Iconic Voices: The Real Work
Are the Gods Afraid of Black Sexuality? by amina wadud
“One problem with my participation was how to introduce another conception of “God” while still engaging the intersection of race and sexuality with only 15 minutes. So I had to talk really fast.”
Thank you for clearly identifying the distinctions, and addressing how you believe embodying change looks for us all!
This was the title of a two day conference recently held at Columbia University. At one point on the first day, one presenter asked if there was anyone who is not Christian. Two hands went up, sitting side by side: mine and a film maker friend who had been instrumental in getting me invited to present. She is Buddhist and was showing a trailer from her documentary on rape in the Black community.
One problem with my participation was how to introduce another conception of “God” while still engaging the intersection of race and sexuality with only 15 minutes. So I had to talk really fast.
While the easy answer is, “No,” the God in Islam is not afraid of Black sexuality, I still had a lot of ground to cover about the sex-affirming history and spirit of Islamic thought and practice. Because the preference is to marry, which is a…
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In Memory of Margot Adler (1946-2014) Priestess, Journalist, Skeptic, Mystic by Elizabeth Cunningham
A fitting memorial on the Dawn of Lunar Samhain. Drawing Down the Moon is such an important book… I encourage my readers to check it out if not familiar. Travel well sister.
“Ritual has the power to end our alienation from the earth and from each other. It allows us to enter a world where we are at home with the trees and the stars and other beings, and even with the carefully hidden and protected parts of ourselves that we sometime contact in dreams or in art.” –Margot Adler
Margot Adler died of cancer on July 28, 2014. A Pagan priestess, she asked for memorial events to be held in the season of Samhain, also known as Halloween. At this time of year, the rituals of many religious traditions remind us that we are all connected, the living, the dead, and those to come, one continuous communion. In this spirit, I offer a tribute to the late Margot Adler.
Though I must have heard her distinctive voice on National Public Radio where she served as an innovative and eclectic journalist…
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Honoring Our Mothers, Honoring Our Selves by Safa Plenty
Beautiful, tender thoughts for this weeks moon, which I honor as The Soul’s New Year. Thank you!
“The moon has always been the primary symbol for female energy; its cycle around the earth takes approximately twenty-nine days, the same amount of time as the average woman’s menstrual cycle. It is often felt that as the pull of the moon affects the waters of the world, so does its motion affect the body of woman.” —Women’s Medicine Ways’ Cross-Cultural Rites of Passage by Marcia Starck
Her full moon arose today,
sprinkling liquid stardust
onto her bathroom floor,
decorating her mattress
with vibrant hues of deep red,
staining her pajama pants
with artistic, circular symmetry.
For days, she had waited
for the completion of her moon,
while the sun shun
its luminous rays upon her,
the fall equinox bringing that
massive star into greater centrality.
And on a night, her moon had not set,
she sang to the four directions,
shattering myths of tainted womanhood,
tales of storks…
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Stop demonizing black youth.
And if you’re white, ask yourself if the privilege of taking your child’s safety for granted blinds you to your ethical responsibility of speaking up.
Rewilding The Yoga Body
Reblogging THIS, because THIS IS WILD WOMEN WISDOM! So great, thanks!
Recently a fb image of a young, white, lithe yogini balancing in an extremely deep back bend disturbed me. Not because she was just another example of the yoga Barbie -er yoga body –which saturates my yoga feed, but because she was posing in a sun-dappled forest grove accompanied by the hashtags “Fantastic #yoga” and “#rewilding inspiration.”
But c’mon. Isn’t rewilding about returning to a more natural undomesticated state? How can an icon of a corporate culture which keeps us striving to achieve artificial, cultural ideals be associated with what is wild, free and unsullied by human intervention – exactly?
Many ‘rewilders’ see the Paleolithic as a time when earth, its flora and fauna, and humans existed in a true primeval state. And if we look to our stone-age ancestors its pretty clear ‘the yoga body’ just wasn’t in. For tens of thousands of years, painted on cave walls and…
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Black Podcasts on #Ferguson and Police Brutality
Thank you for doing this!
I created this post to put a collection of podcast that have covered and are currently covering the information on Michael Brown, Ferguson, and police brutality in general. I thought it was important to share this information and get different perspectives of what is “real people” are saying about Ferguson and not what you see or hear on large news media outlets. Please listen and support these outlets by sharing this post, listening to their podcast, and supporting their movement.
*some of these contain graphic language*
The Black Guy Who Tips: Rod and Karen have several episodes available discussing Michael Brown and Ferguson. Episodes: 765, 766. 767, and 768 all have different viewpoints about what has occurred in Ferguson have the past several days. You can find them on iTunes, Stitcher, and PodOmatic or you can refer listen from their website: http://www.theblackguywhotips.com/
Classick Team-Up: In this podcast, Classick speaks with…
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Ferguson and Patience for the Appalled.
I will not silence my activism around these inequalities and abuses of civil rights. I recognize my privilege and take responsibility for raising my voice as result: WITH WISDOM, with rights, COME RESPONSIBILITIES.
Photo: Twitter, from a #NMOS14 protest in Washington, DC
Be patient with those of us who are appalled. We thought we had been striding toward some progress, thought our education and integrity, our intellect and analysis were meaningful. We studied history, believed we understood all the ways in which enslavement could impact advancement. We were repairing our middling credit, paying back student loans, electing more people of color into political office. And yes, black blood still flowed in the streets and yes, each week new images of bullets bloodying children and grandmothers gunned down flickered across the six o’clock news. But we had been told to hope, had been assured that it took audacity, but it could be done. Optimism could be sustained. And weren’t we seeing justice sometimes? Weren’t more black students graduating college? Weren’t more of our men hitching up their pants and wearing ties? Weren’t we finally —
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