ABFE updated their cover photo.

4 days ago  ·  

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ABFE shared Staceyann Chin's post.

Remembering #NyozakeShange in NYC.In most cultures, people quickly gather when a member of the community transitions. In Jamaica it’s called a wake, or a nine-night, because it happens nine days after the passes. In the Jewish culture you sit Shiva. I’m sure we have as many names for this traditions as we have cultures. Ntosake Shange left this realm six days ago. As a Black feminist writer, I’m confident in my claim that she was ours, of us, from us, and belonging to us. We claim her in our radical literary feminist family. And as happens with all families, we call all those belonging to the tribe of Radical Black Feminist thought to join us for A Literary Wake, to celebrate the life and work of Ntosake Shange. It’s is with this in mind that I started calling on those of this tribe to gather for Ntosake. Sevonna from Black Women’s Blueprint was my first call. Kamilah Forbes from the Apollo Theater was a quick second yes. The National Black Theater didn’t ask any questions before they extended partnership. Michaela, Meshell, and Aja, said yes and yes and yes. The only question that came from any of these women was, “What can I do to help?” Walter Mosley, Ruby Sales, and so many others keep saying yes, and adding to the avalanche of outpouring for this giant among men, who walked with us, who read stories for us, and wrote poems about us—Black Girls, Black Women, Black Bodies, Black survival. For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf remains a powerful work that consistently calls Black women and girls to the podium to tell their own stories, to own their lived narratives. Without that groundbreaking work, many of us would have spent many more tortured years stumbling around, trying to find an unapologetic self. That she wrote it, would have been enuf, but she went on and lived a whole life in resistance, a whole
Life calling out injustice. The transition of such a powerful Force of Nature demands a Community Response: We open the doors of the National Black Theater to you, we ask you to come and partake in a Black Feminist Read-In, alongside Meshell NDegeocello, Michaela Angela Davis, Staceyann Chin, Aja Monet and more. We encourage you to bring an offering for the altar; a favorite poem, a picture, a quote...Come say well done, to a woman who served us so completely, with both the beat her heart and the beauty of her pen. ... See MoreSee Less

1 week ago  ·  

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