All essays, additional reading material, and workshop replays will be provided via Google Drive
Week One: Self-Care as Resistance - 9/25 @ 7 PM EST
Near the end of her life, Audre began to view self-care as a Black woman as not just an act of self-preservation, but an act of political warfare. For week one, we’ll read her passages describing self-care during her battle with cancer, discuss our struggles and triumphs with self-care, have dedicated writing time with a variety self-care-themed prompts, and finally determine how each of us individually can care for ourselves as an act of resistance that fuels our activism, relationships, creative work, and political work.
Week Two: The Power & Necessity of Difference - 10/2 @ 7 PM EST
The white fathers tell us that differences must be categorized as good/bad, superior/inferior, human/inhuman – but what happens when we reclaim our differences, our “otherness” as a source of individual and collective power? For week two, we’ll read Audre’s most impactful essays on the power of difference, discuss ways we’ve experienced and/or internalized “othering” throughout our lives, have writing time dedicated to reframing our perspective of difference, and finally discuss how we can move throughout our lives encouraging those around us to embrace their differences while leading by example.
Week Three: The Uses of the Erotic - 10/9 @ 7 PM EST
The erotic lifeforce in women has been misnamed, suppressed, and discarded by our society in too many ways to count. How do we reclaim the erotic as a source of essential power in our personal lives, our creativity, and our liberation work? For week three, we’ll read Audre’s infamous essay “The Uses of the Erotic,” discuss how we’ve experienced and internalized society’s degradation of it, write about what it would look like if we trusted our erotic, and finally determine how each of us individually can use our erotic as a guiding force in our lives.
Week Four: Poetry as a Means of Survival - 10/19 @ 2 PM EST
Most of us are taught that poetry is extracurricular or a less impactful/critical form of writing. Lorde explains that as women, poetry can give form to that deep, dark, ancient well of knowing that contains the blueprint for our most revolutionary, nourishing, transformative ideas about living and loving. For week four, our session will coincide with The Gathering’s POETRY IS NOT A LUXURY club where we’ll read Audre’s essay, share poems we have read recently, write our own poems (prompts and themes provided), and have a sharing ceremony to close out.
Week Five: Your Silence Will Not Protect You - 10/23 @ 7 PM EST
Audre’s cancer diagnosis gave her a sharp, revolutionary perspective on the cost of silence in a country that never intended for us to exist as fully human. In what For week five, we’ll read Audre’s “The Transformation of Silence Into Language and Action,” discuss the ways we’ve been silenced – voluntarily and involuntarily –, write what we’ve never had the courage to say, and finally share how we plan to break the detrimental cycle of silence in our interpersonal, creative, and political lives.
Once you register, you'll receive an email within 48 hours confirming your registration and what to expect next!
For any questions, please email me at sasadyajayde@gmail.com