

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And I love that, I love hearing that and knowing that,

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because of course, I am a person [br]who found her work after she passed on.

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I'm absolutely empowered by the unapologetic way [br]she described herself,

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and I'm sure many of us, many of you watching [br]this video are also empowered by her bravery.

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So! Your assignment for this week[br]in the name of Audre Lorde

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is to think about that.

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What is something about yourself that [br]you want to declare more unapologetically?

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It could have to do with your sexuality [br]or sensuality or your practice,

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or it could really also be anything, y'know, like,

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if you are an artist but you've been kind of underplaying that part of who you are,

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what would it look like to unapologetically [br]declare yourself as an artist?

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To highlight your creative practice[br]where people can see it.

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Or whatever it is, you know,

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if you really wanna highlight your relationship with your siblings more...

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[<i> CANNOT HEAR THIS PART </i>]

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...what would it look like to say

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"<i>Y'know what? Being a sister is a crucial part of who I am, and I really want to spread that to the world</i>"

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Or for whatever reason.

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With no apologies.

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I mean, my siblings are amazing, [br]I'm obsessed with them.

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No apologies for that.

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So whatever that is for you, the idea is for you to unapologetically express that this week.

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If you wanna leave a comment, if you wanna [br]email me I would love to hear about it,

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and if you want a poem blessing [br]like the participants in the Institute got,

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distilled from Audre Lorde's "Love Poem", [br]you can figure out how to do that,

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either right below this video or at[br]

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summerofourlorde.wordpress.com

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Thank you so much for listening,[br]for watching,

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sending you much much much much love.

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MWAH! Happy Resurrection Sunday.