“If your work exists, you exist”
A curated list of poetic antidotes by Black artists, poets, and theorists.
The quote in the title of today’s newsletter is by Alice Walker, a writer and pioneer. Today’s newsletter is a curated ‘absorption’ list of Black art, poetry, and theory of work that I have found to be useful in my de-conditioning journey. I believe that we can start to de-colonise and de-condition by absorbing certain narratives. What you consume is always a political choice, one we can choose to make or not make. I have curated this through the years and will continue doing so in the future. You can access the reading list if you subscribe to the newsletter, you can also choose to pay just this month (7$) to access the content.
I am offering 5 free yearly subscriptions to this newsletter for BIPOC folks. If you are interested, please send me an email here: virginia.vigliar@gmail.com. I would love to know about you and what you think of this newsletter when you write to me if it feels good to do so. I will offer these to the first five people who write to me.
I am also trying a new thing and made an audio version of this essay (bare with me for I am learning). Enjoy!
Two years ago I made a decision, that for a year I would only read books by Black writers. I did it because in my deconditioning journey (which is still in the making) I realised that I had been, in school, at work, and in life, exposed to the same narratives, and these were mainly male and white (I made the same decision a year prior to only read books by women- but that’s another story). In that year, I discovered that poeticism and politics go hand in hand, that dancing with nuances is fundamental to understanding our life and our work, and that I had a lot to learn. I would say much of the inspiration for this work comes from those times in which I absorbed Black literature. I think choosing what we consume is a political choice, and a poetic one so here is my effort to spread it around.
Whenever men ask me how they can be better allies of the feminist movement, I really want them to go home and read things, watch videos, and expose themselves to narratives other than those they are used to. Essentially, I want them to make the effort of learning, mainly about the privileges that they have that are different from mine, and how to decondition from them. I read a willingness to learn, silently, and to listen, as a willingness to truly become an ally. I don’t want to be the one doing emotional and physical labour to feed them with knowledge. There is plenty of knowledge out there, they just need to find it. I think this same discourse is applicable when it comes to race.
Yesterday was the first day of Black History Month, which is celebrated in the United States. But racism is an issue all of us should understand and make an effort of learning about. Colonialism plagued most of the world, and it has conditioned most of us, in one way or another. Absorbing decolonial narratives is therefore incredibly important, sort of like drinking an antidote. But this is not all that this absorption list is; this list is full of joy, of ancestral revelry, care, and love. I know that for my journey, Black feminist writers have been absolute pioneers and guides, and I believe that a lot of the knowledge and theory that Black people have put out there is nuanced because it takes into account race, gender, and class. If we are to dismantle the systems that we inhabit and inhabit us, if we truly believe in justice, then we need to understand that these three are interconnected.
So enjoy this list, which I made into a small booklet with the help and patience of my partner.
Sending you much love,
V