So–for those of us who like things short and sweet with little fan fare, I have decided to finish up the week of collaboration introductions by doing just a short bullet pointy sorta post that gets down to the nitty gritty of what Jess and I are doing here.
1. Every week, Jess and I will go on (at least) one walk a week.
2. During that walk, Jess and I will intentionally consider and center our bodies, our health, community, radical love, collaboration, and/or what the other posted about the week before.
3. Each of us will then post our thoughts on alternative Mondays. I will start the first Monday and the rotation will continue from there.
Although I have written out these three “rules,” I want to emphasize that Jess and I are centralizing love and health and accountability to our bodies and the needs of our bodies. As such–if there comes a week where, for example, I am not feeling well (for whatever reason) and simply don’t want to go for a walk–I’m not going to. I’m going to listen to my body and post a marvelous post about why not going for a walk was the best thing for me that week!
Flexibility, gentleness, and love is the name of the game here–or, as Jess said:
Walking, Webster’s tells me, comes from the Old English “to roll, toss, journey about.” Among its contemporary definitions are to “roam, wander” and “to pursue a course of action or way of life.” Walking is a lot more than moving straight ahead, erect on two feet. We want to use this space to walk sometimes together, and sometimes divergently, in a collaborative pursuit of new ways of moving in the world—new ways of locating our bodies outdoors, new ways of understanding or actively using our movement through public space in a social-justice context, new ways of making movement and through that (re)making our worlds.
One of the things that I remember talking about Jess with as we worked on solidifying our plans was how even just “meeting” together in a meeting (in a traditional sense–i.e. finding/reserving a room to meet in, sitting and working through bullet points of ideas agreed upon before hand, etc) is often not conducive to recognizing the multiple ways people think. As somebody with ADD, I’ve found that extended conversations that take place in “meetings” often lead me to start thinking about naked people. One friend made the joke that when she wanted to get me back on track and in the conversation she was gonna flash her boobs at me (totally true story).
So why isn’t the concept of a ‘meeting’ ever challenged? Why can’t a ‘meeting’ ever be going for a hike? Or putting together an alter? Or going to a cider mill?
But at the same time–it may be a good *idea* to have a meeting over a hike–but once it’s actually done, what happens? What works? What doesn’t?
This is what Jess and I will be doing with this collaboration. Intentionally working to find ways to be flexible, build community, find new ways of thinking, and moving together–all while centralizing health–or, radical love–we will be documenting the creating of a new brick.
My first post will be up on Monday–I hope you’ll come along for the walk! 
~en lucha
- Share
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:48 pm #
writer Rebecca solnit often muses on the acting of walking, she wrote an entire book on th history of walking and she beautifully connects the act of walking to politics and freedom.
that book is called wanderlust.
someone else who does this well is Ted Leo, he sings about the connection of walking and politics.
And she said, “Roll out and make your mark. Pull on your boots and march. “Then roll on and meet me where you’ll find me doing my own part”
-shake the sheets
-walking to do
http://www.metrolyrics.com/walking-to-do-lyrics-ted-leo-the-pharmacists.html
-little dawn
http://www.sing365.com/music/Lyric.nsf/Little-Dawn-lyrics-Ted-Leo-The-Pharmacists/AF5BB3631156283848256F350004AAB8
-bridges and squares
http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858490502/
and just because it always strikes me:
“Your peace and quiet is criminal
While there’s injustice in the town”
January 25th, 2009 at 2:48 pm #
“So why isn’t the concept of a ‘meeting’ ever challenged? Why can’t a ‘meeting’ ever be going for a hike? Or putting together an alter? Or going to a cider mill?” Skiing, tennis, cocktails – that’s how the ruling class does it!
January 25th, 2009 at 3:45 pm #
I know, I know, I forgot golf and lobster.
January 26th, 2009 at 12:05 pm #
haha. very very good point chuckie k, re: ski trips and golf etc. considering networking in my other post, I *totally* forgot that while I’m trying to break from networking as love–in all reality–there are actually very strong elements of bougie networking in other areas that I’m considering!!!! I guess it didn’t occur to me because I’ve never been important enough to be a part of those type of meetings!!!!
well, we can forget that aspect of introspection–we all *know* that meeting over cocktails works *brilliantly* and it’s something we should all aspire to!!!! :p
February 2nd, 2009 at 8:14 am #
This isn’t entirely relevant, but how do you defend collaborating in resonse to this:
http://www.nathanielturner.com/whiteantiracistsopenletter.htm
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:34 am #
SA–not sure if you’re talking to me, BFP or to Jess–but I’ll take a stab at answering first!!
That was a fierce statement. One that I disagreed with AND agreed with all at the same time. The biggest thing I disagreed with is that I don’t think “White” is as solid of an identity as the author makes it out to be–I think that there are a LOT of self-identified women of color (myself) that look white but identify as woc (because of bi racial parents etc)–and assimilated poc that play around with the borders of whiteness in interesting ways, etc.
Having said that tho, I think that the over all point of her post was not to deliberate whiteness, but to create a manifesto!!
which leads me to, I agree with the tone, the flavor, the ideas of the manifesto. There’s a LOT of reasons I would never *ever* collaborate with any white woman other than Jess–and she listed almost all of them. Which is not to say that Jess is the miricle white woman or that Jess has everything all figured out or that jess truly is the exception to the rule and is a white anti-racist. not at all.
it’s more to say that in working with Jess-rule number one was fufilled for me: First, don’t call us, we’ll call you.
I was *very* deliberative and purposeful and intentional in asking Jess to collaborate with me. The ball was and continues to be in my court–through mutual trust and understanding between Jess and I. as Jess notes in her latest post–she was a much different person a few years ago, and honestly, after reading her post, I wonder if I would have even asked her to work with me back when she was 25.
But since it’s NOW–it’s not so much that “things are different and Jess is a better person and as such I embrace her” but more–I trust MYSELF to know how to make the right decisions. to know when there’s something I want to work with, an idea I want to struggle with and through, and I trust myself enough to know that *I* called Jess–and that I think is the thing that I would have to say to ANY woman of color that is interested in working with white women–did *YOU* call THEM–which, i think implies–did you work through a concious *choice* and *decision making process* before you worked with white women–or did you just do it, putting “the cause” above and over your own needs?
I don’t know if that makes sense. it’s hard for me to explain a lot of the stuff going through my head, because much of it is instinct and trusting instinct and intuition…
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:58 am #
SA,
I wasn’t sure if you were asking me or BFP either, so I wanted to hang back a bit for BFP (the original post writer) to respond first.
For whatever it’s worth, I think there’s a lot of really important, critical stuff in that open letter. One thing I understand but find a little confusing is the “oxymoron” bit, which I think relies on the notion that antiracists who identify as white believe in whiteness, which I think many folks don’t. For me personally, when i identify as white, it’s not because I believe in “whiteness,” which I totally agree is a social construct, and one that is all about assimilation to power — so I identify as “white” not to say I truly identify with that construction, but to acknowledge that, however much I know it’s a construction, I live in this society as a white person, benefiting from white privilege at every turn. I feel like it’s important to be honest about that as part of challenging racism.
But mostly I really appreciate the letter — even if my appreciation is really beside the point!
In terms of your question about how to defend collaboration in light of that — well, I’m really questioning a lot around that and not sure I have or want to have a solid or single defense.
February 2nd, 2009 at 11:14 am #
defend collaboration in light of that
yeah, SA, i’m not sure if you meant to use the term “defend” or not–and so I didn’t want to read to much into the word, but I must say that I don’t feel the need to defend anything–mostly because if I was defending something, it would be implying that in some way, I may possibly have made a bad decision in deciding to collaborate with Jess, and I don’t feel I did. I have learned that there are SO many ways to discount and belittle the choices that esp women of color make, and I don’t buy for a minute that the author of that essay would in anyway be making her critique in an attempt to discount or discredit or make me question myself. I think she was first and foremost saying that people of color must be leaders in a movement to dismatle a structure of oppression–which would imply that she would be supportive of any decision making I or any other woman of color did.
I feel confident and trust myself–and I really think that’s what counts at this point.
February 2nd, 2009 at 11:39 am #
Wow, this was a really helpful conversation to read — thanks to everyone.
Re: your point, bfp, about *choosing* to work with white people…NEVER HAVE TRUER WORDS BEEN SPOKEN!!! haha.
I wrote my college thesis on whiteness in high-traffic white feminist blogs, and partway through I really began to burn out on the work. But since it was a mandatory school thing, I felt I had to push through and keep interviewing white feminists, thinking about white feminists, writing about white feminists. The project began as a way to collaborate, to reverse the lens and critique whiteness, but it ended up trapping me into spending my time and energy on something that wasn’t nourishing me. Very important lesson, one that brought me closer to the confidence you now have in yourself, bfp, about “trust[ing] MYSELF to know how to make the right decisions.”
Ah, growth. :->)
February 3rd, 2009 at 4:12 am #
Thanks for those responses. I think defend was the wrong word. I will be more careful with language in future.