summer of phoenix

I've been off the radar again for the past few months... and too much has transpired to really "catch up" on my blog writing...  too many juicy and important things to respond to and critique...  and oh so much to share... And so I'm starting from summer and highlights of what's been going on in my world. I celebrated and brought in my 35th earthyear in June :) - feeling extra grown and sexy, cultivating beauty, goodness, healing, spirit, and love for this year and many more to come.

This summer brings transformation, radiant light, challenges, and new opportunities. I just moved from Connecticut after a two year visiting gig at UConn, and I am pleased and blessed to begin a new job - assistant professor of English at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania! So I am in transition/limbo for the month of July - and I move into my new place and start my new job early August! And with all this fyah I'm burning bright and sharing my light with all those around me. 

Spring was rough in all kinds of ways... but I have moved, grown, and pushed through it all - as one of my closest and best friends said to me today - like a Phoenix! I feel it too - emerging from the ashes of disappointment, difficult times, and rough spaces...  feeling re-born in these times of major shifts in our planet and time on this earth. This year is serious for all of us - especially those of us who tap into the universe and our spiritual connections with each other and the earth. I have received so many blessings these past few months - deepened friendships and loveships, worked on and sustained many community projects, and with all of that - having the space to write, create, teach, and build. I am doing what I love to do in so many ways - and I continue to be grateful for my community, my chosen families, my ancestors who guide me, and all those who sustain and nurture me.

My work continues with Ayiti Resurrect - and I am actually on my way to Haiti this week for a ground work trip - preparing for our second delegation scheduled for January 2012. Check out the website for more info - and this link for an update on our fundraising efforts.

Ayiti Resurrect is a grassroots collective of visionary artists, holistic healers, and community builders with bloodlines in Haiti and the African Diaspora, working in collaboration with local Haitian organizations to help address the psychological, spiritual and emotional healing of the survivors of the January 12, 2010 earthquake. Our continued work and efforts to build sustainable programming in the community of Comier, Leogone is contingent upon raising enough funds. We are in the midst of major fundraising efforts. And so in the spirit of conscious vibration, I am asking for your support! Please donate and/or spread the word about our grassroots collective healing work! Donation page

My work with Caribbean IRN has been incredible and we have had an amazing spring into summer of important collaborations, presentations, webseminars, and events. We have established and been promoting our digital collection on the Digital Library of the Caribbean - and launched the Jamaica Gay Freedom Movement Archive in June. We hosted a historic event with Larry Chang and Thomas Glave based in Brooklyn and over the web with host sites in The Bahamas and Jamaica - Preserving our Stories: Caribbean LGBT Histories and Activism on June 21st. It was a beautiful diasporic event! And I was thrilled to include my people in the Bahamas for such an important conversation and exchange. I am working on a piece about this event, which will be featured in a prominent Caribbean journal at the end of summer. So more on that soon soon. Please check out the links above to see all the fantastic work and community building I have been fostering and dedicated to for over three years.


I am heading to Haiti today with my comrade in the struggle Naima. Please keep us in your prayers, thoughts, and meditations as we make this journey to build and organize for January 2012. And let us all hold ourselves (and each other) close this summer - during these months of transformation, blooming, and heat... Let us tap into all the extraordinary energies that are circulating and offering blessings and possibilities for growth and change. Let us keep looking up and letting the universe and the moon guide us. 


Under an orange moon in North Carolina in mid June, I let go of so much - and by doing that, I found SPACE to breathe, release, and expand - spirited evolution and creative blossoms fueled by the elements - exfoliating in golden sand, bathing in greenish blue salty ocean, embracing full moon blessings, soaking in high tides, building with chosen family, and carving space to be who we are. 


I Give Thanks.