Joy Is a Strategy: The White Leftist Struggle with Spirit
Something I think about a lot is how liberation has always been spiritual, always been embodied. There’s an ancestral component to this. Getting ourselves free has always involved spirit, and always involved the body.
I don’t mean spirit in a floaty, abstract, white-washed way.
I mean ass-shaking.
I mean hair-braiding.
I mean altar-tending.
I mean sweat... See more
I don’t mean spirit in a floaty, abstract, white-washed way.
I mean ass-shaking.
I mean hair-braiding.
I mean altar-tending.
I mean sweat... See more
Jamila Bradley • Joy Is a Strategy: The White Leftist Struggle With Spirit
I always prioritize how people feel.20 Is it a pleasure to be with each other? Does the agenda or space allow for aliveness, connection, and joy? Is there a “yes!” at the center of the work? There are so many things that are violent, offensive, unbearable. An embodied “no” is so justified—but I don’t believe it moves us forward.
“Yes!” has a future.
brown, adrienne maree; Rodriguez; Piepzna-Samarasinha, Leah Lakshmi • Pleasure Activism
Movements and Liberationist struggles must be and have been grounded by a spirituality towards life, joy, and creation of abundance and freedom.
Joy IS the political work.
Celebrating freedom and kinship and togetherness IS the crucial backbone of movement building. “We don’t just want revolution. We want reclamation of life. We want relationship.”
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