Happy Black History Month,
White supremacy is a deadly lie that insists sameness offers safety. That isolation equals protection. That comfort for a select few is worth the catastrophic cost for everyone else. That me and mine matter more than you, and yours, and ours.
Our shared survival, Bernice Johnson Reagon teaches, depends upon our learning how to cultivate coalition. Coalition, she cautions, is not comfortable nor comforting. Coalition is not easy or neat or pure. Coalition is not home. Coalition is an invitation to risk – to live and dream and move and collaborate with people who threaten us to our core. Coalition is the chaos of conflict and creativity. The strength of difference, and the disorientation of transformation. The power of “we.” The practice of freedom. In coalition, we each have a different role to play. My work is not the same as your work, and yours is not the same as their work. But we each have work to do. Uprooting supremacy and resisting dominance, in every manifestation.
Silos of sameness will not save us. But places of belonging, embrace, and rest are necessary, too. This month, we are exploring becoming home for each other, by imagining and seeding coalition. Coalition that roots in and emerges from the Sacred Wisdom of Black liberation. Black feminism. Black transness. Black queerness. Black beauty. Black power. Black joy. Black aliveness. Because our lives and our futures are bound up together. And Black Freedom Wisdom whispers: nobody’s free until everybody’s free.
-Anna Blaedel co-director enfleshed
Coalition isn’t accidental, particularly when intersectional identities are considered. It is something that is cultivated over time and actively refuses assimilation. “silos of sameness” is such a good term from my colleague anna and something I sit with now in the early days of a new presidential administration that is committed to its (silos of sameness) flourishing. I love Black History Month because it offers, especially to the Black body/spirit/mind, the opportunity to rest, dream and learn about one another. As so many of us (Black folks) take off our cape this month, we are allowing ourselves to sit with the legacies of our ancestors and consider Black futures of flourishing. Something that I would like *everyone* to consider this month is the vast range of Black beauty, joy, pain, and thought. This expansiveness gets cut short when I observe book lists that only revolve around antiracism. There is more of us to consider and bear witness to. This is a month at enfleshed where we are thinking about systems and paths of coalition. Coalition necessitates that we learn who we are as individuals and where we are going.
-Robert Monson
Robert Monson
co-director
Robert (he/him) is a runner, musician, and a Black theologian committed to softness, contemplation, and liberation for all. As a recent seminary graduate (with distinction) and a current PhD student, Robert studied in-depth the intersection of Black Liberation Theology and womanist theology. Weaving together these two strands of liberation have been important work as well as other liberation based theologies. “How can we help facilitate community and provide answers to a hurting world that is reeling?” remains an important question in his work. While in school, Robert’s scholarly work was recognized and presented at various national conferences/outlets. Podcasting (two shows) and writing remain important aspects of his daily life as well as marathoning the latest Star Trek show(s).