Dear Beloved Community,
It’s winter and all is grim in the world. I am trying to notice small delights that I can– rabbit footprints in the snow, the first juicy bite of a Sumo Orange, and snail mail to and from faraway friends and comrades. As culture workers who make meaning on the axis of abolition, we often stand at the threshold of urgency because we are in a society designed for people, organizations, and artists who operate outside capitalism to fail. The threshold of urgency can propel us into distraction from our work, our labor in the fields of justice. So how can we build strategic portals of change? I think it’s right here, continuing the day-to-day almost mundane tasks, deepening relationships with your community and joining local mutual aid and organizing groups because it’s much harder to stop a whole community rooted in liberation than an individual positioned within their own self-care.
An invitation that has helped me continue on is from the great matriarch of modern literature, Toni Morrison. She so aptly said, “The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being.” The truth is we don’t need to explain our reasons for being, our breathing is a direct disruption of white supremacy. Each of us are constellations of courage glittering with enough hope and passion to start the world over.
-Katelyn Rivas, Network Liaison
