This is The Black Urbanist Weekly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this weekly 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 weekly column, sitting on your proverbial print paper’s editorial page or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox. 

This is edition #32 and I want to welcome all the new people who have come onto the list over the past few weeks and I want to thank those who have been here on the list with me since 2013 and those who I’ve picked up along the way. Thank you all for wanting to join me on this (mostly) weekly journey. This edition took me a little longer to make coherent, but here we are and here we go!

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It’s too soon for us all to go outside. En masse, in clusters of less than six feet.

Even to work. Even to get some fresh air.

I’m not backing down from my belief that we should have isolated this disease.

And when we didn’t isolate this disease, we should have paid for everyone and I mean everyone besides folks who are essential on a regular day, not your nanny or someone else who you think your family absolutely needs, to not go to work and also to get preventative healthcare.

Food and objects should be able to be delivered to homes and the people who provide that service should be paid fair and protected.

Folks treating patients, and that’s all kinds of patients, not just ones with Covid-19, should have everything they need to do that.

If students need some support to one, log on to their computers and two, get the knowledge they need at the point they need, that should be there on demand.

But unfortunately, we all know that was not the case. But should it be a surprise, considering we have diseases in this country we over treat or don’t treat at all, in some of the same communities?
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Many of us are aware that New Zealand used it’s government power to make sure the disease was isolated and now they are back to what we knew as normal. And they never had to mask up. They are now looking at how a green new deal and shorter work weeks can be sustainable.

Some of you may be aware of how Hong Kong enacted mutual aid to keep their caseloads down, despite lack of government intervention.

Yet sadly, some Kenyans were beat into submission of social distancing and quarantine.

The United States is all of these countries at once, depending on what local and state jurisdiction of the United States you live in. On top of having folks who died that didn’t need to because of the government response.
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I have to be honest, I have been outside twice this week. First on Tuesday (May 19, 2020, because if you’re reading this, you’ve probably been privileged to sit at home or sit still long enough to forget what day it is), I went outside to pick up something that wasn’t food for the first time since I started self-isolating on March 10th.

I went to Ulta’s curbside pickup line to pick up hair products that I plan to stretch for the remainder of the calendar year. They came recommended from my favorite online hair salon of black women who were already helping those of us with kinks and coils navigate doing our own hair without the full time help of a salon.

There were two women working at the store, a Black woman and a woman in hijab who appeared to be of Arab decent. Both women of color. Both appeared to be under 40. In Northern Virginia, which was my closest option for curbside pickup. Employees of similar ages and backgrounds were working at the Wendys drive-thru and the 7-Eleven we stopped past.

The masks we ordered just came in the mail in the same hour I posted this newsletter, so I’ve been tying one of my favorite summer scarves around my mouth with a paper towel in between. I spray down the fabric every day with a homemade Febreze style mix and keep it in the bathroom so the shower steam can collect in it.

Yet, besides myself, Les, the women at the Ulta and the folks in the Wendys and behind the 7-Eleven counter, there were no masks or face coverings to be found.

Meanwhile, when went to to our regular Wegmans pickup in Central Prince George’s County, near FedEx field on Thursday May 21st, there’s not a bare face to be found.

I try when I can to tip extra to the Instacart shopper, because I know what it’s like on a regular Saturday, pre-COVID, to service an Instacart order, especially as someone who doesn’t get the delivery tips you normally get if you shop and take the groceries to the house. And you do it while being a non-union employee in a union store.

I think I’m done with tater tots until the end of this, because where we went to get them after picking up groceries was not doing a good job of protecting their workers. But I want them to have the jobs we need, so I won’t even publicize the restaurant here.

Because in all these short trips, I have yet to see one white person actively working at any business and I saw very few actually going inside the stores/restaurants. I’d ship all this stuff our apartment, but at least one of these places doesn’t have home delivery to our address.

I’m tired of it always being our people who have to bear the brunt of all these traumas and tragedies and do the heavy lifting to get what we need, even on a good day.

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In the two weeks it’s taken for me to write this newsletter, I’ve seen other articles, namely this one on BuzzFeed and this one on Curbed, that have helped me know that I’m not alone with STILL being unnerved with going outside and going back to work.

But outside of group chats and Facebook groups, people like me, with one foot in the chattering middle class and another in the service class of making ends meet by turning on that Instacart app and preparing to send my loved one back to a job that could still be done at home and should still have full hourly benefits, are heard infrequently. Heard, but mostly on platforms we create.

In case you didn’t crack the code in this section — white folks are getting paid to write, where black folks and other POCs are paying for the privilege to write or writing in spaces where it’s safe to do so, without repercussions.

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All the open restaurant street plazas in the world will not solve the problem of the server coming to work sick, unmasked, because if not, they can’t get unemployment or without tips, they would be homeless or without a hospital bed that’s free, they can’t shake the virus.

All the open restaurant plazas and streets will not surmount the issues of race and class already laid bare throughout our industry and the communities we’ve created.

And even though I’m inching outside, I’m going to feel safer at home for a very long time.

Before You Go, A Few Other Things On My Mind

• I’m still running my Black Women in Metro America survey. You can answer about your life before or during Covid-19, as it will give me guidance going forward in how fellow sisters are interacting with the things I want to do and know. Here’s where to fill it out.

• I’m still working with esteemed Black architect Mel Mitchell, FAIA, NOMA, over the next few months to get the word out about his newest book of Black architectural history and commentary African-American Architects: Embracing Culture and Building Urban Communities. Follow the Instagram page we set up, order the book from Amazon and until we can get the book in more bookstores, we do have an ISBN number (978-1734496000) and you can ask bookstores to order the print version. We also have an e-book on Kindle. If you’ve read it and want to leave a review, please do on Amazon or reply back to this email and I’ll add it to the review page I’m building on his site.

• You can still order some of my prints to make cloth masks from on Spoonflower. Note that just like the ones we ordered from a different vendor, it may take a while to get them.

• You can Book me— on your media platform, as a keynote/lecturer, for one of my workshops or as a panel participant. I can do virtual delivery of all of my programs and we can go ahead and start booking programming for late 2020 and 2021. Also, If you are a member of the press and you would love to get my expert commentary on deadline, you can reach me at (301) 578-6278.

• Les, that wonderful life partner and sales advisor of mine, is great at hyping you up, making you laugh and helping you or your organization make radical changes in your life and health. Join the email list for her company Les’s Lighthouse for periodic motivational updates. Also, if you need some laughter and motivation right now, check out some of her prior performances and motivational talks on YouTube. (Heads up, there’s saucy language, but hearty messages). She’s launched her podcast and it’s being featured Monday in the lovely alternative Black Pride celebration, Black in Space.

• Don’t forget to check out my mentee’s Rashida Green’s podcast which also discusses environmental issues from a black woman’s perspective. You can listen to me talk about some of North Carolina’s more notorious environmental issues and the political culture on this episode. 

As always, I hope to hear that you’re still here the next time we talk via email or social media. And that you’re at peace and at rest. Thanks to all of you for continuing to open this email and likewise, hope to still be here doing the same.

Love, 

Kristen

Thanks for reading! You can get these messages in your email,  Or you can use that link to update your information we have on file or unsubscribe) support the platform financially on Patreon and get special bonuses; follow the platform on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and Instagram and if you missed some of the previous weeklies, check out the archives.

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this weekly 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 weekly column, sitting on your proverbial print paper’s editorial page or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox. This is edition #31.

A couple of years ago, I wrote about how important the legal jurisdiction you legally reside in is to your life. Lo and behold we are in a global pandemic and some folks are learning for the first time how important it is to understand who will pick you up if you call 911. 

Who will decide if you can take a life-saving test. 

Who can arrest you for walking around too much without having something on your face. 

Where your body will go if it can’t be claimed immediately.

Even before the Ahmaud Aberry tape (and the tapes and records of far too many black bodies in America) hit these social media streets.

Even before Covid-19 had us being scarce in the streets.

I have always been hyperaware of physical and spiritual space.

Even before I think of the ground and land, I think of the space that sits above it, the Z axis, the atmosphere, the universe.

I’m not alone with this emphasis on space versus place, especially as a black woman. I found this wonderful graduate thesis (and companion video) by Chandra Christmas-Rouse, Race, Space and the Poetics of Planning: Toward a Black Feminist Space-Making Practice as I was googling the other day to see what over black queer feminist urbanist voices were floating around the internet. 

It’s 94 pages ring true, especially in this time we are in, and as I continue what I’ve termed my “Essential+Quarantine Revolution”. She hones in on black women in Chicago who work in creative spaces, create all kinds of space, including the architectural and land securing kinds that design professionals are used to. She also refers to space-making as many use place-making, to take the walls and the ground completely away from the concept of community gathering, resource sharing, and humanity-affirming. 

I will speak for myself here that even if a building is built perfectly, dare I say designed for social impact or sustainability, but it houses a workplace that doesn’t value or exploits my ideas, a happy hour that results in me being harassed by attendees or, something that is sadly the case for too many people today, void of enough ventilators and protective equipment to keep me alive?

The building is dead. 

Even before I physically or spiritually die in it, the edifice is dead and there’s nothing anyone can do, save improving the social atmosphere, and rectifying the injustice that would make me want to come back. If I ever make it out, in the case of that hospital building.

And let’s talk a little more about medical buildings and spaces. Can we not see that it’s what’s killing us the most? People who get to them and they are panicked or disbelieved or underrated or not even treated at all. Buildings that are inadequately staffed, too far away, or unable to be converted. Or they were converted, into something that while provides shelter, provides it for so little and at such a high cost.

And then there are the spaces— the parking lots, the tents, the living rooms, all the spaces that don’t seem like they could be something different, but all of a sudden, in some places, are testing sites, farmers markets, dining rooms, even emergency rooms. But not in enough places and in places of trust and high need.

And the spaces, in their normal state, that should be places of refuge, but instead are places of murder, anguish, pain, and despair— often because the current inhabitant doesn’t match or matches too well the description. 

There are so many lessons about cultivating space and place we still have yet to learn. If we expect life to continue to flourish, we must learn.

And for those of us who carry those burdens, tears, pain and anguish no matter what space or place they are in, take a moment and pause on this sentence, these words, this moment and know that you are seen, loved and held by a fellow sister sibling in the struggle, victory and the joy.

Before You Go, A Few Other Things On My Mind

• I’m still running my Black Women in Metro America survey. You can answer about your life before or during Covid-19, as it will give me guidance going forward in how fellow sisters are interacting with the things I want to do and know. Here’s where to fill it out.

• Meanwhile, I’m still working with esteemed Black architect Mel Mitchell, FAIA, NOMA, over the next few months to get the word out about his newest book of Black architectural history and commentary African-American Architects: Embracing Culture and Building Urban Communities. Follow the Instagram page we set up, order the book from Amazon and until we can get the book in more bookstores, we do have an ISBN number (978-1734496000) and you can ask bookstores to order the print version. Also, we are hoping to have the e-book version up by the end of April.

• You can still order some of my prints to make cloth masks from on Spoonflower.

• You can Book me— on your media platform, as a keynote/lecturer, for one of my workshops or as a panel participant. I can do virtual delivery of all of my programs and we can go ahead and start booking programming for late 2020 and 2021. Also, If you are a member of the press and you would love to get my expert commentary on deadline, you can reach me at (301) 578-6278.

• Les, that wonderful life partner and sales advisor of mine, is great at hyping you up, making you laugh and helping you or your organization make radical changes in your life and health. Join the email list for her company Les’s Lighthouse for periodic motivational updates. Also, if you need some laughter and motivation right now, check out some of her prior performances and motivational talks on YouTube. (Heads up, there’s saucy language, but hearty messages). She’s putting the final touches on her latest podcast, which you will not want to miss.

• Don’t forget to check out my mentee’s Rashida Green’s podcast which also discusses environmental issues from a black woman’s perspective. You can listen to me talk about some of North Carolina’s more notorious environmental issues and the political culture on this episode. 

As always, I hope to hear that you’re still here the next time we talk via email or social media. And that you’re at peace and at rest. Thanks to all of you for continuing to open this email and likewise, hope to still be here doing the same.

Love, 

Kristen

Thanks for reading! You can get these messages in your email,  Or you can use that link to update your information we have on file or unsubscribe) support the platform financially on Patreon and get special bonuses; follow the platform on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and Instagram and if you missed some of the previous weeklies, check out the archives.

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this weekly 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 weekly column, sitting on your proverbial print paper’s editorial page or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox.

This is edition #30 and my Essential + Quarantine Revolution continues. I first thought that I would have more to say about the things I want you as fellow urbanists to do. And that’s coming. 

However, I’ve found myself shoring up my own proverbial house and foundation. I’ve been studying online business sites I enjoy, namely this one created by a former architectural designer who had to pivot after the 2008/2009 recession and this one created by someone who worked a ton of jobs before emerging as a life coach and regularly talks about how it took nearly two decades to get to her ideal mission.

Those of you who work in long-range planning, who are nowhere near construction administration on your next building project or who are serving communities who are in a long journey of healing through trauma from addiction, violence, root shock, displacement, or something similar — know what this is like.

However, I’m a millennial and those of you who know that and have known me from the time I started this platform 10 years ago know that I’m no stranger to change or evolution. I’m also no stranger to being impatient to change or inpatient period in the things I do.

However, this time, especially for those of us who have satisfied the bottom rungs of Mazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs and are looking to what’s next, has been very healing and centering in its own way. 

It has to be because where there hasn’t been healing and centering, there’s been death, exploitation, grief, and famine.

And so when I came across a private clarity challenge from another coach and colleague of mine, I jumped on it, as I too was moving back up the triangle as it comes to this Covid-19 pandemic. 

My MPA folks and anyone else who has studied organizational behavior will know this chart well. But recently, in an iFundWomen webinar, I learned that this could apply to how products and services are marketed to people as well.

All this being said, I’ve really started to center myself in a black queer feminist urbanist ethic and practice, that also allows me to start the journey to truly allow myself to earn, counsel and just be at my full potential, so I can give back and create the communal and healing spaces my heart yearns for and I believe our world needs.

If you watch the video of my joint panel presentation with Montgomery County Planning, APA’s Transportation Planning, APA’s LGBTQ and Planning Division, and my colleagues, I give you a taste of what that ethic and practice are. (All of the webinar is great, but my part starts at 44 minutes in.)

And as I continue to present on webinars, including a private one today to select design leaders and one on social media next Thursday… 

AND get ready to return to regular publishing of my own talk and news show (Think of this as The Black Urbanist Radio Show 2.0)… 

AND stop hiding and make my work clearer…

that ethic courses through my veins and enhances my life. I can’t claim it’s what’s kept me immune from the big disease. However, I can tell you it’s healed my heart and mind.

Finally, for this week, I leave you with the incomplete, but growing syllabus of books and podcasts and resources I’ve used to not just build my ethic, but build the site over the years. And of course…

Before You Go, A Few Other Things On My Mind

• I’m still running my Black Women in Metro America survey. You can answer about your life before or during Covid-19, as it will give me guidance going forward in how fellow sisters are interacting with the things I want to do and know. Here’s where to fill it out.

• Meanwhile, I’m still working with esteemed Black architect Mel Mitchell, FAIA, NOMA, over the next few months to get the word out about his newest book of Black architectural history and commentary African-American Architects: Embracing Culture and Building Urban Communities. Follow the Instagram page we set up, order the book from Amazon and until we can get the book in more bookstores, we do have an ISBN number (978-1734496000) and you can ask bookstores to order the print version. Also, we are hoping to have the e-book version up by the end of April.

• You can still order some of my prints to make cloth masks from on Spoonflower.

• You can Book me— on your media platform, as a keynote/lecturer, for one of my workshops or as a panel participant. I can do virtual delivery of all of my programs and we can go ahead and start booking programming for late 2020 and 2021. Also, If you are a member of the press and you would love to get my expert commentary on deadline, you can reach me at (301) 578-6278.

• Les, that wonderful life partner and sales advisor of mine, is great at hyping you up, making you laugh and helping you or your organization make radical changes in your life and health. Join the email list for her company Les’s Lighthouse for periodic motivational updates. Also, if you need some laughter and motivation right now, check out some of her prior performances and motivational talks on YouTube. (Heads up, there’s saucy language, but hearty messages). 

• Don’t forget to check out my mentee’s Rashida Green’s podcast which also discusses environmental issues from a black woman’s perspective. You can listen to me talk about some of North Carolina’s more notorious environmental issues and the political culture on this episode. 

Once again, I hope to hear that you’re still here the next time we talk via email or social media. And that you’re at peace and at rest. Thanks to all of you for continuing to open this email and likewise, hope to still be here doing the same.

Love, 

Kristen

Thanks for reading! You can get these messages in your email,  Or you can use that link to update your information we have on file or unsubscribe) support the platform financially on Patreon and get special bonuses; follow the platform on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and Instagram and if you missed some of the previous weeklies, check out the archives.

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this weekly 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 weekly column, sitting on your proverbial print paper’s editorial page or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox.

This is edition #29 and I oddly feel normal and not normal at the same time. Heartbroken but rested and hopeful at the same time. Plus, it’s been a bender to have to manage to avoid Covid-19 and my own existing seasonal allergies, but I have what I need to shelter in place and that’s what I dwell on the most.

Some other ways I am feeling normalish are through preparing to present a couple of planning webinars and a promising new audio/video project. Plus, if you are still in need of fabric for masks, you can order some of my Spoonflower patterned fabric and support me in the meantime.

(Along with via Patreon and Venmo, which are still greatly appreciated, as I like many folks, don’t have many income streams available at the moment).

I’ll share more about one of the webinars and the audio/video project next week, but I wanted to make sure you made room in your must-see Zooming for the webinar on LGBTQ folks and urban planning I was invited to participate in this Friday, April 24 from 1-2:30 p.m.

This will be the first time that I give my signature presentation on my life in planning and my hopes for its future, but centered on my particular experience as a black queer woman (and some shiny new aerials from Google, which I’ll also explain more about). I will be doing it with three other queer folks in planning and I’ll be presenting third for about 15 minutes, along with some Q&A. 

It is free, open to anyone (where it asks for your chapter name, just put non-member if you aren’t affiliated with APA), and you can get APA credits. Register and join us.

If you miss it, don’t despair. I’ll post a link to a recap and I will be including an enhanced encore presentation as part of the new audio/video project.

Before You Go, A Few Other Things On My Mind

• I’m still running my Black Women in Metro America survey. You can answer about your life before or during Covid-19, as it will give me guidance going forward in how fellow sisters are interacting with the things I want to do and know. Here’s where to fill it out.

• Meanwhile, I’m working with esteemed Black architect Mel Mitchell, FAIA, NOMA, over the next few months to get the word out about his newest book of Black architectural history and commentary African-American Architects: Embracing Culture and Building Urban Communities. Follow the Instagram page we set up, order the book from Amazon and until we can get the book in more bookstores, we do have an ISBN number (978-1734496000) and you can ask bookstores to order the print version. Also, we are hoping to have the e-book version up by the end of April.

• One more reminder to order some of my prints to make cloth masks from on Spoonflower.

• Book me— on your media platform, as a keynote/lecturer, for one of my workshops or as a panel participant. I can do virtual delivery of all of my programs and we can go ahead and start booking programing for late 2020 and 2021. Also, If you are a member of the press and you would love to get my expert commentary on deadline, you can reach me at (301) 578-6278.

• Les, that wonderful life partner and sales advisor of mine, is great at hyping you up, making you laugh and helping you or your organization make radical changes in your life and health. Join the email list for her company Les’s Lighthouse for periodic motivational updates. Also, if you need some laughter and motivation right now, check out some of her prior performances and motivational talks on YouTube. (Heads up, there’s saucy language, but hearty messages). And if you see this before 7:30 Eastern tonight(4/21/2020), check out her very special webinar for AFAB & intersex masculine of center people.

• Don’t forget to check out my mentee’s Rashida Green’s podcast which also discusses environmental issues from a black woman’s perspective. You can listen to me talk about some of North Carolina’s more notorious environmental issues and the political culture on this episode. 

I hope to hear that you’re still here the next time we talk via email or social media. And that you’re at peace and at rest. Thanks to all of you for continuing to open this email and likewise, hope to still be here doing the same.

Thanks for reading! You can get these messages in your email, support the platform financially on Patreon and get special bonuses; follow the platform on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and Instagram and if you missed some of the previous weeklies, check out the archives.

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this weekly 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 weekly column, sitting on your proverbial print paper’s editorial page or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox.

This is edition #28 and folks, you know. Sending my condolences out to anyone who’s lost a friend, family member or other loved and cared one. Sending healing energy to those of you who are battling and recovering.

Know that you’re not alone, even if you’re just going through stages of grief over lost opportunities or income. Or your already existing anxieties. In fact, you can grieve both the major losses of life and specific routines. And specifically for black women and anyone else who feels like they can’t stop or be angry, you can be and you don’t have to be strong to get through this. 

That’s something I’ve needed to tell myself for weeks. Months. Years. If anything, this pandemic has allowed me to not feel as rushed or feel as guilty when this newsletter or some other product of my business fails to meet a standard. (Like showing up in your inbox every week) When it fails to walk in lock-step with the “system”. That the “system” in so many ways doesn’t work.

And I’ve decided to highlight that and other ways I’m evolving into a new series that I’m going to call Essential + Quarantine Revolution. Think of this week’s note, as the prequel and over the next few weeks, join me as I shine a light into ways that I am…

Being Nurtured and Natured into a New Normal

As we go into our second month of battling the effects of this season’s novel coronavirus and the disease that’s developed COVID-19/Rona, I’ve been at a loss of words far too many times to count. But then, when I think about how many words I do have, I realize I have tons of them. But then my brain shoots back and taunts me with them being not good enough or too much or competitive or harmful or something else that doesn’t honor the idea and the fact, that this is an individual project and offering to people, much like any other individual project or offering.

I’ve been someone who sought to write words to a particular audience and who often feels the need to constantly explain those words or where they came from.

This was my normal for so long, a normal that governed this project from its beginnings almost a decade ago. I decided to put all my identities (at least all the ones I could honestly and truthfully claim at the time) on the proverbial table and pull up my chair and demand an audience to the planners, public administrators, architects, developers and placemakers who dared to listen.

However, the longer I await the passing of this season of our lives, I realize that the normal I want to return to, cannot resemble the normal I was living before.

Our lives will never be the same and neither should our urbanism. At the very least, my urbanism will not be the same and I want it to be better.

We have twin crises going on right now. First, is the public health one. The one where we should all be sheltering in place and resting to find healing and peace with this message that nature is teaching us, the nature that some of our work seeks to control and push back.

Yet, many of us don’t have a place and the place we do have is not a place of rest.

That’s not acceptable and that’s the second crisis. 

That so many folks rest on the back of those who are deemed essential and essential only for our specific pleasures and desires that we have that we can’t fulfill in our places. That so many people are in places that do not provide them rest, restoration and healing. 

As much as I love being a nomad, traveling around and meeting and sharing with new people, I also long for and relish having a place I can call home. A place that provides me rest, restoration and healing. I have it at the moment and it’s something I don’t take for granted. Everyone needs it, whether or not we are dealing with a dark outpouring of nature, much like we are seeing now with this virus and we’ve seen with natural disasters.

I got into politics much like many folks who are marginalized do, because it’s the only way we can thrive. Yet, I wish that I didn’t have to always speak up for myself or my communities, because we know people other than ourselves got us. 

That’s another form of work, having to do all this mutual aid, because our human-created systems have failed. 

Granted, it’s always good to be prepared and be ready to back each other up. 

And that’s to me the heart of planning in this state and time.

Over the next few weeks, pending I don’t get sick and I’ll let you know if I do, I’m going to challenge all of us to think about how we are being natured into a new normal.

And not just how we individually have been natured, but how others around us, especially those who prior to this, seemed to live very different lives. Or those who’ve already been battling crisis, for those whose worlds have been broken, for those who were born into a broken world.

Many of you reading this work in systems and structures creation. It’s most imperative for us to think about how that’s going to change.

In the meantime, I’ll be back sooner than two weeks, health-willing, to discuss my own naturing into my new normal and invite you into some of the conversations, craft projects and curations I make. 

I no longer fear my own words and the quality of those words and that those words have space, even in imperfect times. I look forward to sharing them with you and I hope, but don’t require, that you resonate with them as I spread them forward.

.

Before You Go, A Few Other Things On My Mind

• One piece of this new normal is to revise a lot of how I do business. So expect some changes to features you’ve come to get used to and how they operate. 

• However, I’m still running my Black Women in Metro America survey. You can answer about your life before or during this crisis, as it will give me guidance going forward in how fellow sisters are interacting with the things I want to do and know. Here’s where to fill it out.

• Meanwhile, I’m also working with esteemed Black architect Mel Mitchell, FAIA, NOMA, over the next few months to get the word out about his newest book of Black architectural history and commentary African-American Architects: Embracing Culture and Building Urban Communities. Follow the Instagram page we set up, order the book from Amazon and until we can get the book in more bookstores, we do have an ISBN number (978-1734496000) and you can and you can ask your local bookstore to order it and support them as well.

• I’m using my Kristpattern label to grow my art practice. Check out its Instagram and follow along with me as I continue to explore and center my art and craft creation.

• Book me— on your media platform, as a keynote/lecturer, for one of my workshops or as a panel participant. I can do virtual delivery of all of my programs and we can go ahead and start booking programming for late 2020 and 2021. Also, If you are a member of the press and you would love to get my expert commentary on deadline, you can reach me at (301) 578-6278.

• Les, that wonderful life partner and sales advisor of mine, is great at hyping you up, making you laugh and helping you or your organization make radical changes in your life and health. Join the email list for her company Les’s Lighthouse for periodic motivational updates. Also, if you need some laughter and motivation right now, check out some of her prior performances and motivational talks on YouTube. (Heads up, there’s saucy language, but hearty messages). Or catch her on Instagram.

• Don’t forget to check out my mentee’s Rashida Green’s podcast which also discusses environmental issues from a black woman’s perspective. You can listen to me talk about some of North Carolina’s more notorious environmental issues and the political culture on this episode. 

Take care of yourselves and your communities as best as you can and I look forward to seeing you in your inbox and on the socials and on the site next time.

Love, 

Thanks for reading! You can support the platform financially on Patreon and listen to this week’s special audio edition of the newsletter; follow the platform on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and Instagram and if you missed some of the previous weeklies, check out the archives.

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this weekly 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 weekly column, sitting on your proverbial print paper’s editorial page or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox.

This is edition #27 and folks, we’re still not out of the woods yet. In fact, as I write this, there’s a tweet floating around saying that we’re not even in the woods yet.

The work I do on a regular basis comes at so many intersections. First, the intersections of governance, education, design, and culture. Then, there are all those intersections I mention in the first paragraph every week.  Intersections by their very nature make us pause, look around and see if we have safe passage, otherwise, the danger can literally run into us and knock us off our feet. But, this time, with this crisis, the danger is airborne. And that’s why my main message this week is:

We need to get people home as soon as possible.

Every jurisdiction that hasn’t already issued a stay-at-home order, should. That way, any company that’s on the fence on teleworking, that already performs most or all of their duties on computers and doesn’t need to have human contact to do their job, can be at home.

Everyone else, we need to get personal protective equipment to them, starting with all of our health facilities at the front lines of this crisis. 

Those of us who are just sitting at home right now, bored, need to consider our consumption habits and if they support reduced store hours and people in the stores having to do more work lifting and climbing and making.

We still need to do some things, but we could all be sick (and some of us are already dead) and what have we been told when we are sick? Stay home. 

Unless of course, you work somewhere without vacation or sick pay or hourly or you own your own business or you’re a contractor. Basically, everyone can stay home, unless you are providing a service for someone else or you can’t pay your bills.

So about those bills. Let’s kill them. Everyone should be issuing immediate moratoriums and suspensions on utility shutoff, rent payments, mortgage payments or anything else that people would go to work to earn money to do right now. And even with those bill suspensions, we all need savings accounts or some other way to have a universal basic income. The government stimulus still creates that, even if there’s nothing to buy, we can save and build up our own stockpiles. Or spend on other things, like new ventures and things we said we could never do. But we need to do, because this is is a new world.

Yes, folks who are landlords,I feel like you’re my first “but Kristen” in this situation especially the small developer crew, you should be on the phone too begging for forgiveness for your mortgage if you still or ever had one. And, if you own the building outright and you don’t depend on it for primary income, please consider rent suspension. Same with all other smaller businesses, we should all reconsider our relationships with those who provide services. And that leads us to our children, elders and others we teach just as much as we serve.

We need to give all of our students grace, grace in grades, attendance, martriculations, learnings. 

When we do get back to full employment, we need to start giving people grace when it comes to learning jobs and being willing to be trained for jobs.  

Again, we should be doing as much as possible remotely, so we can be ready for not just this crisis, but the next natural disaster or disease pandemic.

Finally, we need to get homes for those who were already on the streets, for the ones where their house is not a home and being locked inside with abusive partners, queer-phobic parents or shady roommates, for the incarcerated and institutionalized who need a rehabilitation plan, not a death sentence.

Then, we can get to that point where some of us can start bragging about our homeschool, our productivity, our creativity. We can all be dancing to that D-Nice mixtape. 

Or, we can keep from being sick. 

Heal from being sick

Morn those we are losing as best we can.

Or even better, just be. No bragging. No showing off. No value of life based on the product of your hands. 

Just being alive.

Before You Go, A Few Other Things On My Mind

• I’m taking my time of slowness in productivity to revise a lot of things, namely the job board. Look for a new one soon with new functionality. In the meantime, if you don’t need to work right now, don’t work, rest!

• However, I’m still running my Black Women in Metro America survey. You can answer about your life before or during this crisis, as it will give me guidance going forward in how fellow sisters are interacting with the things I want to do and know. Here’s where to fill it out.

• Meanwhile, I’m working with esteemed Black architect Mel Mitchell, FAIA, NOMA, over the next few months to get the word out about his newest book of Black architectural history and commentary African-American Architects: Embracing Culture and Building Urban Communities. Follow the Instagram page we set up, order the book from Amazon and until we can get the book in more bookstores, we do have an ISBN number (978-1734496000) and you can ask your local bookstore to order it and support them as well.

• I’ll be dabbling more with Kristpattern label. Check out its Instagram and follow along with said crafty dabbles.

• Book me— on your media platform, as a keynote/lecturer, for one of my workshops or as a panel participant. I can do virtual delivery of all of my programs and we can go ahead and start booking programing for late 2020 and 2021. Also, If you are a member of the press and you would love to get my expert commentary on deadline, you can reach me at (301) 578-6278.

• Les, that wonderful life partner and sales advisor of mine, is great at hyping you up, making you laugh and helping you or your organization make radical changes in your life and health. Join the email list for her company Les’s Lighthouse for periodic motivational updates. Also, if you need some laughter and motivation right now, check out some of her prior performances and motivational talks on YouTube. (Heads up, there’s saucy language, but hearty messages).

• Don’t forget to check out my mentee’s Rashida Green’s podcast which also discusses environmental issues from a black woman’s perspective. You can listen to me talk about some of North Carolina’s more notorious environmental issues and the political culture on this episode. 

I hope to hear that you’re still here the next time we talk via email or social media. And that you’re at peace and at rest. Thanks to all of you for continuing to open this email and likewise, hope to still be here doing the same.

Love, 

Kristen

Thanks for reading! You can get these messages in your email, support the platform financially on Patreon and get special bonuses; follow the platform on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and Instagram and if you missed some of the previous weeklies, check out the archives.

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this weekly 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 weekly column, sitting on your proverbial print paper’s editorial page or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox.

This is edition #26 and folks, we are in crisis. It’s not too late, but things at this point could get worse before better. Hence why I’m suspending my usual format and doing my best to keep you both informed and calm.

A shout-out.

To all the folks working in the hospitals, first-responders, delivery drivers, grocery stores and pharmacies and for all of our government entities. A special nod to all my federal employees and others who are waiting for permission to tele-work or at least get extended paid leave. For those of you who cannot stop working outside because what you do is vital to the continued function of both our health system and economy, I see you and I’m with you. Search for #mutualaid for specific efforts, similar to ones being taken here in DC  to ensure bills are paid, people of all ages are fed, clothed, in their right mind and have the medication and cleaning supplies needed, education and trainings are offered and continued and alternatives to supporting in-person arts and conference trips are happening. It’s times like this that the support you provide via Patreon and Venmo to me are helpful. While I already have a couple of in-home projects, and I’m not my only source of household income, my conference season is currently on hold and if we are in long-term quarantine, I may become my only source of household income.

 I’ve turned my social feeds into information feeds because we need it. 

It’s sad that in 2020, you have to tell someone to not drink bleach to be cured from a disease. Of course, there are a lot of other sad things. Mainly how the US federal government has handled this; the worldwide deaths and serious illnesses and all the economic and social effects. Even if we all get better, there are concerns about students losing not just instructional time, but going hungry and losing a stable place to go. We already have people on the streets and in jails and yes, even those who are black, no matter who you are, can get sick from it. However, you can boost your immune system, be productive if you are working-from-home, even with children of any age (note, I would still be cautious with the playdates this article suggests) and I myself am balancing out the doom and gloom with some wonderful distractions. My Twitter and Instagram Stories are the best places to go for my real-time updates. I also encourage you to consult your city, county and state websites, Twitter feeds and Facebook pages, along with the World Health Organization  and local hospital websites for up-to-date and accurate information about the virus and responses to it. Also, double-check information you send and please encourage municipalities, workplaces, family and friends to do right by their citizens, their workforces and their health.

I still want to hear from black women via my survey!

I still want to hear from you if you identify in any way with being a black woman or black womanhood. Thanks to the 8 people who have taken the time to do the survey so far and others who continue to share the information. In the coming weeks, I’ll be releasing more surveys using and reporting out all this data to build an even better picture of what life looks like for black folks and others here in the United States and around the world. I’ve learned so much so far, with the DC, Atlanta, Cleveland and San Francisco Metro Areas represented. I know you’re out there, please boost our representation numbers. Plus, once you get that skeptical person in the house for social distancing, or get cabin fever with your young and adult children back at home over the next few weeks, send this link to them and use it as a conversation starter!

A product promotion, but its a book and it can be delivered to your house!

I’ve been promoting a wonderful book of Black architectural history, that also doubles as a call-to-action to all of us to commit to building up and ensuring black folks are housed, as well as promoting and hiring black-led firms and developing multiple capabilities in-house. It’s by architect Melvin L. Mitchell and it’s called African American Architects: Embracing Culture and Building Up Urban Communities. Currently, you can mail order it directly to your home on Amazon and make it a part of your social distancing and quarantine activities. Soon, we hope to have it in as many bookstores as possible. Please feel free to share this link, in addition to purchasing a few copies and gifting them to folks who could use reading material, but are unable to purchase at this time.

Take care of yourselves and I’ll be back next week with the regular programing. 

(P.S. Happy 66th Birthday to My Mom, who is safely at home and socially distancing. She also is a survivor on multiple levels and I pull from her strength today and especially every day).

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this weekly 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 weekly column, sitting on your proverbial print paper’s editorial page or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox.

This is edition #25 and I’m back this week ready to take chances. (In case you’ve missed last week’s email, here’s a direct link). Now many of you may think of chance like a game of luck. For me, in my case, chance means putting myself out there and putting out new levels and opportunities for information. It means learning more about who’s reading and bringing in people who could read more.

This week I am launching the first of several surveys of who reads this newsletter, listens or has listened to any of my podcasts (hence the hiatus, I want to know more about who you are) and who also shares points of my identity, so I can help you better, provide more relevant and accurate information and also add to the cannon of urbanism thought and practice.

• Before we dig into this week’s edition, just a reminder that you can send all emails related to myself or The Black Urbanist to theblackurbanist@gmail.com.  Plus, author and esteemed Black architect Mel Mitchell has a very special announcement below, before you go. You can join him in advertising your company, organization, book, event, school or initiative by emailing theblackurbanist@gmail.com as well. These surveys will help with me creating ads and picking paid affiliate organizations that make sense for who I want to serve, aren’t doing shady things and can help keep this platform running.

You can also support the platform financially, individually, on a monthly basis using Patreon or one-time using Venmo. 

I also want to clear it up, that I’m not currently recovering from the flood situation. Les and I are fine, our apartment is not flooded and it’s the cumulative hurt and pain that have inspired me to do what I do, which, is exactly what I’m here to talk about and survey about. However, the folks in North and East Nashville could use help recovering from their recent disaster and this is how you can help them. Unfortunately, there are fears that rebuilding may permanently displace black communities in Nashville, but this organization of community members is ready and organized to help and you can donate or connect with them directly.

Also, today would have been my late father’s 60th birthday. As many of you know, he was a key influence in me building up this media platform and I miss him dearly. Happy Birthday, Daddy! Rest in power and relax in paradise.

And now…

Introducing The Inaugural How Black Women* Are Really Living Survey 

(*Inclusive of Anyone Who Claims a Tie to Womanhood/Femininity, i.e. those who are also non-binary, trans and gender non-conforming people)

When I first started this platform back in October of 2010, I really thought I was the only black woman urbanist. I knew of black men, but really, besides myself and a handful of other women, I didn’t think we existed.

Later on, I would learn about all of you black women architects, planners, social scientists, mothers, ministers and anyone else who considers themselves friends of the city, warriors for justice in our streets, builders of homes, healers of body and spirit, the 4.2 million strong of us in major cities across America and the remaining millions in small towns and farms across America and the billions of us on all continents, that all connect back to mother Africa. 

I would learn what erasure is and intersectionality is and I would come out into my own complete sexuality and gender expression. I would become poor and feel rich. I would feel uneducated, inadequate, impractical. And sometimes in the next hour feel and know how educated, adequate, practical and necessary I am and we are.

So that’s why, in the spirit of making this platform I’ve ran for 10 years, more equitable and ACTUALLY centered in the experiences I’ve had in this body, with these identities, and all the things you do in your bodies, for our communities, for our souls, I’m launching this survey of Black Women in Metro America.

With the results of this survey, I hope to publish and house a more comprehensive snapshot of how urbanism is working for black women-identified and aligned folks. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be asking some of these same questions, along with a few others to those of you who are not black women and non-binary people.

Other Things I Think You Should Know About

There’s really not A PLAN for the displacement of black folks in many cities, namely DC, but a lot of our city plans do in fact account for displacement of people of certain economic classes and the loss of certain businesses, who also happen to be disproportionally Black and non-white descendants of Latinidad. An update on how this is playing out in my old DC neighborhood, Park View. DC’s property tax assessments are out and based on a simple reading of this map, areas east of the Anacostia River and several other neighborhoods that have seen shifts with their Black residents, have rising rates.

In better news, Durham County (which encompasses the city of Durham and a few surrounding towns in North Carolina) has an all women-identified county council and a new council of women that advises the mayor’s office.

A history of Black American womanhood through recently released archives of the Smithsonian.

Finally, what I’ve been through with housing is nothing compared to what folks go through who are returning from being incarcerated. While there may not be many, one person is too many to go through this. This article walks through this process, which happens to be a success story, through a DC-based black woman with children. And again, this is a success story, where are the other sisters who are still struggling and how are we reaching them? Also,  Rep. Ayana Pressley and her husband Conan Harris recently did a joint interview on their own experiences with incarceration.

Before You Go

• Five open jobs on the job board! Submit your jobs with this online form for free for a limited time. Note that this week’s board is the main spreadsheet, as I had some technical difficulties with the other sheet.
• I’m working with esteemed Black architect Mel Mitchell, FAIA, NOMA, over the next few months to get the word out about his newest book of Black architectural history and commentary African-American Architects: Embracing Culture and Building Urban Communities. If you would like for him to come to your campus, bookstore or on your program, please also let me know.
• I’m still making custom infinity scarves and printing Les’s and I’s joint card line via the Kristpattern label. Check out its Instagram and DM me if you’re interested. 
• Book me— on your media platform, as a keynote/lecturer, for one of my workshops or as a panel participant. If you are a member of the press and you would love to get my expert commentary on deadline, you can reach me at (301) 578-6278.
• Les, that wonderful life partner and sales advisor of mine, is great at hyping you up, making you laugh and helping you or your organization make radical changes in your life and health. Join the email list for her company Les’s Lighthouse for periodic motivational and comedic updates. 
• Don’t forget to check out my mentee’s Rashida Green’s podcast which also discusses environmental issues from a black woman’s perspective. You can listen to me talk about some of North Carolina’s more notorious environmental issues and the political culture on this episode. 
• One last reminder for Black women-identified people to fill out the survey!
• You too can sponsor The Black Urbanist platform as a company, nonprofit organization, conference or event, institution or agency. Email us at theblackurbanist@gmail.com and we can schedule a call to discuss email, and social sponsorship options. Or, become an individual monthly supporter via Patreon or send me a one-time Venmo. Remember, Patreon supporters get exclusive audio from me and soon video!

Thanks for reading! You can get these messages in your email, support the platform financially on Patreon and a special audio edition of the newsletter; follow the platform on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and Instagram and if you missed some of the previous weeklies, check out the archives.

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this weekly 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 weekly column, sitting on your proverbial print paper’s editorial page or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox.

This is edition #24 and I’m back this week with something that ties my previous two months series—To City, With Love (Again) and my other series from January ‘“And That’s What Time It Is. I’m calling this week’s newsletter— Times When City Breaks My Heart and Inspires Me to Put It Back Together Again, to move us into the next phase of my work and presentations for you and others.

In case you’ve missed all the prior emails/newsletters/posts here they are:

• And That’s What Time It Is Part 1– Time To Make More Media, Not Less
• And That’s What Time It Is Part 2—To Create Inclusive Spaces and Walk Away from Those That Aren’t
• And That’s What Time It Is Part 3 —What Time Is It For North Carolina?
• And That’s What Time It Is Part 4 —Is Everything Up-to-Date in Kansas City?
• And That’s What Time It Is Part 5— The Time is Now for the Greater DC Region
• To City With Love (Again) Part 1 — What I Love About The City As A Black Woman
• To City With Love (Again) Part 2 — What I Love About the City As a (Black) Queer Woman
• To City With Love (Again) Part 3 — To City, With Love from a (Black, Queer) Entrepreneurial Woman on a Budget

Before we dig into this week’s edition, just a reminder that you can send all emails related to myself or The Black Urbanist to theblackurbanist@gmail.com.  Plus, author and esteemed Black architect Mel Mitchell has a very special announcement below, before you go. You can join them in advertising your company, organization, book, event, school or initiative by emailing theblackurbanist@gmail.com as well. And since this is an advertisement, yes, it helps keep the lights on here as well.

And, if you aren’t already, you can support the platform financially on a monthly basis using Patreon (and get an exclusive audio version of the newsletter) or one-time using Venmo. 

Times When City Breaks My Heart and Inspires Me to Put It Back Together Again 

It was about 1:30 a.m. I welcomed this rain, because despite the humidity, it was keeping the otherwise hot and balmy July weather at bay. I’d managed to figure out english basement living. 

Find somewhere to go during the day, namely a job or to co-working to work on my projects to get myself some sun. Make dinner with friends at their larger, brighter place so you don’t have to be alone in the dark. Get that Damp-Eze that the Target four blocks away sells in abundance and be ready to swap it out almost daily so it doesn’t smell like wet basement and the bag of water doesn’t explode. 

Remember that the walls can swell and get damp, so don’t put your clothes against them, even when they are dirty. Run the air conditioner and the fan and take comfort that you have more control than the main part of the house upstairs, despite not having central heat and air.

Again, it’s 1:30 a.m. and the fan’s running and it’s making the kind of noises that fans do. In fact, the fan’s running so consistently, it’s making you think of waves at the beach. Rising and crashing, creating a nice rhythm that soothes your anxiety. 

But then you start to hear crackles and pops. You look down and see water rushing out of your fan and quickly spring to action. It’s a good thing you looked down so you didn’t soak your feet in the pool of dark water at the foot of your bed. 

You thought you’d conquered english basement living. But, you weren’t ready to swim in this pool.

——

If anything breaks my heart about city living, it’s how despite the vitality and healing that comes from people joining together to create communities, the capitalized, corporatized, colonized, appropriated version of that is killing us. 

People created their own villages and communities naturally over millennia. However, some communities decided that instead of working together to create their own means of survival,  they needed to colonize and pillage other settlements. Rather than share and uplift, it’s about give and take.

This cycle repeats itself and places and communities often shift roles. However, as much as I try to create a sharing and uplifting community, the give and take community is stronger and larger and been at their work longer.

And my heart gets squeezed and time seems to slow down and close in as the panic combines and then I feel lifeless and that my work doesn’t matter and …

——

So this is where time and heart come together and feed my fatalism. I know I’m not alone, but that’s not enough. When the rent keeps rising. Jobs tell me I’m doing well but I still have one more thing to do to get right. And if I don’t get it right, I’m back on the hunt. A deeper sword is when funding has strings that are easily frayed and cut, despite me making something of myself no matter what. Healthcare that’s either expensive or fragmented and I’m already having a panic attack, so that’s not helping. Faith that claims the doors are open, but not if you keep acting and believing like that. Everyone feeling the crunch and raising their rates to survive and to get what they’re worth, but the worth number seems to be rising. Are we not worth anything at birth, at zero, at the top of the hour?

——

Despite all of this, there’s still a glimmer of hope and optimism in my heart. My favorite time of the day is the early morning. I hearken back to when my dad and I would get in the car and drive to the Waffle House and as the waffles and syrup started flowing in my belly, the sun crests over the east. These days, a similar wonderful moment hits when the sun first hits our bodies and Les and I exchange our first set of I love yous before all the other energy of the day has a chance to push and pull against us.

It’s great to be able to do it in our own apartment. With access to transportation. With the healthcare we need. Finally, with occupations, either self-led or with people who trust us to do the job. And a great village of people to lift us up and keep us out of despair. With huge hearts and plenty of time.

——

Over the next weeks, I’m operating in a theme and spirit of chance and opportunity. This week touched on how much that’s a factor in everything I do. I could be doing well and the shoe drops. But, I’ve been inspired to do a few new things. 

First, I am adding an audio version of these newsletters, to Patreon, which you can access at the $5 and up level. 

Second, I want to zero in on talking with black women, black women entrepreneurs and LGTBQIA+ folks of all stripes around urbanism and placemaking. I’m creating a survey based on February’s love measures, with a few questions thrown in around housing, transportation and healthcare. I want to know if these cities from the recent CityLab study measure up to my own metrics and even some of the metrics they claim to focus on. Look for that in the coming weeks and a report back on results after that.

Third, I’ll be doing less storytelling in this newsletter and more of the things like the On My Mind section a, along with other book reviews, as I get closer to my own book release. I’m aiming to have a pre-order link in the email at the end of the month.

The goal is to center the conversation of urbanism, at least the one I’m having, around black women, black women entrepreneurs and LGBTQIA+ folks, but anyone else is welcome to listen and you’ll want to listen and be part of this conversation, as it will not be inhibited by any institutions, and as my financial support increases, these conversations and data sets can grow and be used for positive change.

So, I’ll be back next week, with the openings of the survey and more thoughts like the next section.

Other Things On My Mind

My tribute to NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson…

I’m giving flowers to our great ancestor Katherine Johnson. If the name doesn’t ring a bell despite being all over science and black excellence social media over the past week, this is the woman who was instrumental in helping calculate equations that allowed not just satellites to orbit the earth (giving us this here internet), but helping people get to the moon. If you’ve seen the movie Hidden Figures, she’s the person Taraji P. Henson portrayed.

What’s so remarkable about this woman is not just what she did for NASA and global spaceflight , but doing so in a black body twice oppressed by white supremacy and patriarchy. The movie touched on how she was a black girl genius who managed through her mastery of equations and the mentorship of communitymembers to get the education she needed. However, despite being one of the first to integrate her graduate school, she opted to marry, have three children and be a classroom teacher in a rural Virginia school.

Yet, she was able to find out about the position to use her extraordinary talent with what would become NASA.  She was able to the permission of her husband to do so during a time when that was something that in some cases was socially required and in other cases, was mandated by law.  He uprooted his life and family to allow his wife to be the breadwinner and pursue her dreams and use her extraordinary brain. 

Now he didn’t live much longer after they moved to Hampton for her to take the position and he could have been sick and that’s what influenced his decision with the thought of having more money in the household and the security of a federal job. 

Still, she was able to bless us and so many others with her talent, her mentorship and her longevity. Rest in power and relax in paradise.

As we roll up in to Super Tuesday…

I know many of you on this newsletter are already voting, and several of you are so involved with the political process, you’re running the board of elections, judging your election precincts, canvassing for candidates and drawing and enacting policy. 

What I want us to remember is that we have that power and no one needs to buy it from us to get it done. It’s tempting to fall prey to the lures of more money or a kickback or even just staying on a job and planning something that you know is going to hurt people down the road. I know many of us have families we care for and the systems that we are trying to dismantle are doing everything they can to draw us in the black hole. But there’s hope and there are options. 

Also, I am including Rebecca Nagle’s tweet for clarity around exactly what Cherokee Nation members are asking for from Elizabeth Warren in terms of informing people on how claims of Native ancestry that turn out to be wrong also hurt other marginalized and minoritized groups. Here’s a thread from LA Times reporter Adam Elmahrek that includes more information about this issue and also their previous article I linked to a while back that discusses how MWBE and similar programs have been hogged by those claiming false Native ancestry. 

And while this is a Charleston-based New York Times interactive article highlighting the black church and Black Youth Project 100 canvassing efforts, you could tell me this was done at any of the smaller churches my family goes to and in the housing projects I grew up next to in and around Greensboro and it would make sense.

Before You Go

• Four open jobs on the job board! Submit your jobs with this online form for free for a limited time.

• I’m working with esteemed Black architect Mel Mitchell, FAIA, NOMA, over the next few months to get the word out about his newest book of Black architectural history and commentary African-American Architects: Embracing Culture and Building Urban Communities. If you would like for him to come to your campus, bookstore or on your program, please also let me know.

• I’m still making custom infinity scarves and printing Les’s and I’s joint card line via the Kristpattern label. Check out its Instagram and DM me if you’re interested. 

• Book me— on your media platform, as a keynote/lecturer, for one of my workshops or as a panel participant. If you are a member of the press and you would love to get my expert commentary on deadline, you can reach me at (301) 578-6278.

• Les, that wonderful life partner and sales advisor of mine, is great at hyping you up, making you laugh and helping you or your organization make radical changes in your life and health. Join the email list for her company Les’s Lighthouse for periodic motivational updates. Follow her on Linked-IN for a very special motivational challenge this month. 

• Don’t forget to check out my mentee’s Rashida Green’s podcast which also discusses environmental issues from a black woman’s perspective. You can listen to me talk about some of North Carolina’s more notorious environmental issues and the political culture on this episode. 

• You too can sponsor The Black Urbanist platform as a company, nonprofit organization, conference or event, institution or agency. Email us at theblackurbanist@gmail.com and we can schedule a call to discuss email, and social sponsorship options. Or, become an individual monthly supporter via Patreon (which comes with an exclusive audio version of the newsletter and more bonuses) or send me a one-time Venmo. Remember, Patreon supporters get exclusive audio from me and soon video!

Thanks for reading! You can get these messages in your email, support the platform financially on Patreon and get an exclusive audio version of the newsletter; follow the platform on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and Instagram and if you missed some of the previous weeklies, check out the archives.

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this weekly 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 weekly column, sitting on your proverbial print paper’s editorial page or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox.

This is edition #23 and I’m back this week with the second to last post of my love theme—To City, With Love (Again). This is still Black History Month and I’ll be sharing and tweeting various historical things. However, the way I really wanted to celebrate this month was to dig into what I love about cities, but centered on my identities as a black woman (two weeks ago) black queer woman (last week) and a black queer woman entrepreneur on a budget  (this week). Next week, I have a bonus email that ties together both the love and the time series and has another announcement about my upcoming book.

The title of the series comes from an edition of a prior iteration of my newsletter from 2014. Hence the again, as I’m revisiting the idea of dedicating myself to a city with love.

Before we dig into this week’s edition, just a reminder that you can send all emails related to myself or The Black Urbanist to theblackurbanist@gmail.com.  Plus, Rail~Volution 2020 and author and esteemed Black architect Mel Mitchell have very special announcements below, before you go. You can join them in advertising your company, organization, book, event, school or initiative by emailing theblackurbanist@gmail.com as well. And since this is an advertisement, yes, it helps keep the lights on here as well.

And, if you aren’t already, you can support the platform financially on a monthly basis using Patreon or one-time using Venmo. 

And now, to city with love (again), as a (black, queer) entrepreneurial woman on a budget.

To City, With Love (Again) Part 3: What I Love About the City As a (Black, Queer) Entrepreneurial Woman on a Budget

So last week, I talked about what gets me head over heels for a city from just my black ciswoman perspective. Last week, I stacked my sexual orientation layer on top. This week, it’s back to business, as I discuss what I need, within those identities, for cities to get my love and support as an entrepreneurial black queer woman on a budget.

For those of you have followed all of my moves and travels (for the record it’s Greensboro—>Raleigh—> Durham—> Greensboro—>Kansas City—> DC proper—>Baltimore—> DC proper—> Just over the DC line in Maryland with lots of travel and some apartment moves in between), you probably have wondered how I get work done. 

Plus, I’m working at any moment with less than $2000 average monthly cash flow and have for my entire working career both employed and self-employed, no matter how cheap or expensive the city is known to be. Name a city and my income has probably been between the poverty line and the median income. 

Again, you’re probably wondering how I get it all done. I’ll save the full analysis of that for another newsletter.

I also saved this reflection for last because I wanted to build up the case for why someone like me, an entrepreneur who is supposed to be dedicated to cost-cutting and doing business where it’s the cheapest, would stay in an expensive metro area.

One key reason is that (as I discussed in a previous edition of the newsletter on creating and leaving spaces) capital flows differently based on the two intersections of my identity I talked about in the last two weeks. 

I’ve found that it’s best to feed my soul and then work on stacking my bank account. The following three things are the first level of me establishing my foundation financially in any city:

Affordable Prepared Food Options + Affordable Wages for People Who Prepare Food

It’s really a shame that it’s become harder to find good food. After all, if we don’t eat, we die. But, when you’re busy running a business, especially one like mine that’s basically me and my laptop, the food thing is vital. Even on days when I don’t work out, and days when I don’t have to go outside, I still have to eat.

And sometimes, I can muster up the extra energy, after the information overload, after processing the ups and downs of business, to do more than put rice and beans in my InstaPot. I’m happy that my partner Les loves cooking and will spice up my food life sometimes. But, at other times, the only thing keeping us from the throes of hangry, is a frozen pizza.

I do support higher food prices when that extra cost goes directly to my fellow baristas, line cooks and supermarket clerks. Especially in non-unionized places, the money goes further and in this and other high-cost-of-living regions, the bite is felt even harder when you are on a fixed income. For several months of my time in DC, I’ve worked minimum wage jobs to have the time to work on the platform. Other times, I’ve gotten more lucrative contracts.

Which is why I believe one day my income will increase.  I perform professional services, something for which people pay high rates, especially as you become more well-known. 

However, for folks who will always be punching a clock daily, that’s not guaranteed. We can’t all be in professional services. And one day, some of the service jobs will be completely automated. It’s why I support some form of Universal Basic Income, as do those who released this recent State of the Black Woman Report.

Affordable Fitness and Recreation Options

Working for myself and having a tight budget makes me want to stay in bed and write all the time. But, then after about the sixth hour in bed, I realize I have a random ache. 

Or worse, I’m shutting off my laptop and chucking it on the bedroom floor, frustrated over writer’s block. 

And both come sometimes after reading the sheer amount of information that comes across my social feeds, my email boxes and even sometimes TV if I happen to have it on in the background.

(It’s also why I’m so grateful that you take the time to make this part of my information diet) 

At that point, I realize it’s time to take a break and move around. My preferred methods of doing that are going to my gym (currently Planet Fitness because I can get so much for a good rate and it’s right across the street) or head down to one of the waterfronts. I’ll park the car and I’ll take one of the riverfront trails. 

I also take advantage of helping Les cut down on her office commute time by taking her to work via the car, then stopping at a nearby shopping plaza that has a Planet Fitness, Aldi, CVS, library branch (and bonus arcade) in it. 

I have looked up and realized I’ve spent the whole day in this plaza and then it’s just a quick whip around the corner and evening carpool time is on!

We underestimate the power of recreation centers and natural areas in our communities, even when we can afford other venues like Planet Fitness or an even more pricey gym. I grew up going down the street with my dad to our local rec and I’ve done one of my crafting classes at a then nearby DC rec. All paid for with tax dollars. And the memories and joy that come created from my recent waterfront walks can’t be measured in money.

I finished writing this email after another good night of sleep. Don’t underestimate the time you need to rest and recreate, especially if you are running your own small business.

Affordable and Efficient Ways to Obtain Information and Do Work

This is the time for me to give a full shout-out to the library. In the first part of this series, I talked about how the library was there for me to provide community in craft. However, the first role the library has provided is a free place with wi-fi for me to work on things outside of my prior apartments, which in the case of my first two here in DC, were dark. 

I’ve paid for co-working spaces before and that’s been great, but so far, the nature of my work has been best suited to making time to work from home and then branch out to a library or coffee shop.

The coffeeshop goes back to the affordable food issue I discussed above, as in I still have to pay for something. The library just requires me to find an empty space to sit.

Plus, while I’ve not taken advantage of all the programs many of the local libraries have, they have many. You name the source or resource and if my branch doesn’t have it, another one does and if no branches in that library system do, library systems from other places, places that are sometimes only a block or two away, do.

You also don’t have to be in the library for services. The advent of ebooks and journal access that come to you for having a library card is unmatched.

And so many librarians and library systems are priding themselves on being that third place. They are adding as many programs as they can. Some even let you eat as long as you clean up after yourself and talk, as long as you’re not too loud or in a meeting space.

But, we know there’s a bigger piece to all of this

All these things are well and good when you have the main pillars of affordability: housing, transportation, and utilities. Next week in the bonus round of this series: how income sources, affordable transportation, and affordable housing affects everything else I’ve talked about over the last three weeks, especially this week. If you’ve been reading these and wondering when I was going to address this, it’s coming.

Other Things On My Mind

• Now, I’m ready to do some political endorsements. I’ve been a fan of Elizabeth Warren for a long time, way before the recent debate,  especially considering the economics I talked about at the beginning of this newsletter. I also like how she’s pledged to listen and be held accountable specifically by black women. I’ve decided to be vocal because as much as Bloomberg has sent money, purchased publications and offered training and support to local elected leaders, you shouldn’t have to endorse someone in order to get what you need for your city. Plus, if anyone is shocked at these black community endorsements, I went off on that on a thread. Also a fan of Rhonda Foxx in my hometown congressional district, and wishing the best to friend-of-the -platform Natalie Murdock, and it’s been great to see my hometown learn more about Ayanna Pressley. You can check Ballotpedia and type in your address to learn exactly who is on your ballot and make your own choices. So many of you are voting in the next couple of weeks, and I hope you take that opportunity to do so. 
• I’m saving most of my thoughts on Vision Zero reform for the book and a future newsletter. However, this thread gave me an opportunity to share some thoughts and I couldn’t wait to get them off my chest.
• Visible: Out on Television was worth me spending my Apple TV+ free trial on it. But other than the Peanuts characters…not much else is.

Before You Go

—Two open jobs on the job board! Submit your jobs with this online form for free for a limited time.

–Rail~Volution 2020 is coming up and they’ve reached out to me to let you know that they are looking for speakers for this year. If you live in or plan on being in Miami September 20-23 and want to share a transit or community development-related project, head to https://railvolution.org/the-conference/conference-information/call-for-speakers/. The call for speakers ends on February 28th. There are also scholarships available.

— I’m also working with esteemed architect Mel Mitchell, FAIA, NOMA, over the next few months to get the word out about his newest book of Black architectural history and commentary African-American Architects: Embracing Culture and Building Urban Communities. 

—Check out Kristpattern on Instagram and DM me if you’re interested in anything for sale over there. It’s not too late to get one of the cards from the Les’s Lighthouse collection and they’re great for helping you or a friend turn your wishes into reality in 2020.

— Book me— on your media platform, as a keynote/lecturer, for one of my workshops or as a panel participant. If you are a member of the press and you would love to get my expert commentary on deadline, you can reach me at (301) 578-6278.

—Les, that wonderful life partner and sales advisor you learned so much about above, is great at hyping you up, making you laugh and helping you or your organization make radical changes in your life and health. Join the email list for her company Les’s Lighthouse and look out for a special announcement from her on March 1. In the meantime, you can listen to her podcast.

—Don’t forget to check out my mentee’s Rashida Green’s podcast which also discusses environmental issues from a black woman’s perspective. You can listen to me talk about some of North Carolina’s more notorious environmental issues and the political culture.

— You too can sponsor The Black Urbanist platform as a company, nonprofit organization, conference or event, institution or agency. Email us at theblackurbanist@gmail.com and we can schedule a call to discuss email and social sponsorship options. Or, become an individual monthly supporter via Patreon or send me a one-time Venmo.

Thanks for reading! You can get these messages in your email, support the platform financially on Patreon and get special bonuses; follow the platform on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and Instagram and if you missed some of the previous weeklies, check out the archives.