All posts by Kristen Jeffers

Kristen Jeffers has always been interested in how cities work. She’s also always loved writing things. She went off to a major state university, got a communication degree and then started a more professional Blogger site. Then, in her graduate seminar on urban politics, along with browsing the urbanist blogosphere, she realized that her ideas should have a stronger, clearer voice, one that reflects her identity as a Black southern woman. And with that The Black Urbanist blog was born. Seven years, one Twitter account, one self-published book, two podcasts and a litany of speeches and urban planning projects later, here we are.
Weekly Newsletter

The Black Urbanist Daily PIlot EdiTION for November 4, 2021

This is a special preview edition of The Black Urbanist Daily. The Black Urbanist Daily will feature Kristen’s Black Queer Feminist Urbanist commentary on one key issue every weekday. Although she’s liked being back in the daily saddle, this will be the last daily pilot until she grows her team a little more, but have no fear, we will be testing out weekly editions. More details below.

When the pandemic hit, I already knew that I needed an urbanism that included me. And I want to bring us back to those few weeks where I wrote a few things about what we needed to do pre-pandemic. Take today and tomorrow to revisit my thoughts around these things. I’ll be back Sunday with the weekly edition.

I know, I said no more Sundays, but hang with me for a least a couple more weeks as I don’t want you to miss the special summit content that’s coming the next couple of Sundays and, I have to be honest, I think I want to hit your inboxes weekly with the best, most amazing stats and analysis around these points but, in the spirit of self and community care, I don’t need to do this everyday.

The pandemic is still here folks and we all have to govern ourselves accordingly

Here’s my archive from early 2020 that built the case for my emerging Black Queer Feminist Urbanism

And here are a few more things before you go.

— Once again, Watch the launch keynote of the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist Summit/Festival. This special event is why I’m emailing you daily, since we can’t be in person this year and I wanted to make the conference truly portable.

— Register for our special virtual movie screening, The Dominance of Motherhood, next Monday at 7 pm Eastern. (thanks to our generous donors and sponsors of this year’s summit, it’s free, scroll down to the HealthWeek ticket and you’ll get access). We will also stream this on all of our channels, but we will be taking down the livestream at the conclusion of the documentary, to allow the filmmakers to show the film at other festivals.

— Pledge at any level on Patreon to get these emails after November 19th. I hear there’s also an art class level now, for all of my fellow fiber urbanists. 😉 Everyone also immediately gets all of my podcast episodes, specifically the newest ones.

—Black LGBTQIA+ Siblings — let’s talk one-on-one about life, urbanism and thriving. Reply to this email and we can set up a time. Also, I’ve lifted the all-access fee for the summit, thanks to more generous donors!

Coming Sunday — information about the rest of the summit and what to expect from me for the next few months.

Weekly Newsletter

The Black Urbanist Pilot Daily for November 3, 2021

This is a special preview edition of The Black Urbanist Daily. The Black Urbanist Daily will feature Kristen’s Black Queer Feminist Urbanist commentary on one key issue every weekday. Expect these to appear in your inbox after work hours, but be ready for you to read first thing in the morning. Want to keep receiving these after the pilot period ends on November 19? Head over to Patreon and pledge at any level. Don’t want to be emailed this much? No fear, we will be returning to a weekly format here on these Mailchimp powered emails on November 20th. You’ll get a preview of those this coming Saturday. Today, I’m (still) thinking about Election Day as a Black politically engaged feminine person.

No, I’m not shocked about Virginia. Same with Buffalo.

Disappointed. Yes.

Sad. Yes.

But, unlike prior disappointing election nights, Atlanta and Durham are full of hope.

Which is also not surprising, considering I’ve been tracking these cities and their willingness to lift up Black women municipal leadership.

And after a result like yesterday, I’m ever more committed to working on the K. Jeffers Index for Black Queer Feminist Urbanism.

Our survival as Black folks of marginalized gender varies greatly and is often tied to the ballot box.

I want us to be able to wake up, do our self and community care and know that our basic needs can’t be legislated, ruled, arrested, charged, or sold away.

I want us to be elected and uplifted and appointed, when we are championing community and self-care and joy.

I don’t want to hear that we are worthy of government, corporate and even community leadership only after signing up to be of service, especially not to judicial or militarized bloodshed, white cisheteropatriaricial industrial complexes of community care, or to our family and faith community’s happiness and their happiness alone.

I’m still chipping away at my spreadsheet, updating it with a couple of new columns tracking things like abortion access and what places have attempted to have Black leaders of marginalzied genders and what their affiliations are and you’ll see a first edition of the full index soon.

However, if you haven’t watched my summit keynote (which is why I’m in your inbox daily, this is me bringing my virtual event to you whenever you have the time to pause and read), I’ve talked about the pieces of community and self-care I need and if you missed yesterday’s daily letter, I talked about how I’m still wrestling with what it would mean to be a Black elected official in my own body and without the connections that one seems to need to make it in politics as a Black woman.

On a lighter note I told you in the last email I’d be telling you more about Kristpattern Art Class and the return of my Patreon-only podcast, Public Lecture with Kristen Jeffers

People will have to take my yarn balls and fabric yards out of my hands with force. It is one of those ways I’ve been able to reclaim my joy and I think there are a few of you who would love to be a more direct part of my art and craft journey.

If that’s you, there’s a special level of my Patreon, Kristpattern Art Class, that allows you to dabble as I dabble in my art practice, see if it might be a good self care fit for you and still get these emails daily, plus there’s already two episodes of my rebooted Patreon-only podcast Public Lecture with Kristen Jeffers and we’ll be releasing a new one at 7 pm Monday November 15th . Go all-access and you’ll get everything I’m working on, including my rebooted Black Queer Feminist Urbanist School, re-launching in January.

And here are a few more things before you go.

— Once again, Watch the launch keynote of the Black Queer Feminst Urbanist Summit/Festival. This special event is why I’m emailing you daily, since we can’t be in person this year and I wanted to make the conference truly portable.

— Register for our special virtual movie screening, The Dominance of Motherhood, next Monday at 7 pm Eastern. (thanks to our generous donors and sponsors of this year’s summit, it’s free, scroll down to the HealthWeek ticket and you’ll get access). We will also stream this on all of our channels, but we will be taking down the livestream at the conclusion of the documentary, to allow the filmmakers to show the film at other festivals.

— Pledge at any level on Patreon to get these emails after November 19th.

—Black LGBTQIA+ Siblings — let’s talk one-on-one about life, urbanism and thriving. Reply to this email and we can set up a time. Also, I’ve lifted the all-access fee for the summit, thanks to more generous donors!

Coming tomorrow — going back in my archives to the times just before the pandemic upended our lives and when I started this process of defining myself for myself.

Weekly Newsletter

The Black Urbanist Pilot Daily for November 2, 2021

This is a special preview edition of The Black Urbanist Daily. The Black Urbanist Daily will feature Kristen’s Black Queer Feminist Urbanist commentary on one key issue every weekday. Expect these to appear in your inbox after work hours, but be ready for you to read first thing in the morning. Want to keep receiving these after the pilot period ends on November 19? Pledge here at any level. Today, I’m thinking about Election Day as a Black politically engaged feminine person.

Remember when I wrote this post about being a hometown heroine? It’s because I too dream(ed) of joining the ranks of Black women (ok, to be technical in my case, genderqueer/nonbinary femme) in elected office.

However, at the moment, I see key barriers to me being able to fit into that mold. That was the spirit of my recent tweet thread reacting to the recent New York Times article on the 8 current Black woman mayors and a few potential women who will serve as mayors.

Why am I so skeptical? First of all, every city mentioned still has a very active and very violent police force. These mayors have the authority to reconfigure budgets, but their hands are tied because there are far more people in the electorate that want traditional policing than those that do not.

Secondly, it was mentioned in that article that Black women learned how to be civic-minded because of their sororities, which was very offensive.

Because we have to fight for our very existence on a regular basis, many of us come out of wombs ready to fight. Some of us have our first battles to be seen and loved in our own families. Then it’s on to churches and schools and these very governmental institutions that raise us to the top.

This also erases the women activists and community builders who spend their work lives at a job that doesn’t require college education and makes you ineligible for many of our Black sororities because you don’t have a bachelor’s degree.

I’m a firm believer that it shouldn’t take straightening one’s hair, paying an organizational fee and pledging love and devotion to a god who looks like a white man and the whiteness that image represents and bears down on its followers in order to be seen as a human.

Until that day comes when that’s not required for Black women (and nonbinary folks) to be and STAY mayors (and honestly any elected leader), then I’m not interested in the role.

By the time you get this, you may have a new governor, mayor, municipal council, school board, judges or some other official that’s elected over appointed.

You may have decided that you want to do policing differently or to allow yourself to be taxed for better schools or transit.

And I hope that you’ll consider, especially if you voted for a Black woman for any office, what it will truly mean for you to support her to be yourself. And I hope that when you did or didn’t reject that tax increase, that you have a better plan for providing those services to marginalized communities.

And so that’s the one thing that’s been on the top of my mind today. Before you go, a few reminders.

— Watch the launch keynote of the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist Summit/Festival. This special event is why I’m emailing you daily, since we can’t be in person this year and I wanted to make the conference truly portable.

— Register for our special virtual movie screening, The Dominance of Motherhood, next Monday at 7 pm Eastern. (thanks to our generous donors and sponsors of this year’s summit, it’s free, scroll down to the HealthWeek ticket and you’ll get access). We will also stream this on all of our channels, but we will be taking down the livestream at the conclusion of the documentary, to allow the filmmakers to show the film at other festivals.

— Pledge at any level  here to get these newsletters after November 19th.

—Black LGBTQIA+ Siblings — let’s talk one-on-one about life, urbanism and thriving. Send me a private message here and we can set up a time. Also, I’ve lifted the all-access fee for the summit, thanks to more generous donors!

Coming tomorrow — another reflection, and more information about Kristpattern Art Class, and the reboot of my Patreon-only podcast Public Lecture with Kristen Jeffers. And if you don’t want to be here anymore, scroll all the way down and unsubscribe.

Weekly Newsletter

Watch the 2021 Black Queer FemINIST UrBaniST Summit/FEstIVaL OPenING KeYNOTe

On November 1, 2021, I gave a presentation live on YouTube, Twitter, and on Facebook to talk about how I’ve come to build up this platform as a Black Queer Feminist Urbanist platform.

In addition, I launched live (week)daily newsletters, which after November 20th will be available to Patreon subscribers at any level and will be making my free monthly newsletter a weekly one again.

Want to support this work going foward? You can do so in the following ways.

Register at any level for the Eventbrite event — https://www.eventbrite.com/e/black-queer-feminist-urbanism-festival-and-summit-registration-164752752919

Become a Patreon — www.patreon.com/kristenejeffers

One Time Venmo Donation @Kristen-Jeffers-3

One Time Cash.App Donation $kjeffers2

Or, I can invoice you so you can do a direct bank transfer or Apple Pay via Intuit Quickbooks.

Please email kristen@theblackurbanist.com with the Subject Line Invoice Me for the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist summit and the amount of your donation.

Thank you to this year’s sponsors/donors

Semaine Health

Chrissy Dittmore

Nicole Jones

Jerome Horne

Gigi the Planner

And all my amazing Patreons!

Follow The Black Urbanist and Kristen Jeffers @blackurbanist and @kristpattern on Twitter and Instagram

Weekly Newsletter

The Black Urbanist MONthly October –> November 2021

This is The Black Urbanist Monthly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this monthly digital newsletter to share my Black, Spiritual, Diasporic North Carolinian, Working/Lower Middle-Class, Educated, Queer, Non-Binary Femme thoughts on how places and communities work. Think of this as my monthly column, the one that flaps open as you start browsing that coffee table magazine or printed alt-weekly newspaper or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox. This newsletter is a treat, in case you missed that in the subject line.

It’s no secret if you read any of my newsletters, social posts or have watched any of my social videos, I’m not happy with the direction the world is going.

As per my training (and I suspect the training and nurturing you have as well) though, I’m doing my best to be proactive about it.
However, being proactive around purchasing property still means that by the time I’ve fixed my credit, the homes — all of them — are overpriced and some may not even sell to me, because there’s still lots of bias in the home buying market if you’re not buying to make it a business or to develop/rent the property.

Being proactive around public transit only works so far as if the bus actually shows up on time, the train’s wheels don’t fall off and leave you stranded in a tunnel and even better, that there is a bus, because it was deemed unnecessary to have that bus in your neighborhood.

Being proactive around your career works well if you have a business and you continue to pivot until finding the right folks to service. However, there’s only finite numbers of jobs, especially in our industry, and the scarcity breeds all kinds of jealousies, envies, grief and prejudices.

Finally, the constant attacks on my identities is what made me proactive about creating a summit to celebrate them and continuing to shape it into something, while not as large as I imagined, will still be something important.

I’ll be coming to you on a daily basis (except Sundays, this will be my last Sunday letter for a while, unless Sunday happens tot be the end of the month) throughout the summit, and for those of you who are Patreons, you’ll continue to hear from me daily if you’re pledged at the $40 level and above and at the $10 level on a weekly basis.

I’ll also be doing more IG lives and I’ll be adding more frequently to my YouTube page — starting with Monday’s summit. Click here to be reminded about my video start time and to watch!

Plus, those of you who return to the $40 Patreon level will be able to access our new school sessions and those of you who remain at the $10-$40 level will be getting several new Public Lecture with Kristen Jeffers episodes — including one that will announce the summit craft week and my new Kristpattern craft specific content and levels.

The world may be full of tricks — but I am determined to be my own treat and in turn, be a treat for you.
See you very soon,
P.S. Learn more about my adventures in sustainable fashion and fiber.
Plus, You can still, you can register here for the whole or part of the paid summit, or pledge on Patreon to access the full summit or school.
Weekly Newsletter

[Newsletter August/September 2021] Existing Beyond the US Census

This is The Black Urbanist Monthly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this monthly digital newsletter to share my Black, Spiritual, Diasporic North Carolinian, Working/Lower Middle-Class, Educated, Queer, Non-Binary Femme thoughts on how places and communities work. Think of this as my monthly column, the one that flaps open as you start browsing that coffee table magazine or printed alt-weekly newspaper or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox. This newsletter is its own metro area.

Like you, I’ve been crunching over the new Census numbers and what that means for me.

With The Villages, Florida being the largest growing metro area in the United States, it seems like conservative, small-village, but just disconnected and big boxy enough, mostly White urbanism is what people want.

Or, with more people than ever identifying as multiracial, inclusive of both Black Americans and Hispanic/Latino folks(many who are also of Black/African descent), the country as a whole is getting more diverse. Both my home state of North Carolina and my current state of Maryland (along with the adjacent District of Columbia and portions of Virginia) have never been more populous and diverse, with North Carolina growing even more and the “DMV” area leveling out a bit population-wise.

I have to stop my crunching for a moment not because we don’t need this information.

Jurisdictions redistricting their political precincts and districts for better representation; bridging the gap between the 104 million homes, 13 million vacant, for 331,449,281 million people; local governments providing social service aid for “poorer” Census tracts depend on this information and all of its fallacies and quirks.

But I have days of headaches and I lose sleep at night thinking about how I’m one tiny dot of that 331,449,281 million.

A tiny dot in Census parlance, as of April 1, 2020, lived at my current multi-family residence in one of 9 units in our building, with my same-gender partner in a domestic partnership. I am Black, from North Carolina with clear African roots and the possibility of others.

For this same reason of thinking so hard about being that dot, I have to take breaks from my Ancestry account and I still need to submit the DNA test.

But, around the beginning of 2020, I begat my own census. This census was built on this research coordinated by Junia Howell and Bloomberg CityLab on which cities in the United States are most successful for Black women, itself based on evaluating whether or not Black women can succeed in the Pittsburgh metro region.

In that study, I found surprises, like how my home metro of Greensboro is #1 for women’s health.

But I also needed more. So, I launched two separate surveys over the course of our very wacky time of pandemic + heightened interest in Black Lives Matter.

October 1st is also the launch of the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist Festival/Summit, which will include more virtual and in-person, activities throughout the month of October, namely:

  • A Black Queer Feminist Urbanist Demonstration Tour in the DC area on October 16th
  • The endoQueer Public Health Week October 11th-15th
  • The relaunch of the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist School on Halloween night
  • and I’m putting the finishing details on some other events, including a hybrid Fiber Party for my crafty people.

If you’re a Patreon supporter at the Study Hall level, all of the above is included, with only an additional cost if you want to come on the demonstration tour and/or receive swag bag I’m crafting for the demonstration tour and the fiber party.

If you are a supporter at the Public Lecture level, there’s only an additional fee to access the demonstration tour and the school.

You can also upgrade to annual rates in Patreon or if you do so on Eventbrite, you’ll get the same content delivered in a Teachable school.

Either way, you’ll be hearing a lot from me on email, on socials, and in other media as I prepare to launch out this new offering in the world over the next few weeks.

Once again, you can register here for the whole or part of the paid summit, add the launch webinar to your calendar, or pledge on Patreon to access the full summit or school.

See you soon,

Kristen

P.S. Learn more about my adventures in sustainable fashion and fiber.

Weekly Newsletter

The Black Urbanist MOnthly for July/August 2021 — Celebrate With Me At the INagural Black Queer Feminist Urbanist FEstival/Summit

This is The Black Urbanist Monthly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this monthly digital newsletter to share my Black, Spiritual, Diasporic North Carolinian, Working/Lower Middle-Class, Educated, Queer, Non-Binary Femme thoughts on how places and communities work. Think of this as my monthly column, the one that flaps open as you start browsing that coffee table magazine or printed alt-weekly newspaper or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox. This newsletter is always proud and always free.

Black is Beautiful!

Queer as in Heck Yeah!

Power to the People!

When I write the words Black Queer Feminist Urbanist together and apply them to myself and my work, it’s the spirit of the phrases above that I bring forward.

My partner’s mom once told me that they didn’t want me to put myself, my work and relationship down by calling myself queer. She equated it with going around and using another semi-reclaimed word about her own daughter.

Until 2015, I could count on my hands the number of people of African descent racialized as Black, that would proudly claim being Black in the land-use policy, planning, and building world.

And who hasn’t wrestled with the idea of feminine as weak, even internally.

And nobody wants to admit that rural transit, villages and ecosystems exist in tandem with urban systems.

And that the designation of something as a suburb is racially motivated.But I’m a queer feminist in professional spaces today (with North Carolinian and Marylander ties) because Pauli Murray was first.

And I’m a proud Black Urbanist because Melvin Mitchell walked with Stokley Charmicael (Kwame Ture) as they attempted to repair the Black main streets of DC in the same years my parents were coming of age tilling farmlands of their own central North Carolina Black communities, planting the seeds of their daughter’s quest to understand how it all works, through the lenses of place, creativity and design.

And it is in this spirit of pride, creativity, reverence and hope for the future, that I hope you will join me for the month of October for my inaugural Black Queer Feminist Urbanism Festival/Summit

At the summit we will do the following
–Launch the inaugural Black Queer Feminist Urbanist Index for Global Metro Areas on Friday October 1st in a live virtual stream.

–Go on a Black Queer Feminist Urbanist themed (socially distanced with proof of vaccination required) Potomac Waterfront Boat Tour with stops at several key points in National Harbor, Alexandria and The District Wharf on Saturday, October 16th. 

–Relaunch the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist School on October 31st

–Have some other surprise conversations both online and offline that will be fulfilling and affirming.

–Challenge white-led, cishet led firms and organizations to continue the restorative and reparative processes needed to ensure Black liberation and model what multicultural solidarity looks like when it does exist to serve white supremacy or capitalism.

While the livestream of the report launch is free to stream and will stream on my Youtube Channel, and I’ll share highlights and key points of the boat tour in various videos — only by registering on Eventbrite for a paid ticket will you be able to receive one or more of the following:

—Professional Certification Certificates for the report launch webinar and full copies of the report+annual access to the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist School at the Public Lecture annual rate. The new version of the school and archives of the report launch and boat tour will be available on Teachable, and completion of each module will generate a certificate.

—An in-person boat tour ticket, which includes a treasure chest of my book, A Black Urbanist Journey to a Queer Feminist Future, along with several other specially produced objects highlighting some of my favorite Black, Queer, Feminist and/or Urbanist vendors, artisans and places along the DC Area Potomac Waterfront. You’ll also get everything in the first bullet.

—The treasure chest only, mailed to your home + everything in the first bullet. If you want to do this and still join us on October 16th, you’ll be on your own to visit all the sites in the boat tour and there’s no guarantee that I and some of my special guests at each stop will be there.
Register on Eventbrite
Thanks to everyone who is already a Patreon and others who have already pre-registered and agreed to contribute art, knowledge and their connections to the launch of this event.

And don’t forget to register for at least the live webinar stream. If you want to upgrade your ticket for any of the other benefits, you’ll be able to do so until October 1st. Until next time,
P.S. Learn more about my adventures in sustainable fashion and fiber.
Weekly Newsletter

May/June 2021 Newsletter — Opening Up to A Black Queer Feminist Urbanist Future

This is The Black Urbanist Monthly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this monthly digital newsletter to share my Black, Spiritual, Diasporic North Carolinian, Working/Lower Middle-Class, Educated, Queer, Non-Binary Femme thoughts on how places and communities work. Think of this as my monthly column, the one that flaps open as you start browsing that coffee table magazine or printed alt-weekly newspaper or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox. This newsletter is happy to be unmasked, outside, in a nice park with sunshine.

I’m Kristen, and this month, of all months, I‘m proud to be one of the many Black people assigned female at birth, but living and loving beyond the binary.

For it’s this month we honor those who just learned of their emancipation from chattel slavery long after they should, because of where they lived. More on these folks in a couple of paragraphs.

This month we honor the Black woman, living and loving outside of the binary, who decided to throw the first brick at the Stonewall Inn and call up her sister siblings, many of whom had already been resisting with force against the forces that told them they had no place at all in this country, much less this earth. Now, we all get to bask underneath their rainbow, as we continue to finish the work.

And yesterday specifically, we also think of the Black people, living and loving outside of the binary, those who fought in wars for a country that thought them not human and sometimes still think them not human. And their people who first saw fit to honor them.

And 100 years ago this week, just hundreds of miles from where those people were delayed freedom, so many of their Black siblings lost the buildings and many of the people who believed that freedom and reparations had truly come.

And because we are still waiting for those things to come, I am proudly on my Black Urbanist journey to my Queer Feminist Future. And I want to help you do the same.

First of all, my book is releasing this fall and those of you on my Patreon list have first dibs. Plus, you’ll have access to my book club selections, special interviews, and lectures from me and some of my fiber and other art!

It’s so great to be here in your inbox again.

Until next time,

Kristen

Weekly Newsletter

Pre-ORdER A Black Urbanist JOurney and Book Me as We RETUrn To “NOrmal” — The Black Urbanist MOnthly April-May 2021

This is The Black Urbanist Monthly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this monthly digital newsletter to share my Black, Spiritual, Diasporic North Carolinian, Working/Lower Middle-Class, Educated, Queer, Non-Binary Femme thoughts on how places and communities work. Think of this as my monthly column, the one that flaps open as you start browsing that coffee table magazine or printed alt-weekly newspaper or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox. This newsletter will be in just in time for its author to get their second Covid-19 shot on the first of May, but not for us to hang out maskless at a concert of one’s choosing.

I am an author.

That’s probably not news to anyone reading this, because after all, you’re reading this.However, owning this part of myself has been a challenge over the years.

Despite this being the 27th anniversary of my first writing contest win and the conference where I got my award, shared the book I wrote and got to meet Walter Dean Myers, the Jason Reynolds of our millennial time. 
Despite having wrote a book and even doing a book signing and reading this very week in 2015.

And of course, this entire platform.But today, I’m not going back.Today, if you’re a Patreon, you’re already set to receive a copy of my next book A Black Urbanist Journey. If not, join me over there and receive either an e-book or a signed hard copy, depending on what level you’re signed up at.

There will also be paperback copies and an audiobook. Unlike my prior book, it will also have a proper ISBN and any bookstore that uses ISBN will be able to order it in bulk. You’ll be able to order it for your school, conference, church and other community bookstores.

The manuscript is finished and I will be reaching out to folks to review, share and grow the audience of this book and this platform. If you’re interested in doing so and want to go ahead and reach out, book a time to talk about what it would take to be on my book launch and sharing team.

While I couldn’t release the book on October 17, 2020, the tenth anniversary of The Black Urbanist Platform, I’m all set to do so on October 17, 2021.

Plus, as we get vaccinated and events both inside and outside resume, I’m looking forward to coming to your venues and sharing this story on the keynote stages and in smaller group breakouts.Book me for a keynote, workshop or book talk.

Finally, I’m excited to launch into this new normal. This time last year we didn’t know what to expect and now, I can’t wait for the future.

I hope you’ll continue to join me in one or more ways above.
Weekly Newsletter

Visibility is Possible and So Is Thriving — The Black Urbanist Monthly March to April 2021

This is The Black Urbanist Monthly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this monthly digital newsletter to share my Black, Spiritual, Diasporic North Carolinian, Working/Lower Middle-Class, Educated, Queer, CisFemme thoughts on how places and communities work. Think of this as my monthly column, the one that flaps open as you start browsing that coffee table magazine or printed alt-weekly newspaper or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox. This newsletter is both lamb and lion as we go from the second March of the pandemic and the second pandemic April rains on us.

Every week, I shampoo, condition and style my hair. One week out of the month, I go, fully masked, to a person in a salon suite and they do all that for me, plus, cut my hair and color it, when it needs it. 

(You can thank her for my galaxy hair I debuted during my birthday month).

She, like me, is a young Black woman with colorful hair in its natural state, that owns the means of her production. 

She and folks like us in collective beauty studios and art and design studios and kitchens and vehicles of all sizes all over the world and in individual homes are examples of how marginalized people can and do create their own economies that are fair and equitable.

I can’t completely celebrate our resilience because access and control of resources isn’t true for far too many people in the world, especially non-white people who are enslaved, underpaid, undermined and flat out colonized and stolen from, as well as maimed or killed by state-sanctioned forces, some that have no desire to even reform, much less abolish themselves and repatriate back to the natives and exploited of the land.

Sometimes those of us who have been gifted titles and authority in and over communities struggle with what would happen if our current roles become obsolete. You’ll read that paragraph above and you’ll feel guilty or angry or some other kind of in-between space that comes from having had to play the game too long.

I wanted to focus my monthly letter on this to help use center our post-pandemic shift and challenge us to take this remaining moment of pause to reflect on what’s worked and what we can do to work better and connect better.

Are we ready to help others repatriate, divest, grow? Are we ready and able to heal?

In the spirit of showing up and being there for each other, I’m going to be doing something different for April. I’m bringing back live webinars! This is my way of easing into being outside and seeing more folks.

For those of you who are active in the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist School Pilot Groups, check your emails and the platforms for special messages and Doodle polls for events on either April 5th or April 7th. It’s not too late to join one of those pilot groups, you can learn more and join at www.theblackurbanist.com/school.

Many of you are curious about the survey and the initial results. Join me on April 6th to check out the results and what I hope to do with them. I’m also doing a webinar to talk about the progress of my survey on Black Queer Feminist Urbanism on April 6th. The time will be announced later this week in a separate email/social announcements/updated blog post. This webinar is free and open to all Patreon supporters, and $10 for all those who are not already Patreons.

If you haven’t had a chance to contribute to the survey, but want to, please do! This survey is open to everyone, even though it’s collecting data for a specific group of people. I’ll also be sharing some of the things I’m learning about various self-identified groups and general information I’ve collected around affordability and land-use.

Finally, be sure to follow me on Instagram @blackurbanist and @kristpattern, where I’ll be going live every once in a while documenting my various trips as I head back outside distanced and post-vaccination, as well as opportunities on the latter to connect with my journey to environmentally sustainable and fair-trade fashion.

If you’re reading this right now, this means you’re still here and I’m grateful. Hang in there and we’ll be in touch soon, on Zoom or somewhere else safe.

Kristen

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