February 22, 2017
Welcome to the second gathering of the Audre Lorde edition of i-ABC: INTERSECTIONAL ACTIVISM BOOK COLLECTIVE – a monthly gathering of folx – facilitated by Quintan Ana Wikswo, Alicia Marie Rencountre-Da Silva, and Bineh Ndefru -who come together through books to explore the kinetic intersectionality of today’s social justice activism. Curiosity, cooperation, and humility are our cornerstones. Held the first Tuesday of each month at the Southside Santa Fe Public Library.
You can read about our collective on Facebook here: i-ABC Intersectional Activism Book Collective. If you like our page, you will be kept up to date with the reading and discussion dates for each month! See you at the Library!
Our March meeting will be to discuss Audre Lorde’s SISTER OUTSIDER, which talks about the intersection of race, queerness, class, and all sorts of factors that make an african american lesbian poet activist both a sister and an outsider. It’s gorgeous, powerful writing that will change you. No other way about it.
WHO IS INVOLVED?
Facilitated by Quintan Ana Wikswo, Alicia Marie Rencountre-Da Silva, and Bineh Ndefru, i-ABC is free and open to the public. All reading levels welcomed! Life experience is of equal importance to formal education – books are written for all! There is no such thing as an ignorant question. No person is unqualified. Everybody is a core member of the collective!
Our non-hierarchical leadership and discussions, our selection of books and the process of how we discuss the books is a collaborative process.
WHAT IS INTERSECTIONALITY?
Intersectionality = each of us all have hundreds of identities that create a complex, multidimensional person – race, gender, class, ethnicity, age, nationality, sexual orientation, dis/ability, ancestry, spirituality, education, language, heritage, and more. As we link each part of who we are, we find ourselves more connected.
In terms of social justice activism, this is an enormous transformation that fundamentally undermines discrimination, segregation, systemic injustices,bigotries and social inequalities targeted against a single group. Therefore, while we draw on a great passion for educating ourselves on the legacies, strategies, tactics, and successes of social justice movements – we also study their tendency to fracture under segregation, factionalism, silos, hierarchies, bigotries, and exclusion.
WHAT’S THE POINT?
Our core value is INTERSECTIONALITY, focusing on accessible, compelling books written by visionary social justice activists.
In the spirit of curiosity and humility, we will explore intersectionality within our society. What is its power to transform our social fabric? How can our overlapping webs of race, gender, ethnicity, ideology, dis/ability, class, and other qualities define, confine, and mobilize us to build a more empathetic, just, and equitable society?
Through the texts, we will ask questions of ourselves and others. Encounter points of discomfort & communion. Share experiences & ignorances, prejudices and perspectives, & create ideas together that cause us to change, grow, & reach new insights.
The combination of intersectionality and social justice forms a powerful web of cooperative agency and collective advocacy, informed allies, inclusive leaders, and self-examination and critical thinking that deepens our practice of an enlightened society.
AND THE BOOKS?
We will begin with a collectively assembled reading list. This will grow! At each meeting we will vote on the next book.
Several copies of each month’s book will be available at no cost or sliding scale. Afterwards, readers can donate their books to community organizations.