As we are gathering to collect the lost recipes in our culture, Ri and I agree community is a recipe that's been lost for quite some time now. It's time we preserve this together, as a community.
Our community muscles have been in atrophy for some time. Community often approached with selfish interests, that invoke phrases like “doesn’t it take a village?” when things don’t go our way; without recognizing that building community IS the sacred work. It comes with its ups & downs. That damn euro-individualism has been a major player in our move away from what it means to be in community. Even with all that we still ain’t off the hook, the question still remains…“whether we are ready to wake the hell up, to gather again, and do the work.”
Thank you both for this piece. It served as a much needed mirror, showing me that I have not been as involved in building or maintaining community lately. And reminded me the many different ways being in community can look.
We can also be better for you right now too. This is the time we would be bringing you and the baby meals, diapers. We didn’t even have a baby shower. So ease up, we all can be in community better with each other. I think this was the perfect reminder that it takes intentional effort. In my experience, you’ve BEEN in community for over a year now. We are locked in, but maybe new members don’t know who you are yet. 🫶🏾
🥹🥹 thank you Jacquie for this comment. You have no idea how you just made my day with it 😩 I can’t wait until our paths can finally cross irl. You are the dopest. ♥️🖤
Community means you have to be willing to be an inconvenience (and inconvenienced). Community lives in late night phone calls, showing up when you’re tired, opening your home when it’s not clean and perfect, or doing favors without the expectation of immediate reciprocity. This feels like it’s been lost upon us. But ire slowly re-emerging: in quiet back yard kickbacks, black owned yoga studios, and community teach ins at our local coffee shops. i love it and i crave more of it. this was a really great read!
I needed to read this today. When I walked away from an abusive marriage and Christianity, it’s felt like just me and my kids. I have longed for community and am grateful to be in this one.
So many good points about how many choose convenience over commitment. But with all this shit happening, we need to be committed.
As far as my role… seeing as this is a community of Black writers using their words to heal, protest, educate and more, it only makes sense to serve by way of teaching and editing to get those words published and in print. Preferably in physical form and not always digital since they out here altering digital books 😒
All love to you for leaving. I also left an abusive relationship and found myself having to rethink what community meant for me and my role in it. It took a few stumbles, but I do believe I’ve found it.
And this space is definitely part of that. I can’t wait to see more of the physical print. It’s more than necessary with what we’re dealing with.
This was so eloquently put. love the notion of children being at the center of community because it’s absolutely true. Without childhood and without childish optimism, we don’t have a reason to hope for anything. That kind of optimism is required in order to imagine a better world. Thank you for this reminder.
Didn’t it? I read Ri’s essay and I thought of the poem. And at that point I knew I would need to sit this one out, because the message was delivered. If you have Assata’s book it’s one of the last poems.
The PDF is in the Blackstack Salon September replay but I realized it didn’t have the full ending. But I’ll try to get an updated version soon. I was blessed to be able to purchase my personal copy from the Black Panther Party Museum here in Oakland. It’s titled, “Assata: An Autobiography” if you want to check some of the bookstores. Everyone is selling it I believe.
I highly recommend keeping an eye out for her book at Friends of the Library stores, thrift shops, and other places where books are often donated and sold. Support a Black-owned bookstore by buying a copy from them. Act now, because this book is about to become scarce and very hard to find.
I’ve been saying for a while now that getting back to community is the only way we as Black people are going to feel whole again. This piece spoke to everything I’ve been feeling lately. Community is protection. Community is legacy, and it’s how we’ve always kept our knowledge. I’m glad to see others are trying to get back to the same things.
Thank you both for this for putting this out. Reading this made me think back to a convo I was having with my hg's...and one of them posed the question- what's the cost of community? And it led us deeper into discussing EXACTLY what's mentioned in this- labor, a willingness, and convenience. And if that hasn't gripped me, I don't know what has. It made me wrestle with this desire for intimacy, but then doing the opposite of what it takes to really get and be in it.
Can gladly say "leaning in" is a cost/price I'm willing to pay. because it feels good (GREAT actually... even when it's uncomfortable).
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I’ve noticed that modern designs often discourage community. Many newly built homes lack porches. As a child in rural America, we would sit on the porch and wave at every passerby. A simple wave 👋🏾 could spark community connections.
I love this because you’re right! I loved sitting on a porch & still love a good porch. It was how a lot of convos started or even having people from the neighborhood just walk up to your house and ask to sit with you.
Oh wow, that’s such a great observation! I grew up in NYC, where most of the buildings on my block were apartments & our stoops definitely served as porches lol. I have so many memories of the grown ups hanging out on the stoops, watching over the neighborhood kids until it was time to go inside for dinner. I miss those days. Everyone looked out for each other and made sure everyone stayed safe. We need more of that now… especially nowadays.
I live abroad & even if I didn’t in-person is really difficult cuz of my chronic illness, but this is such an important mssg - I try my best to do what I can online, but seems like most ppl been embracin their toxic era for a min now!
What a stunning communion of memory and mandate. 🖤 This piece reminds us that community isn’t a trend—it’s a practice, a sacred labor, a muscle we must keep using. Ri and Assata together feel like a call to arms and a call to love. Time to gather, tend, and carry it on.
Oof! What a vulnerable, tender, necessary post. And it's wild sirens blaring in the background. Which I reckon explains the juxtaposition I feel about this topic. As someone who has community baked into the fabric of my DNA as a Virgo, Taurus, but Libra, and being born and raised in the projects where everybody knew everybody and as a result I could barely get away wit shit😂 However as the projects were torn down, we all got scattered and everything changed. Then going to church for community and finding oppression turned me off. And also lacking family support in the city I was born and raised in is wild work. And in my experience, because of all that I am, which is a leader, teacher, Healer, and movement I become by default the Mammy and burden bearer for all, but when I need someone to call, no one is there but my cats, spirit guides and ancestors. Or in communities of women I become the target because of their jealousy and insecurities to be projected upon so I live the life of a hermit, finding community in nature, books, music, my ancestors and spirit guides. This also the reason why I deserve to live abroad in a country that values ALL members of community and who are intentional about growing it, because I believe IT IS NECESSARY. This was a vulnerable af post BTW. I blame the Pisces Moon influence 😂 Now Ima go to the beach and cry😂 for real😂 Thank yall for this lyrical gumbo this morning! 🥰
I love your vulnerability! I understand all of this and can say that gaining community, true community, is a journey I’m still on. I think it takes some stumbling, as you said too. And does that shit hurt at times? Absolutely it does and sometimes learning and unlearning what you deserve when it comes to the community you want to build and what role you’re able to take.
You do deserve that type of community and I’m happy that you’re part of this one! And ain’t no wrong in crying lol sometimes you just gotta let it out and let it flow.
I feel SEEN!!!! 😁Gratitude to you for accepting my gift of vulnerability!😁 I am learning to open up more authentically to others because a big part of the problem was that I allowed myself to be used and abused because I was seeking validation and approval from others to justify my existence as worthy because I didn't see myself as worthy of love and care because of childhood abuse and generational trauma. So, now I'm in my aligned soul space open to existing and building authentic, genuine community where I am valued, loved and respected for ALL of who I am, and not what others expect or project me to be! 😁🤩🥰
The message and poem were both a healing balm on this Sunday morning- Assata's words in verse, and Ri's words as sermon. Thank you for urging all of us to seek, build, nurture, and maintain community in any and all ways we can. ✊🏾🖤
I like healing balm! One that was definitely needed. Things have been really rough lately, but my hope is we find safety again with one another and lean more into that.
Our community muscles have been in atrophy for some time. Community often approached with selfish interests, that invoke phrases like “doesn’t it take a village?” when things don’t go our way; without recognizing that building community IS the sacred work. It comes with its ups & downs. That damn euro-individualism has been a major player in our move away from what it means to be in community. Even with all that we still ain’t off the hook, the question still remains…“whether we are ready to wake the hell up, to gather again, and do the work.”
All of this! I’m not sure where an individualized movement was ever agreed upon, but it just doesn’t work like that and never have.
As I read this I just nodded my head smiling, because YES! You hit all the nails on the head with this one!
Thank you both for this piece. It served as a much needed mirror, showing me that I have not been as involved in building or maintaining community lately. And reminded me the many different ways being in community can look.
We can also be better for you right now too. This is the time we would be bringing you and the baby meals, diapers. We didn’t even have a baby shower. So ease up, we all can be in community better with each other. I think this was the perfect reminder that it takes intentional effort. In my experience, you’ve BEEN in community for over a year now. We are locked in, but maybe new members don’t know who you are yet. 🫶🏾
🥹🥹 thank you Jacquie for this comment. You have no idea how you just made my day with it 😩 I can’t wait until our paths can finally cross irl. You are the dopest. ♥️🖤
Community means you have to be willing to be an inconvenience (and inconvenienced). Community lives in late night phone calls, showing up when you’re tired, opening your home when it’s not clean and perfect, or doing favors without the expectation of immediate reciprocity. This feels like it’s been lost upon us. But ire slowly re-emerging: in quiet back yard kickbacks, black owned yoga studios, and community teach ins at our local coffee shops. i love it and i crave more of it. this was a really great read!
I needed to read this today. When I walked away from an abusive marriage and Christianity, it’s felt like just me and my kids. I have longed for community and am grateful to be in this one.
So many good points about how many choose convenience over commitment. But with all this shit happening, we need to be committed.
As far as my role… seeing as this is a community of Black writers using their words to heal, protest, educate and more, it only makes sense to serve by way of teaching and editing to get those words published and in print. Preferably in physical form and not always digital since they out here altering digital books 😒
All love to you for leaving. I also left an abusive relationship and found myself having to rethink what community meant for me and my role in it. It took a few stumbles, but I do believe I’ve found it.
And this space is definitely part of that. I can’t wait to see more of the physical print. It’s more than necessary with what we’re dealing with.
This was so eloquently put. love the notion of children being at the center of community because it’s absolutely true. Without childhood and without childish optimism, we don’t have a reason to hope for anything. That kind of optimism is required in order to imagine a better world. Thank you for this reminder.
Oh that poem preached! 🥺🤎
Didn’t it? I read Ri’s essay and I thought of the poem. And at that point I knew I would need to sit this one out, because the message was delivered. If you have Assata’s book it’s one of the last poems.
Where can I find her book?
The PDF is in the Blackstack Salon September replay but I realized it didn’t have the full ending. But I’ll try to get an updated version soon. I was blessed to be able to purchase my personal copy from the Black Panther Party Museum here in Oakland. It’s titled, “Assata: An Autobiography” if you want to check some of the bookstores. Everyone is selling it I believe.
I highly recommend keeping an eye out for her book at Friends of the Library stores, thrift shops, and other places where books are often donated and sold. Support a Black-owned bookstore by buying a copy from them. Act now, because this book is about to become scarce and very hard to find.
Thank you for adding sources, Teneele!
I’ve been saying for a while now that getting back to community is the only way we as Black people are going to feel whole again. This piece spoke to everything I’ve been feeling lately. Community is protection. Community is legacy, and it’s how we’ve always kept our knowledge. I’m glad to see others are trying to get back to the same things.
Thank you both for this for putting this out. Reading this made me think back to a convo I was having with my hg's...and one of them posed the question- what's the cost of community? And it led us deeper into discussing EXACTLY what's mentioned in this- labor, a willingness, and convenience. And if that hasn't gripped me, I don't know what has. It made me wrestle with this desire for intimacy, but then doing the opposite of what it takes to really get and be in it.
Can gladly say "leaning in" is a cost/price I'm willing to pay. because it feels good (GREAT actually... even when it's uncomfortable).
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I’ve noticed that modern designs often discourage community. Many newly built homes lack porches. As a child in rural America, we would sit on the porch and wave at every passerby. A simple wave 👋🏾 could spark community connections.
So from my virtual porch, I say, "hello!" 👋🏾
I love this because you’re right! I loved sitting on a porch & still love a good porch. It was how a lot of convos started or even having people from the neighborhood just walk up to your house and ask to sit with you.
Oh wow, that’s such a great observation! I grew up in NYC, where most of the buildings on my block were apartments & our stoops definitely served as porches lol. I have so many memories of the grown ups hanging out on the stoops, watching over the neighborhood kids until it was time to go inside for dinner. I miss those days. Everyone looked out for each other and made sure everyone stayed safe. We need more of that now… especially nowadays.
I live abroad & even if I didn’t in-person is really difficult cuz of my chronic illness, but this is such an important mssg - I try my best to do what I can online, but seems like most ppl been embracin their toxic era for a min now!
What a stunning communion of memory and mandate. 🖤 This piece reminds us that community isn’t a trend—it’s a practice, a sacred labor, a muscle we must keep using. Ri and Assata together feel like a call to arms and a call to love. Time to gather, tend, and carry it on.
This was beautiful.
Thank you so much!
I love this read. It’s a reminder that we all have a role in curate community.
Oof! What a vulnerable, tender, necessary post. And it's wild sirens blaring in the background. Which I reckon explains the juxtaposition I feel about this topic. As someone who has community baked into the fabric of my DNA as a Virgo, Taurus, but Libra, and being born and raised in the projects where everybody knew everybody and as a result I could barely get away wit shit😂 However as the projects were torn down, we all got scattered and everything changed. Then going to church for community and finding oppression turned me off. And also lacking family support in the city I was born and raised in is wild work. And in my experience, because of all that I am, which is a leader, teacher, Healer, and movement I become by default the Mammy and burden bearer for all, but when I need someone to call, no one is there but my cats, spirit guides and ancestors. Or in communities of women I become the target because of their jealousy and insecurities to be projected upon so I live the life of a hermit, finding community in nature, books, music, my ancestors and spirit guides. This also the reason why I deserve to live abroad in a country that values ALL members of community and who are intentional about growing it, because I believe IT IS NECESSARY. This was a vulnerable af post BTW. I blame the Pisces Moon influence 😂 Now Ima go to the beach and cry😂 for real😂 Thank yall for this lyrical gumbo this morning! 🥰
I love your vulnerability! I understand all of this and can say that gaining community, true community, is a journey I’m still on. I think it takes some stumbling, as you said too. And does that shit hurt at times? Absolutely it does and sometimes learning and unlearning what you deserve when it comes to the community you want to build and what role you’re able to take.
You do deserve that type of community and I’m happy that you’re part of this one! And ain’t no wrong in crying lol sometimes you just gotta let it out and let it flow.
I love “lyrical gumbo”! Thank you 🫶🏾
I feel SEEN!!!! 😁Gratitude to you for accepting my gift of vulnerability!😁 I am learning to open up more authentically to others because a big part of the problem was that I allowed myself to be used and abused because I was seeking validation and approval from others to justify my existence as worthy because I didn't see myself as worthy of love and care because of childhood abuse and generational trauma. So, now I'm in my aligned soul space open to existing and building authentic, genuine community where I am valued, loved and respected for ALL of who I am, and not what others expect or project me to be! 😁🤩🥰
And I love every single bit of this for you! You deserve to feel seen, heard and respected!
A'se! I appreciate you 💙
The message and poem were both a healing balm on this Sunday morning- Assata's words in verse, and Ri's words as sermon. Thank you for urging all of us to seek, build, nurture, and maintain community in any and all ways we can. ✊🏾🖤
I like healing balm! One that was definitely needed. Things have been really rough lately, but my hope is we find safety again with one another and lean more into that.
Healing balm, I love that. Community is the answer to a lot of our loneliness. After losing my dad I’ve found community to be the best remedy.
Thank yall for this piece! I’ve been thinking about what community has morphed into especially in this digital age and this hit home in so many ways!