The Black Urbanist Weekly for May 5, 2023

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly with Kristen Jeffers, an email newsletter that highlights the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist thoughts and commentary of me, Kristen E.  Jeffers, an internationally-known urban planner,  fiber designer, and contributing editor. Think of this as an editorial page column, but directly in your email.

 Let’s get started with our story of the week, then my weekly section on my Black queer feminist urbanist principles, “The Principle Corner”, then By the Way where I highlight articles and projects I had a hand in or think you should know about.; On the Shelf, On the Playlist where I share book and music recommendations, and finally Before You Go, where I share any ads and announcements if I have them and ways to support this work financially and externally. 

Story of the Week: I’m always at the top of the class, doing my best work, until I blackout.

In the second grade, I couldn’t wait to get to school. 

When I say I couldn’t wait to get to school, I mean that I was loosening my seatbelt in the front passenger seat of our sharp navy blue 1988 Buick Park Avenue as my mom pulled into the parent drop-off area on the west side of Greensboro’s Peck Elementary School.

Most mornings, I would hop out, dash up the sidewalk and into the west side doors of our circa 1920s main building, and head to my classroom. After a day in our school complex, which consisted of that 1920s building with all the K-3 classrooms and the cafeteria, a classroom addition from maybe the 1940s or 1950s,  a library addition from the 1970s, and another darker wing that seemed like it could have been from the 80s,  I would dash down those same steps at and back to the Park Avenue, which would be parked on Van Wert Street, facing Florida Street, ready to take me back the mile or so to our home on Rockett Street.

You would think it would be that dash down those steps that would have been my big facepalm, but no, it was a different one. 

One morning in that second-grade year (1993-1994), we were coming in from the playground, which was behind the teacher’s parking lot and as I was walking in the sidewalk in line, my feet caught a dent in the sidewalk and my face and glasses went flat on the ground. Unfortunately, this fall was witnessed by everyone. As the tears streamed down my face and my nose, now slightly broken throbbed, I insisted on pressing forward anyway. Somehow my glasses survived.

My mom and several teachers asked me if I was ok and told me I could go home if I wanted to. Nope, once I came back to full consciousness, despite my weird feeling, I went back to school.

After all, there was more fun to be had, playing with our class Koosh ball, writing my next book to submit to the 1994 Young Writers Conference at UNCG, and smelling the Mr. Sketch markers that hadn’t become fodder for ants or dried up too quickly. Plus, you couldn’t tell me that my second-grade teacher,  Ms. Washam, wasn’t moonlighting as Vanna White at night on Wheel of Fortune.

But, if you ever wondered why I had a hump on my nose, this is why. And if you wondered how I got to the point where I stopped pressing on even though I didn’t feel good, let’s fast forward about 20 years to the fall of 2012.

I’m laying on my office floor, having blacked out, despite my best efforts to staple every paper, put in every comma on the board member packets, and make sure they sit at their assigned seats.

I, the not quite straight-A student, who still managed to win writing and good citizenship awards in elementary school, had grown up into an adult with a master of public affairs who was on yet another performance improvement plan and who got the feeling that many felt, save my more resourceful classmates, one who helped with getting this job and was on the board, I just couldn’t work hard enough and stay in my proverbial place.

I laid on that office floor, dizzy, head-pounding, vision-blurred, while some upstairs believed I’d skipped out on town to go see my beloved Wolfpack play football that Saturday, rather than be a team player where I was, collecting comp time as my head was in internal pound town.

I want to say that I’ve managed to master workplaces and that they don’t cause me stress, anxiety, and blackouts.

I haven’t. 

And this week, I sit in that discomfort as I hope that one day,  my body will at least stay put together long enough for me to feel truly successful and comfortable. But until then, I’m not getting up unless I have to.

The Principle Corner

Each week, I take  a moment to share how I’ve been building the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist practice and ethic, so we can approach this work from a similar starting point.  In this section over the next few weeks of these themed newsletters, I’ll be reminding you why I’m ranking spaces in the first place and how that’s building up into launching phase one of the usable Black Queer Feminist Urbanist dashboard.  Coming soon, I’ll be sharing some how-tos of living in a place like I do, in a body like mine.

I came up with schools and workplaces being seventh by listing ten places on a vertical scale of 1-10 with 1 being the safest for me and ten being the least.  And I decided to combine the two because as a child, you go to school to allow your parents or caregivers to do things,  then you start learning things to help you become an adult and succeed, most often in a workplace. I also wanted to show how childhood resilience could easily turn into adult resolve and disappointment.

And for reference, Here’s the vertical version of my Personal Space Comfort Index from most to least comfortable. We’re on public transportation this week and next time (as we’re taking next week off)  we’ll be doing schools and workplaces.

Nature Trail/River Kayaking

Bookstores and Libraries

Craft circles, stores, and festivals

Places that sell and serve food (restaurants/grocery stores/bars)

Private residences

Public transportation

Schools and workplaces

Healthcare facilities

Hair Salons

Churches* (I’ll explain this asterisk in a few weeks when I break down why I feel least comfortable in a church but not necessarily in spiritual spaces). 

By the Way

Here’s where  I share other articles/videos that were noteworthy for me this week in this section. Apologies in advance for things behind a paywall. Some things I subscribe to and others I grab just before the wall comes down on me. I will start marking these articles and describing them. 

I know folks have mixed feelings about Tabitha Brown, but she’s also an Afro-Carolinian in the diaspora and she’s making me wish that when I came home to Greensboro for work in 2019, I had nudged the planning department and Action Greensboro who sponsored my visit to do a big screen and celebration in Center City Park, similar to what she’s doing on Saturday, May 5 as she launches her fourth and final  Target collection ( I do own a few of the prior collections and I like what I own). 

***

Jordan Neely should still be here.  I’m just grateful that all the times I was having really hard times in public,  including last week at a crab house and several times on Metro over the years,  I wasn’t deemed worthy of death for just not being able to handle the chaos of the world and having a panic attack. I’m also thankful for scholars like Idil Abdillahi addressing how anti-blackness and sanism intersect and affect us all globally.

***

I  haven’t dug into all of this Scalawag series, but if you want to understand Atlanta’s battle over Cop City and how this is everyone’s battle, this is a great place to start.

On the Shelf, On the Playlist

My weekly recommendations of books, music, podcasts, and other pop culture

This month, I want to build on our read last month of The Viral Underclass with yet another book that asks us to come together in solitary in the wake of mass physical infection and illness — Viral Justice by Ruha Benjamin. I’m just in the introduction and she gets straight to the point of what we need to do to move forward not just from COVID-19, but all that ails us. She also doesn’t hesitate to name environmental racism (and other isms) as a key factor in why we struggle. However, she encourages us thus far to take small steps and communal steps to progress. If you decide to read along with me, let me know. I hate that I missed her talk at last week’s outdoor Waverly Book Festival.

With Les’s surgery, my presence at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival may or may not happen, but regardless, I have a large bag of yarn at home as she recovers and Emily King’s latest album to stream. 

I’ve been a fan of Emily, since 2007, when I was excited to see another sista with a guitar with a major label release. I’ve followed every twist and turn in her career, and it’s been motivating to see her create her own label and then find the right label fit, while controlling her image and sound and I got to tell her this at the Riot Room (RIP) in Kansas City in 2016. I still have our picture from that concert too and the signed album. 

And if things go well, I might be donning a 3M Aura mask and catching her Howard Theater show on May 31 and starting my official goal of purchasing the vinyl or at least CD copies of all the folks I like, in an extension of me supporting art not just with my streams, but with my funds, regardless if I can do an indoor show or not. Regardless, this remix EP of several of her songs off her second most recent album is probably my favorite.

Before You Go

This is our last section, where I have classified advertisements for others along with nudges to donate to crowdfunding and social justice campaigns but I also advertise things that I’m doing that are for sale or for hire. Rates start at $75 a week for a four-week commitment and $150 for just one week. Learn more and get started with your ad! First, another position is open with UC San Diego Labor Center.

Position title: Program Director – UC San Diego Labor Center

Apply now: https://apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF03568/apply 

View this position online: https://apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF03568

POSITION OVERVIEW 

Salary range: A reasonable salary range estimate for this position is $86,000 – $106,000. The posted UC academic salary scales (https://www.ucop.edu/academic-personnel-programs/compensation/2022-23-academic-salary-scales.html) set the minimum pay determined by rank and/or step at appointment. See the salary scale titled, Academic Administrator Series – Fiscal Year for the salary range https://www.ucop.edu/academic-personnel-programs/_files/2022-23/july-2022-salary-scales/t34.pdf.

APPLICATION WINDOW 

Open date: April 18, 2023

Next review date: Monday, May 15, 2023 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time) 
Apply by this date to ensure full consideration by the committee. 

Final date: Thursday, Aug 31, 2023 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time) 
Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled. 

POSITION DESCRIPTION

The UC San Diego Labor Center (https://laborcenter.ucsd.edu/) invites applications for a Program Director. The center is administratively housed within the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (https://usp.ucsd.edu/). The UC San Diego Labor Center strengthens and expands the labor movement through advanced research, education, and strategic partnerships with workers, labor organizations, policymakers, tribal organizations, and the broader San Diego region. We place the well-being of workers, their families, and their communities at the forefront of our curricula, community engagement, public programs, and publications. We focus attention on the unique socio-economic circumstances of the border region, including large binational and refugee communities and Indigenous nations in the region. Our research offers innovative policy perspectives on work and workers while our worker-centered approach advances the goals of fair working conditions, living wages, and climate, gender, and racial justice.

We seek a program director to lead the founding and growth of the center. With funding through the University of California Worker Rights Policy Initiative (WRPI), the center aims, in the next three years, to: build our capacity for research, policy analysis, education, and public-facing programming; support unions and community organizations to conduct their work more strategically by developing curricula and providing technical assistance; and develop the next generation of labor and community organizers, researchers, and leaders among undergraduate and graduate students by connecting them with labor and community organizations, and training and involving them in community-engaged action research. We work closely with the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council.

The program director is the senior, full-time person building and leading the center in collaboration with a faculty director and managing its dynamic and growing portfolio of research, training, programming, and community collaboration. The program director is responsible for the independent development and coordination of all aspects of center operations, which includes the following core areas.

Strategic Leadership 
Working with the center’s Faculty Leadership Council and the Labor and Community Advisory Board, the program director provides strategic leadership in planning and implementing all research and programming at the center. Represent the center at annual conferences, community-sponsored events, and working groups.

Research and Education Programming 
Working with the Faculty Director, as well as the Labor and Community Advisory Board, the program director will help develop and guide the center’s research, policy analysis, graduate and undergraduate instruction, and public-facing programming. This includes overseeing and initiating, if qualified, research projects in collaboration with community partners, as well as teaching courses and workshops related to labor studies and community-based methods.

Fundraising 
Planning, developing, and initiating strategies for generating resources and/or revenues, including through fundraising, donor relations, and grant and contract proposals.

Public Relations 
Interfacing with the broader community (including the California Labor Federation, San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, unions, worker centers, and community organizations), local and state government officials, foundations, and other community partners. Overseeing all aspects of the center’s communications, including web presence, report review, and external relations.

Event Development and Coordination 
Overseeing all center organized and affiliated events.

Research Administration and Financial Management 
Overseeing and further developing the organizational structure for the center’s financial and business operations, including the generation, management, and reporting of center budgets and oversight of contracts and grants.

Center Management 
Responsible for personnel and program management at the center, including planning and implementing strategic initiatives, supervising and mentoring staff, and ensuring HR needs are met.

CAMPUS INFORMATION 

The University of California, San Diego is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer advancing inclusive excellence. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, covered veteran status, or other protected categories covered by the UC nondiscrimination policy.

***

Even though I’m probably sitting out Maryland Sheep and Wool and if you haven’t already, consider supporting  LolaBean Yarn Co. and  Dye Hard Yarns. In addition to the spring fundraiser of Knit the Rainbow, a group that works to ensure that knitwear is donated to LGBTQIA+ youth, and raises awareness of queer/trans folks in the yarn and fiber space, is still ongoing. 

For those of you who can and I know it’s tough out here for a lot of us, like our colleague who could still use our support with her partner’s chronic health challenges and of course, Les’s as she recovers at home from her endometriosis surgery,  but an extra $20-$50 in these accounts is takeout money, gas/transit money, a doctor’s appointment, whatever they want, which is more than they had before. 

I’m adding a link for Project N95 to help folks who still want to use personal protective equipment, but are running into financial hardship now that things like tests and high-quality masks are full price and major institutions have decided to move on. I’m also adding a link for the Entertainment Community Fund and for those in WGA to have relief while they take necessary action to get the funding they deserve for being one of the few industries that can’t be erased (at least for now). 

This is how we as planners and makers can practice solidarity and uplift community groups. If not these campaigns, please find some that are closest to you.  I  also assume that you do have the financial means to do so as planners, but I know things can be tough for us. But solidarity is free and that starts with speaking up and sharing when you can.

***

If you want me to show up on your panel, keynote, or podcast, book a complimentary consultation call. I still have open availability for 2023 and 2024.

***

I have created a special landing page, www.theblackurbanist.com/books, that’s not only a home for my upcoming volume, A Black Urbanist Journey to a Queer Feminist Future,  but all those books in the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist canon. Use this link to purchase from my Bookshop, especially if it’s coming up as an error for you. I’m still trying to figure out why that is and how I can fix it in the future.

***

if you want to send me money for quick expenses or like a tip jar, you can Venmo me or buy me a Ko-fi. If you become aPatreon, you can do that on a set monthly basis, along with a special thank you note each week! The GoFundMe is still alive if you want to make large donations quickly and you can subscribe on Substack but know that nothing in this newsletter is going behind a paywall, this is considered a love offering. I do have a special surprise for my Patreon and paid Substack followers, but you’ll be getting early access to a rebooted project I’m doing, that will go public to everyone in June. 

***

And if you need one more reminder to support my textile and fiber work, head over to www.kristpattern.com. 

Until next time,

Kristen

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly with Kristen Jeffers for April 28, 2023, an email newsletter that highlights the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist thoughts and commentary of me, Kristen E. Jeffers, an internationally-known urban planner, fiber designer, and contributing editor. Think of this as an editorial page column, but directly in your email.

Let’s get started with our story of the week, then my weekly section on my Black queer feminist urbanist principles, “The Principle Corner”, then By the Way where I highlight articles and projects I had a hand in or think you should know about; On the Shelf, On the Playlist where I share book and music recommendations, and finally Before You Go, where I share any ads and announcements if I have them and ways to support this work financially and externally.

Story of the Week: The chimes of public transportation vehicles remind me that being on transit is both a celebration and a gamble.

On July 4, 2004, my aunt and several of my cousins rode for what felt like forever on the parkways of Fairfax County. Then after miles of tall signs and strip malls and toll booths, we turned at a sign labeled with a squared-off capital M.

Underneath, the words — Metro.

My irritation turned into excitement. Finally, after years of waiting, my barely-an-adult self would be taking a subway to our Nation’s Capital to see more of the sites that had captivated me in our class midnight madness trip months before.

Instead of riding in the comfort of a Holiday Tours company bus, around the monuments, to the steps of the Capitol and Pentagon City Mall all in the span of 24 hours, we’d be parking our car and taking the Orange Line of the Metro.

The day wasn’t all pleasant. I can’t wait to take Metro again with my aunt and go to that very spot at the Federal Triangle station where I had an audible panic attack because I was scared of all the people and my legs hurt.

I take all the blame for my legs hurting because I decided to stand up all the way from the Vienna station to the Smithsonian station.

If you know, you know. My knee still hurts from time to time and I’ve taken a lot more Metro trips since then.

Like when I park our car at Southern Avenue, our current closest station, to come downtown for something or another, and I realize I forgot to eat enough to not feel every curve and bend underneath Southeast DC in route across to Near Northwest DC.

You can say that Les and I had a Green Line love affair, me living at the time near Georgia Avenue-Petworth and her out here, a ten-minute Metrobus ride from Southern Avenue. The commute from Southern Avenue won out due to space exactly four years ago this week. Plus, I got tired of living with pests of all kinds.

However, what’s not a pest is that public transportation exists and works. Maybe one day, we can get rid of all that stinky carpet on Metro. One day, we can convince Congress to never stop funding transit, so we don’t keep making the poorest folks on the system pay the most for not having fare.

And I’ll happily sit on the train, lean back, and cruise underneath the streets of DC.

The Principle Corner

Each week, I take a moment to share how I’ve been building the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist practice and ethic, so we can approach this work from a similar starting point. In this section over the next few weeks of these themed newsletters, I’ll be reminding you why I’m ranking spaces in the first place and how that’s building up into launching phase one of the usable Black Queer Feminist Urbanist dashboard. Coming soon, I’ll be sharing some how-tos of living in a place like I do, in a body like mine.

I came up with public transportation being sixth by listing ten places on a vertical scale of 1–10 with 1 being the safest for me and ten being the least.

I’m still working on how I want to collect this kind of information from you, and how it would work in an interactive dashboard, but for now, just email me your top ten. Let me know if you’d want me to share it in a future edition of this space!

And for reference, Here’s the vertical version of my Personal Space Comfort Index from most to least comfortable. We’re on public transportation this week and next time (as we’re taking next week off) we’ll be doing schools and workplaces.

Nature Trail/River Kayaking

Bookstores and Libraries

Craft circles, stores, and festivals

Places that sell and serve food (restaurants/grocery stores/bars)

Private residences

Public transportation

Schools and workplaces

Healthcare facilities

Hair Salons

Churches* (I’ll explain this asterisk in a few weeks when I break down why I feel least comfortable in a church but not necessarily in spiritual spaces).

By the Way

Here’s where I share other articles/videos that were noteworthy for me this week in this section. Apologies in advance for things behind a paywall. Some things I subscribe to and others I grab just before the wall comes down on me. I will start marking these articles and describing them.

My grandparents adored Harry Belafonte for what he represented to Black folks of their generation. I am inspired by his journey from janitor to artist, without missing a beat as an activist and leader, and mentor. Shout out to Black Film Archive’s Maya Cade for her amazing eulogy of him.

***

Another congratulations and kudos to friend of the newsletter, Assistant Professor of Political Science at John Jay College, City University of New York Dr. Alex J. Moffett-Bateau on the release of her research of ten years on Black women and their political identity formation based on where they live and the violence they experience. I’m very excited for their next batch of research on Black political identity formation as it intersects with disability.

***

Finally, in a recent Baltimore Banner report, several Black Baltimorians talked about leaving the city, because of disinvestment in their neighborhoods and the resultant feelings from that lack of care. I’ve tweeted about a lot this week, but this all ties into feelings of cities across the board not caring about us.

I don’t want to give up, but we can see when builders, elected officials, and others either don’t invest in us or invest in us in ways that don’t set us up for justice and liberation.

I thought moving to another city would help my grief of losing my dad and the depression of having gone through the Great Recession when I left Greensboro in 2015.

What I didn’t realize was the heavy sadness and pain the Great Migration and lingering effects of places that had urban enslavement, severe residential segregation and other classist, ableist, racist, and queer antagonistic policies had on all of America.

I’ve grown up a lot in the past 8 years and it’s why I’m looking forward to more mentoring of folks who are trying to make sense of places, not just to study them, but to live in them.

But, as my colleague Dan Reed says in this GGWash article I edited this week, Townhomes as a housing type, are not the problem in Prince George’s County (or anywhere). We embedded this heartbreaking story from NPR that chronicles the history of racist housing practices that make it easy for us to blame the typology, especially when some builders and funders, and developers do alter how they sell homes. But, we still need shelter and we do have work to do to make sure all housing is not just fair, but just.

On the Shelf, On the Playlist

My weekly recommendations of books, music, podcasts, and other pop culture

Still reading and listening to The Viral Underclass, by Dr. Steven Thrasher. We’re at the point where no one should be shamed for illness, but we should shame those who pathologize things that aren’t diseases and fail to offer treatment for the things that are. It still connects to what we talked about in our last section around tools and intent. But, this empowers me to come to speak to you, week after week, because it’s the right thing to do.

Music-wise, it’s raining this morning and I’m doing some deep work on my platform outside of preparing this newsletter. As of late, Black Pumas self-titled 2019 debut is on repeat for days like this.

My second go-to is St. Paul and the Broken Bones, who have been a key Southern soul emo music go-to since I discovered their Tiny Desk and their first two albums in 2017. They were my first and only solo show at the Anthem in DC in 2018 and I hope to see them again in a safe way soon. Meanwhile, congrats to bandleader Paul Janeway on the birth of their first child, and thank you for gifting them and us Angels in Science Fiction this week!

But back to Black Pumas. What I love about both bands is that soul I feel of being country kids, but with very liberal, urbane visions of the world, tinged with a degree of depression over its direction. I also see this in both versions of Britany Howard’s Jaime and her last full-length with Alabama Shakes, Sound and Color (link goes to the single version).

And of course, Rhiannon Giddens anything, but that should surprise no one as her sound is the specific Greensboro contribution to this subgenre.

However, this southern soul emo (not quite blues, but not quite country and R&B either) is a sound you can find all over the world. I’ll leave you this week with Jamie Woon’s Dedication. It’s the last song on his last album and it’s been 8 years since we’ve heard any music from him. I think that makes the record even more haunting.

Before You Go

This is our last section, where I have classified advertisements for others along with nudges to donate to crowdfunding and social justice campaigns and things that I’m doing that are for sale or for hire. Rates start at $75 a week for a four-week commitment and $150 for just one week. Learn more and get started with your ad!

Free training on data analysis and storytelling for organizations working in urban equitable development

The Equitable Development Data Insight Training Initiative (EDDIT) teaches organizations, non-profits, and local governments in the U.S. and Canada how to use their data and resources to document, reflect, evaluate, and communicate the impacts of their work to stakeholders and communities.

Our skilled data analysis and storytelling experts help organizations reach new audiences using data and resources they already own. We work closely with your organization to create 20–30 hours of personalized modules designed to meet your data and narrative needs. Organizations located in small to mid-sized cities (with populations less than 500,000) are eligible for our Initiative.

We are looking for a wide range of equitable development projects, from a local community garden to a city-wide public transportation plan. If you know an organization who could benefit from free training in data analysis and storytelling, we encourage you to share this Initiative. Let’s build equitable cities together. There is no cost to apply.

Find out more on our website.

The Equitable Development Data Insight Training Initiative (EDDIT) is a collaboration between UC Berkeley Centre for Community Innovation and University of Toronto School of Cities, funded by a $2.2 million (USD) grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

***

Local Yarn Store Day is also tomorrow and if you haven’t already, consider supporting LolaBean Yarn Co. and Dye Hard Yarns.

In addition, the spring fundraiser of Knit the Rainbow, a group that works to ensure that knitwear is donated to LGBTQIA+ youth, and raises awareness of queer/trans folks in the yarn and fiber space, is still ongoing.

For those of you who can and I know it’s tough out here for a lot of us, like our colleague who could still use our support with her partner’s chronic health challenges and of course, Les’s major endometriosis surgery next week, but an extra $20-$50 in these accounts is takeout money, gas/transit money, a doctor’s appointment, whatever they want, which is more than they had before.

I’m going to encourage you to glance at local GoFundMe/Venmo/CashApp campaigns and donate what you can stand to not have come back to you, to lift the spirits of someone that is having a really hard time paying bills, maintaining healthcare, and building up their livelihood in addition to everything else going on.

This is how we as planners and makers can practice solidarity and uplift community groups. If not these campaigns, please find some that are closest to you.

***

If you want me to show up on your panel, keynote, or podcast, book a complimentary consultation call. I still have open availability for 2023 and 2024.

***

I have created a special landing page, www.theblackurbanist.com/books, that’s not only a home for my upcoming volume, A Black Urbanist Journey to a Queer Feminist Future, but all those books in the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist canon. Use this link to purchase from my Bookshop, especially if it’s coming up as an error for you. I’m still trying to figure out why that is and how I can fix it in the future.

***

if you want to send me money for quick expenses or like a tip jar, you can Venmo me or buy me a Ko-fi. If you become a Patreon, you can do that on a set monthly basis, along with a special thank you note each week! The GoFundMe is still alive if you want to make large donations quickly and you can subscribe on Substack but know that nothing in this newsletter is going behind a paywall, this is considered a love offering. I do have a special surprise for my Patreon and paid Substack followers, but you’ll be getting early access to a rebooted project I’m doing, that will go public to everyone in June.

***

And if you need one more reminder to support my textile and fiber work, head over to www.kristpattern.com.

Until next time,

Kristen

In a week full of dark news moments and absurdities, the best way I could bring you the next part of my series on personal comfort in physical spaces was through a little bit of magical realism, centered on those lemon juice bottles shaped like lemons. If you’re still interested, come along with me as I talk about how restaurants are my fourth most comfortable space

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly with Kristen Jeffers, an email newsletter that highlights the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist thoughts and commentary of me, Kristen E. Jeffers, an internationally-known urban planner, fiber designer, and contributing editor. Think of this as an editorial page column, but directly in your email.

Let’s get started with a few words of reflection from me, then my weekly section on my Black queer feminist urbanist principles, “The Principle Corner”, then By the Way where I highlight articles and projects I had a hand in externally.; On the Shelf, On the Playlist where I share book and music recommendations, and finally Before You Go, where I share any ads and announcements if I have them and ways to support this work financially and externally. 

I haven’t been feeling great this week and I really needed to hang out in nostalgia and imagination.

However, I promised to talk about food rooms and it’s nothing like being in the ones I grew up in, so, let’s hop in my time machine and let’s hop out in Burlington, NC in 1989.

It’s about 5:30 pm on this winter Friday night in 1989. I’m sitting in a high-top chair at the end of a six-top table because I’m four and I’m about a year away from being able to sit at the regular table. My maternal grandparents, my parents, and my mom’s youngest brother and his then-girlfriend, later wife are sitting at the regular table. 

They’re visiting for the weekend after having moved to Maryland the year before. They wanted to get seafood in the special NC way. So here we are, joining my grandparents in their Friday night calabash seafood ritual inside of a covered barn-like structure painted blue called Harbor Inn Seafood (they’ve since moved into an old Golden Corral down the street). We’re next door to a former bank shaped like an octagon painted yellow and converted into a Biscuitville. My uncle had sworn off that place though after a bad stomachache. But we’re all excited about what we’re about to eat at the Harbor Inn.

Speaking of yellow objects, I know the plastic lemon isn’t a lemon or a toy, but I want it to be the latter. Yes, the restaurant gave me a coloring menu, but it takes a minute to fry fish and unlike the adults, I don’t have anyone to talk to, I finished coloring, and the adults just keep swatting away the lemon. 

But, just as the fish arrives, my dad sneaks the lemon over to me to squish just one time, after putting some of the droplets of the lemon juice into his sweet tea to make it just a little less sweet.

As we touch that lemon together, we flash forward in our time machine to 1995. Only the machine gets a little wobbly with the imagery here. 

The lemon is there, but it’s on our table in a room of soft pink booths, white-topped tables, and gold-accented mirrors on the walls. I can hear the clinking of plates and glasses all across this room. I look down and I have a small bowl of emerald green Jello, a small bowl of greasy macaroni and cheese, a small bowl of fried okra, and a plate of chicken pot pie. I have a red and white striped milk carton just like the one at school.

However, not only does the dining room at this place called K&W Cafeteria keep flashing and changing its decorations, I notice that my body keeps changing sizes and the people I’m sitting with are the same, but they too are aging and they aren’t all at the table at the same time. 

I blame this failure in coding the machine on the fact that I’ve been to a number of K&W’s with all kinds of configurations across the state of North Carolina over the years, with various combinations of family members, church members, colleagues of my parents, and college friends.

One of those configurations that really used to haunt me as a child was the one at Fourm IV. I mentioned this failed iteration of a mall before when I first mentioned Friendly Shopping Center, Greensboro, NC’s first major suburban shopping center. To keep up with the times in the 1980s, they built an enclosed part of the mall and other than the K&W in the basement, it didn’t do so well.

That K&W required you to walk in and walk through wall-to-wall dark paneled wooden hallways before getting to the actual cafeteria line to help with crowd control. Sundays especially were tough as a kid waiting in those hallways, where you could somewhat see the dining room out of frosted windows, but you could only see over them if you were adult-sized. This is already after parking in the parking deck on the same level as the K&W, and seeing escalators leading up to the main mall levels that seemed to go nowhere.

I still have nightmares of being in that enclosed mall, because something always seemed off over there.

Back to this K&W time machine simulation though. We’re going to stay and eat the entire plate because one, we waited too long for it after seeing it from a distance when we would be in the back of the line at the more well-lit ones for at least 30-45 minutes. 

But, I’m going to then shake the lemon because now I’m sad at all the people that are in this simulation, who have passed on, and because thanks to the pandemic, K&W is dying off too.

The final lemon shake takes us to a hot summer night right off U Street in DC, the weekend before I would have surgery last August. Les and I are sitting in front of the lemon bottle and a tray of six crabs that we paid an amount for that we would never admit we did back home. Let’s just say I could go to K&W every day for a month and Harbor Inn every week for a month for what I just spent at this new spot, which I won’t name because I don’t want to shame. I also don’t want folks to figure it out so I can have my little time machine moment right here, in a place with all outdoor seating and delectable seafood. 

I can relax and breathe knowing that having a bite to eat with the people I love the most will be lifegiving and not life-threatening as it has been for over three years now.

I hope you took my advice to not come to the newsletter hungry this week, because I know I took you on quite the journey through my imagination that has been cultivated for all of my 37 years and counting, Especially growing up as an only child in a single-family home. Next week, I talk about how even my “home” home has been a site of comfort and discomfort.

The Principle Corner

Each week, I’m taking a moment to share how I’ve been building the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist practice and ethic, so we can approach this work from a similar starting point. In this section over the next few weeks of these themed newsletters, I’ll be reminding you why I’m ranking spaces in the first place and how that’s building up into launching phase one of the usable Black Queer Feminist Urbanist dashboard. 

I came up with food spaces being third by listing ten places on a vertical scale of 1-10 with 1 being the safest for me and ten being the least.

I’m still working on how I want to collect this kind of information from you, and how it would work in an interactive dashboard, but for now, just email me your top ten. Let me know if you’d want me to share it in a future edition of this space!

And for reference, Here’s the vertical version of my Personal Space Comfort Index from most to least comfortable, with this week’s space in bold and next week’s space in italics:

Nature Trail/River Kayaking

Bookstores and Libraries

Craft circles, stores, and festivals

Places that sell and serve food (restaurants/grocery stores/bars)

Private residences

Public transportation

Schools and workplaces

Healthcare facilities

Hair Salons

Churches* (I’ll explain this asterisk in a few weeks when I break down why I feel least comfortable in a church but not necessarily in spiritual spaces). 

By the Way

Here’s where I share other articles/videos that were noteworthy for me this week in this section. Apologies in advance for things behind a paywall. Some things I subscribe to and others I grab just before the wall comes down on me. I will start marking these articles and describing them. 

Earlier this week I tweeted that I was not doing well mentally. It’s not just the end of the public health emergency for COVID, but that was what prompted that particular tweet. I feel extremely heavy, though I have been doing a lot of self-care and receiving some degree of community care. However, I can’t make all of these structural issues go away and they do feel like an anvil. 

What I can do though, is remind you that we should speak up and we should be leading the way in building the kind of community we need to see.  

Yes you, who goes to work for a public agency or social benefit organization of some kind. Yes, you who worships or meditates in a community that claims you want to see the “least of these” thrive and that we should treat all as valuable. 

Yes, even you who may have thought that they lost the battle when they got infected the first time or that things have gotten better and you can’t do anything else. 

If you’re reading this newsletter today, it’s not too late to think about how to go forward with a mind of solidarity and understanding that we as the community builders, the way-makers, the informers, the carers, the nurturers, to build a world that starts with accessibility and inclusion. 

I leave this section with this article specifically how the media failed in informing those, but if we truly believe in justice, we have to step in, as much as we can, as often as we can. We most certainly must not shame or diminish those who are ringing the bell to course correct.

***

I do appreciate this quiz by the Washington Post that assesses ableism. I’m hoping to have my eventual index do something similar, but for now, start with this quiz.

***

Even though nothing was said about the LGBTQIA+ humanitarian crisis on the African continent, and the Vice-President of the United States being Black and South Asian is not a solution for any of the problems befalling Black and Asian women, the imagery was nice (especially with this article coming from a Black feminine-presenting reporter) and I’m glad that I can focus my time on being the solution, in solidarity, with others.

***

So I promise that two of my queer urbanist colleagues and I didn’t plan on writing and publishing research about similar things this week, but they did. First, Dan Reed used the closing of Silver Spring’s Tastee Diner to talk about how so much of our comfort level in these private food businesses that end up becoming public squares is how comfortable they are when we bring our whole selves to their table.

And I’m excited to see this research of DW Rowlands come through the Brookings banner, as we’ve chatted about a version of this research putting facts behind what I’ve long seen: a lack of “premium” grocery stores in Black neighborhoods. 

While it’s sad to see it, I’m glad I’m not alone in my feelings and anxieties and that the facts are on the table in a way that would require folks to deliberately unsee issues.

***

Also grateful for more analysis on the transportation equity that we are attempting despite not having all the resources and funding needs (paywall) with our Metro system here in DC. Also, I’m excited to have had a small hand in bringing another young Black urbanist’s thoughts to the ecosystem. 

On the Shelf, On the Playlist

Considering the weight on my heart around the ending of the public health emergency around COVID-19 in the United States, my only book recommendation this week is Dr. Steven Thrasher’s The Viral Underclass. I was gifted a review copy of this book a year ago and while I’ve believed in its importance 100%, I haven’t been able to clear the space to read all of it and really apply it. Plus, I already operate out of a solidarity and holistic model of placemaking and keeping. However, as we go into this next phase of our lives, I’m going to jump in and understand how to maintain a practice of solidarity and uplifting those who are constantly at the mercy of natural disasters and disease, despite their promises of “equal impact”.

Music-wise, I’ve been leaning on my GetUp! Mix on Apple Music. I would share it, but it changes every Monday and works similarly to other apps, AI-generated music picks, only I trained this algorithm and it’s pretty spot on to what I do want to listen to when I wake up and get moving.

And I was quite relaxed after listening to Tracee Ellis Ross and Britany Luse talk on this week’s episode of It’s Been a Minute. The one thing I’m embracing coming out of this whole recent lockdown and malaise (and pressing through future times), is the hope that too can drink the special auntie juice they speak of and press forward as a good elder. Oh and for the record, I’m happy to be your urbanist auntie but don’t push me.

Before You Go

This is our last section, where I have classified advertisements for others along with nudges to donate to crowdfunding and social justice campaigns but I also advertise things that I’m doing that are for sale or for hire. Rates start at $75 a week for a four-week commitment and $150 for just one week. Learn more and get started with your ad!

Free training on data analysis and storytelling for organizations working in urban equitable development

The Equitable Development Data Insight Training Initiative (EDDIT) teaches organizations, non-profits, and local governments in the U.S. and Canada how to use their data and resources to document, reflect, evaluate, and communicate the impacts of their work to stakeholders and communities.  

Our skilled data analysis and storytelling experts help organizations reach new audiences using data and resources they already own. We work closely with your organization to create 20-30 hours of personalized modules designed to meet your data and narrative needs. Organizations located in small to mid-sized cities (with populations less than 500,000) are eligible for our Initiative.

We are looking for a wide range of equitable development projects, from a local community garden to a city-wide public transportation plan. If you know an organization who could benefit from free training in data analysis and storytelling, we encourage you to share this Initiative. Let’s build equitable cities together. There is no cost to apply. 

Find out more on our website.

The Equitable Development Data Insight Training Initiative (EDDIT) is a collaboration between UC Berkeley Centre for Community Innovation and University of Toronto School of Cities, funded by a $2.2 million (USD) grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

***

I’m still lifting up the fundraising campaigns of LolaBean Yarn Co. and Dye Hard Yarns, of another urbanism editor and their family, and the spring fundraiser of Knit the Rainbow, a group that works to ensure that knitwear is donated to LGBTQIA+ youth, and raises awareness of queer/trans folks in the yarn and fiber space.

For those of you who can and I know it’s tough out here for a lot of us, an extra $20-$50 in these accounts is takeout money, gas/transit money, a doctor’s appointment, whatever they want, which is more than they had before. I’m going to encourage you to glance at local GoFundMes/Venmo/CashApp and donate what you can stand to not have come back to you, to lift the spirits of someone that is having a really hard time paying bills, maintaining healthcare, and building up their livelihood in addition to everything else going on.

However, this also leans into how we can practice solidarity and uplift community groups. If not these campaigns, please find some that are closest to you.

***

If you want me to show up on your panel, keynote, or podcast book a complimentary consultation call. I still have open availability for 2023 and 2024.

***

I have created a special landing page, www.theblackurbanist.com/books, that’s not only a home for my upcoming volume, A Black Urbanist Journey to a Queer Feminist Future, but all those books in the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist canon. Use this link to purchase from my Bookshop, especially if it’s coming up as an error for you. I’m still trying to figure out why that is and how I can fix it in the future.

***

if you want to send me money for quick expenses or like a tip jar, you can Venmo me or buy me a Ko-fi. If you become a Patreon, you can do that on a set monthly basis, along with a special thank you note each week! The GoFundMe is still alive if you want to make large donations quickly and you can subscribe on Substack but know that nothing in this newsletter is going behind a paywall, this is considered a love offering. 

***

And if you need one more reminder to support my textile and fiber work, head over to www.kristpattern.com. 

Until next time,

Kristen

Think about that feeling you get in a pillow or blanket fort. Now think about where that fiber comes from and how you can purchase it to make into said fort. Are there spaces like that in your community and if so, do they fill like a blanket fort?

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly with Kristen Jeffers, an email newsletter that highlights the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist thoughts and commentary of me, Kristen E. Jeffers, an internationally-known urban planner, fiber designer, and contributing editor. Think of this as an editorial page column, but directly in your email.

Let’s get started with a few words of reflection from me, then my weekly section on my Black queer feminist urbanist principles, “The Principle Corner”, then By the Way where I highlight articles and projects I had a hand in externally.; On the Shelf, On the Playlist where I share book and music recommendations, and finally Before You Go, where I share any ads and announcements if I have them and ways to support this work financially and externally.

I teased y’all last week with a reflection of why I spent so much time in Borders on weeknights ( while also spending time in Waldenbooks, Toys R Us and the shopping mall in general on the weekends).

Another place I spent weekends growing up, was at the fabric store, or in my mom’s sewing room watching her sew or assisting her on occasion with pinning fabric, cutting fabric, or taking the scraps and making something of my own.

Unlike books though, just like stores like PieceGoods and other national and regional fabric chains became scarce, so did this hobby in my life, especially since it’s harder than it used to be to find fabric and yarn stores in central business districts accessible by transit.

That’s why I make such a big deal even on my craft website and social media about when I can get to yarn and fabric right off a Metro stop. Why I started doing stuff with Spoonflower, then kind of fell off when I was trying to be hardcore about biking and walking anywhere.

Can’t walk or bike to the fabric store if it’s just not there or the road’s too dangerous to navigate.

But one day in March of 2019, crocheting came to me, delivered in the middle of a stack of books at the Capitol View DC Public Library branch, then located in a temporary trailer just a few blocks from its permanent location which was being renovated, itself a few blocks from both the Benning Road and Minnesota Avenue Metro station stops and several bus lines. I walked out of my home at the time, three blocks from the Georgia Avenue/Petworth Metro station, got off at Benning Road, nervously navigated the quiet, but unfamiliar streets, and plopped my bag of yarn down next to the nice Black women elders who helped me create what would become the Kristfinity Scarf.

It was great to finally have a place to go to master the craft that I’d dabble with around the holidays. However, at the time, I was only partially out to a few friends and supportive people. I didn’t take well to sitting in a sewing or crafting group where people who bemoan how the world has changed partially because gay (and gay meaning the entire spectrum of gender and sexual identities that aren’t straight and cis) are ruining the world, just like clothing coming from China is.

Irony here is that many crafting supplies are just as many imports as others. Especially at that craft store that flat-out doesn’t want me to exist. I don’t even need to speak of it here, but we all know which one that is, and sadly, it’s been lauded as a good thing to have in our predominately Black suburban community, while in turn being yet another yarn store in this community that’s barely transit-accessible.

Despite this “achievement”, I don’t think the big box stores think non-white, non-cis, non-straight folks really like them enough to patronize them in the ways they want. Nor do I think any of them do a great job with outreach, even during Pride and Black History Month. Yes, I think some of that outreach itself is because of what we’ve been through in the last three years, and before then, they would hire folks like my mom, but they wouldn’t necessarily make sure we had what we needed. It was folks like my mom who did that in spite of what corporate wanted them to do.

And independent stores, including farm and fair-based vendors, are hit or miss and have their own issues with racism, classism, and accessibility. So when I can find an indie that’s transit-connected, multi-generational, multi-cultural, and queer-friendly, I hold them tight and don’t let them go.

However, I have to thank Les for going all the various places to get yarn with me and squishing yarn while we hoped that the pandemic would end for real. She’s forever encouraging me to continue to pursue this craft, even with the oddities of where I would need to go to do so and the people who pushed back against my existence in these spaces.

A skein of yarn she picked up one day at the Beltway Plaza Mall JoAnn in the summer of 2020 ended up turning into a pair of socks for her but was going to be a vest for me. After realizing I’d made so many stitches with it, I was ready to graduate from making the Kristfinity scarf ten times in a row from various forms of bulky acrylic on sale at one of the four Michaels I could easily get to, between carpooling with Les to Alexandria and taking the Red Line to Silver Spring or to Friendship Heights.

She’s been by my side, in clothing I’ve made for her, at major yarn festivals, and popping up in random yarn shops when we travel.

And there are so many great folks in yarn craft, who also share my identity intersections, which makes it well worth continuing to harness the joy that comes from making something in a world that wants to make you invisible. I’m going to highlight three of them in the Before You Go section, who are raising money to expand their business footprints in brick-and-mortar locations and raise awareness of queer and trans causes, so they can continue to serve fellow Black and other folks of color along with other queer and trans folks.

Next week, don’t read the newsletter hungry. We’re going to talk more about my comfort level in grocery stores and food service places.

The Principle Corner

Each week, I’m taking a moment to share how I’ve been building the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist practice and ethic, so we can approach this work from a similar starting point. In this section over the next few weeks of these themed newsletters, I’ll be reminding you why I’m ranking spaces in the first place and how that’s building up into launching phase one of the usable Black Queer Feminist Urbanist dashboard.

I came up with craft stores and spaces being third by listing ten places on a vertical scale of 1–10 with 1 being the safest for me and ten being the least.

I’m still working on how I want to collect this kind of information from you, and how it would work in an interactive dashboard, but for now, just email me your top ten. Let me know if you’d want me to share it in a future edition of this space!

And for reference, Here’s the vertical version of my Personal Space Comfort Index from most to least comfortable, with this week’s space in bold and next week’s space in italics:

Nature Trail/River Kayaking

Bookstores and Libraries

Craft circles, stores, and festivals

Places that sell and serve food (restaurants/grocery stores/bars)

Private residences

Public transportation

Schools and workplaces

Healthcare facilities

Hair Salons

Churches* (I’ll explain this asterisk in a few weeks when I break down why I feel least comfortable in a church but not necessarily in spiritual spaces).

By the Way

Here’s where I share other articles/videos that were noteworthy for me this week in this section. Apologies in advance for things behind a paywall. Some things I subscribe to and others I grab just before the wall comes down on me. I will start marking these articles and describing them.

It hurts me that so much of the world doesn’t want me and other queer and trans folks to exist. It wasn’t always like this in Africa (possible paywall) and in the next section, one of my book recommendations talks about this.

***

It also wasn’t always like this in North Carolina. I know my home state, despite all the shenanigans around voting to ban same-sex marriage, can be a very positive and loving place to be, with all four seasons, delectable food, and yes, a lot of folks who are very good with textiles despite being underpaid to work with them for many years. The work of EqualityNC, Carolina Forward, and specifically Guilford for All gives me hope about folks on the ground wanting something very different.

But, our foundations have been shaky for over a decade, starting with most of the state voting on the ballot to ban same-sex marriage and I expected this nightmare to come two years from now, with our state patting itself on the back for electing a Black man, despite him seeming to hate pretty much everyone else but conservative White folks and guns. And even some of the groups listed above, have been taken advantage of, by folks who operate in our tradition of “Carolina nice”.

But, times have changed and no matter where we live, it’s not ok for some of us to be free and others to not be free. Some of y’all who will be celebrating resurrection this weekend need to remember that it means the end of death AND that death that you celebrate would have been unnecessary if humanity in all its forms had been honored and lifted up, versus hate and fear. Seriously, we need more examination of our differences, not less.

***

But, I’m very excited that Metro comes to the southern Green Line stations more often. Urbanists do live east of the Anacostia and in South Prince George’s County. I really shouldn’t have to say this explicitly, but even I had to learn this lesson and now that I have, I’m going to say it, as we say it in Black communities “with my chest”, and also with my full identity unobscured.

Urbanists live in a lot of places internationally they can actually afford, with food and neighbors that embrace them 100%. In fact, a lot of those urbanists survive shitty transit service because that’s all they have, but some of y’all sit here getting concerned that people would dare live next to a four-lane highway or buy a car despite the bus service ending at 6 pm and never running on Sunday.

Please, please, please remember that 80% of the people you serve, who live somewhere are the 20% that come to meetings complaining about missing middle or the property-owning people of color who are buying into the “American Dream”. However, a lot of that 80% is just tired from doing the jobs they have to do, making sure their children have it all, and even better, from proving they have the right to exist in their identities.

And for the record, this bracket is already skewed because WalkScore is skewed. And we don’t talk enough about how a lot of neighborhoods, namely Black and Brown ones, get built or have developed without adequate infrastructure.

On the Shelf, On the Playlist

My book, podcast and music recommendations of the week.

I promised a book recommendation on African queer and transness and here it is, Boy-Wives and Female Husbands: Studies in African Homosexualities, originally published in the mid-1990s, but currently available open-source in an edition revised in 2021. Les refers to this book a lot when people claim that Africa only has queer and trans people because of Western influence and I’m glad we have it available with so much onslaught against both Black and queer/trans identities globally.

Plus if you’re curious about becoming a crafter and engaging in craftivism, I have a whole bookshelf just for the craft books that help me master the craft and integrate my identities in the craft.

While I’m stitching and writing, I’ve been listening to several things. First, upon hearing that the Atlanta-based cultural phenomenon Freanik may get a Hulu documentary, I had skepticism. Then again, we’ve had two documentaries on Woodstock ’99, but in that case, folks were happy to turn up footage even if it was super incriminating. In the meantime, we have this oral history and this podcast that broke down how this all happened in the first place.

And the sounds of Incognito, along with one of its most notable lead singers, Maysa, have been part of my life now for over 30 years. A Baltimore native and resident, along with Morgan State University alumna, Maysa just released her 14th solo album, but first on her own label and the first couple tracks along with several others speak of remaining positive and keeping our dreams alive, similar to a lot of the songs she has sung over the years with Incognito. If you want to hear a core bit of that, their 1994 album Positivity is the absolute best place to start, and then roll back to her first album with the group, 1992’s Tribes, Vibes, and Scribes.

Before You Go

This is our last section, where I have classified advertisements for others along with nudges to donate to crowdfunding and social justice campaigns but I also advertise things that I’m doing that are for sale or for hire. Rates start at $75 a week for a four-week commitment and $150 for just one week. Learn more and get started with your ad!

This is where I wanted to lift up the fundraising campaigns of LolaBean Yarn Co. and Dye Hard Yarns

I’m also adding in another crowdfunding campaign of another urbanism editor and their family and the spring fundraiser of Knit the Rainbow, a group that works to ensure that knitwear is donated to LGBTQIA+ youth, and raises awareness of queer/trans folks in the yarn and fiber space.

For those of you who can and I know it’s tough out here for a lot of us, but an extra $20-$50 in these accounts is takeout money, gas/transit money, a doctor’s appointment, whatever they want, which is more than they had before. I’m going to encourage you to glance at local GoFundMes/Venmo/CashApp and donate what you can stand to not have come back to you, to lift the spirits of someone that is having a really hard time paying bills, maintaining healthcare, and building up their livelihood in addition to everything else going on.

***

If you want me to show up on your panel, keynote, or podcast book a complimentary consultation call. I still have open availability for 2023 and 2024.

***

I have created a special landing page, www.theblackurbanist.com/books, that’s not only a home for my upcoming volume, A Black Urbanist Journey to a Queer Feminist Future, but all those books in the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist canon. Use this link to purchase from my Bookshop, especially if it’s coming up as an error for you. I’m still trying to figure out why that is and how I can fix it in the future.

***

if you want to send me money for quick expenses or like a tip jar, you can Venmo me or buy me a Ko-fi. If you become a Patreon, you can do that on a set monthly basis, along with a special thank you note each week! The GoFundMe is still alive if you want to make large donations quickly and you can subscribe on Substack but know that nothing in this newsletter is going behind a paywall, this is considered a love offering.

***

And if you need one more reminder to support my textile and fiber work, head over to www.kristpattern.com.

Until next time,

Kristen

When I couldn’t physically go somewhere, the inside of a book could take me there. And thankfully I had the kinds of mentors that made sure I always had one.

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly with Kristen Jeffers, an email newsletter that highlights the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist thoughts and commentary of me, Kristen E. Jeffers, an internationally-known urban planner, fiber designer, and contributing editor. Think of this as an editorial page column, but directly in your email.

Let’s get started with a few words of reflection from me, then my weekly section on my Black queer feminist urbanist principles, “The Principle Corner”, then By the Way where I highlight articles and projects I had a hand in externally.; On the Shelf, On the Playlist where I share book and music recommendations, and finally Before You Go, where I share any ads and announcements if I have them and ways to support this work financially and externally.

The ritual was simple. My mom needed to work on Tuesday and Thursday nights to get on her feet when she and my dad decided to be co-parents of me rather than spouses in 1995.

Mom spent those work nights at the PieceGoods Fabric that made up one of the big sides of the sandwich that was the Leon’s Hair Salon in the middle and the Winn-Dixie supermarket on the other in the southwestern out parcel of the Four Seasons Town Centre. (Yes, the Canadian spelling, but we were very much still in North Carolina).

I’ll talk more about my life inside of the PieceGoods on the times I would come there with her (generally on her Saturday or Sunday afternoon shift on the weekends that weren’t those I spent with my Dad), next week, because places like that are my 3rd most comfortable physical space.

But today, we talk about the glory that was the coming of Borders Books and Music to Greensboro. It was just in time for those Daddy-Daughter bonding nights, and it was right down the street from the mall, that out parcel, and even both sets of homes, but still required a short drive because we are in Greensboro’s first wave of car-dependent suburbia (or second, depending on who you talk to).

I wrote about this particular corridor about a decade ago, because it’s just that formative, and what life I didn’t spend downtown, I spent on this strip and the two-five other suburbanizing US highway corridors in Greensboro.

In fact, the Borders came because a pine forest left in place for several years to sell mobile homes became a strip plus parking of four massive box stores. None of the original stores (Borders, jewelry, shoe, and office supply) are there and Borders became Walmart Neighborhood Market after the chain went bankrupt.

But, from 1996–2011, Borders was where I went when Barnes and Noble were too stuffy, and I wanted the better children’s section with the amphitheater seats. As I got older, I was at Borders for all the Black fiction. but elsewhere when I was trying to date in semi-secret, but gush over books.

Plus, as much as I adore the Greensboro Public Library and many of its branches and longtime staff, it didn’t have all the on-demand options back then. Plus, the branch wasn’t across the street from where my mom moved us to in 1995 the way it’s been since.

I also had my UNCG student card (and later my friend of the library card). We were also years away from the Hunt Library robot on NC State’s campus (and it came four years after my own graduation, without the same option for alumni to purchase borrowing privileges).

And now, of course, I live in DC with access to several libraries and library systems and small, some unionized, bookstore chains catering to all kinds of niches.

However, it was the bookstore pictured in my opening image that has my heart at the moment. It’s the Books-A-Million in Waldorf, Maryland. In about 25–30 minutes, I can walk into a near replica of my childhood Borders, but instead of being shuttered, it’s been reborn under another bookstore’s banner and continues to add books and other nerdery to the big box shopping center where it sits, much like my old strip in South Greensboro.

And my inner child is happy because she is cocooned and then I can go back to the wonderful life those hours of imagination created as an adult.

The Principle Corner

Each week, I’m taking a moment to share how I’ve been building the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist practice and ethic, so we can approach this work from a similar starting point. In this section over the next few weeks of these themed newsletters, I’ll be reminding you why I’m ranking spaces in the first place and how that’s building up into launching phase one of the usable Black Queer Feminist Urbanist dashboard.

I came up with bookstores and libraries being second by listing ten places on a vertical scale of 1–10 with 1 being the safest for me and ten being the least.

I’m still working on how I want to collect this kind of information from you, and how it would work in an interactive dashboard, but for now, just email me your top ten. Let me know if you’d want me to share it in a future edition of this space!

And for reference, Here’s the vertical version of my Personal Space Comfort Index from most to least comfortable, with this week’s space in bold and next week’s space in italics:

Nature Trail/River Kayaking

Bookstores and Libraries

Craft circles, stores, and festivals

Places that sell and serve food (restaurants/grocery stores/bars)

Private residences

Public transportation

Schools and workplaces

Healthcare facilities

Hair Salons

Churches* (I’ll explain this asterisk in a few weeks when I break down why I feel least comfortable in a church but not necessarily in spiritual spaces).

By the Way

Here’s where I share other articles/videos that were noteworthy for me this week in this section. Apologies in advance for things behind a paywall. Some things I subscribe to and others I grab just before the wall comes down on me. I will start marking these articles and describing them.

Today is the Trans Day of Visibility and I’m really excited to have had a hand in editing this cross-post article on gender-expansiveness on transit spaces globally for GGWash. I’m going to be editing for them for a little while longer while I continue to build up this platform and I’m grateful that in this iteration of the site, we are supportive and committed to equity not just in topics, but in those who byline with us. Likewise, while others talked about the big indictment, I’m happy to hear that a federal Trans Bill of Rights was introduced in the US House and that so many folks are fighting back against all the laws and procedures being introduced threatening our safety as trans, genderqueer and nonbinary people. Hang in there folks and celebrate yourselves today!

So right as I was putting the finishing touches on this letter, I saw the plans for this new public library in Howard County, Maryland, which will be the new central branch and I’m bookmarking it on my libraries to camp out in when it’s finished. Also, have to go see this Black feminists in DC exhibition at the main DC Public Library branch.

And finally, I’m running a bit behind on publishing this week because I went down to Norfolk to support Les for her very first keynote speech, at the community college branch she graduated from in 2008. I’m very proud of her and everything she’s done with endoQueer and within our urbanism industry.

On the Shelf, On the Playlist

So, since we are talking a little bit about bookstores that really influenced me and my formative years, I’m going to dedicate this section to where you can find some of the books that I loved in those key moments between 1986–2004 that I would have been considered a young reader.

First, you can still buy Little Golden Books. The first book I memorized was one and it started this whole self-reading journey when I was four and a half. And yes, the title is a reference to Reading Rainbow, which was a staple in my household, and considering the household I grew up in, the reason I know LeVar Burton for the three most popular things he was known for in the late 80s, and early 90s. Yes, I’ve also listened to his book-reading podcast.

And there’s been so much written about the queer undertones of The Baby-sitter’s Club book series and the most recent TV adaptation, but somehow, deep in the closet, I never realized a queer elder was speaking to me.

And while I don’t like the meanings and insinuations behind Beauty and the Beast, I still really want Belle’s village library from the original Disney animated film from 1991. I also was so excited to find one of the most vividly illustrated and world-creating children’s books I also received the Christmas I received this VHS, the Sign of the Seahorse, which is still in print and available to order.

Before You Go

This is our last section, where I have classified advertisements for others, but I also advertise things that I’m doing that are for sale or for hire. Rates start at $75 a week for a four-week commitment and $150 for just one week. Learn more and get started with your ad!

Free training on data analysis and storytelling for organizations working in urban equitable development

The Equitable Development Data Insight Training Initiative (EDDIT) teaches organizations, non-profits, and local governments in the U.S. and Canada how to use their data and resources to document, reflect, evaluate, and communicate the impacts of their work to stakeholders and communities.

Our skilled data analysis and storytelling experts help organizations reach new audiences using data and resources they already own. We work closely with your organization to create 20–30 hours of personalized modules designed to meet your data and narrative needs. Organizations located in small to mid-sized cities (with populations less than 500,000) are eligible for our Initiative.

We are looking for a wide range of equitable development projects, from a local community garden to a city-wide public transportation plan. If you know an organization who could benefit from free training in data analysis and storytelling, we encourage you to share this Initiative. Let’s build equitable cities together. There is no cost to apply.

Find out more on our website.

The Equitable Development Data Insight Training Initiative (EDDIT) is a collaboration between UC Berkeley Centre for Community Innovation and University of Toronto School of Cities, funded by a $2.2 million (USD) grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

***

Postdoctoral Scholar Fellow — Homelessness Hub

Location: University of California, San Diego

Homelessness Hub, a research entity in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at UC San Diego, invites applications for a postdoctoral fellow working in the area of homelessness and/or housing precarity.

The official postdoctoral scholar fellowship appointment will be through the UC San Diego Department of Urban Studies and Planning. The postdoctoral scholar will work under the supervision of the Homelessness Hub leadership team: Dr. Jennifer Nations, Dr. Mirle Rabinowitz Bussell, and Dr. Leslie Lewis.

Homelessness Hub is focused on research, education, and communications on housing and homelessness-related topics for San Diego and neighboring regions. Equity and justice are integral to our work and we center the experiences of individuals with lived experience of homelessness. We are actively expanding our research agenda and will do so by leveraging new and existing collaborations.

A highly qualified postdoctoral scholar is sought to contribute to all aspects of

Homelessness Hub’s research process. Position duties include but are not limited to: developing research design and methods; data collection and analysis; writing manuscripts and grant proposals; and mentoring and supervising students and research assistants.

Program: https://homelessnesshub.ucsd.edu

Department: https://usp.ucsd.edu

Salary range: A reasonable salary range estimate for this position is $64,522-$72,000.

APPLY LINK: https://apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF03524

***

If you want me to show up on your panel, keynote, or podcast book a complimentary consultation call. I still have open availability for 2023 and 2024.

***

I have created a special landing page, www.theblackurbanist.com/books, that’s not only a home for my upcoming volume, A Black Urbanist Journey to a Queer Feminist Future, but all those books in the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist canon.

***

if you want to send me money for quick expenses or like a tip jar, you can Venmo me or buy me a Ko-fi. If you become a Patreon, you can do that on a set monthly basis, along with a special thank you note each week! The GoFundMe is still alive if you want to make large donations quickly and you can subscribe on Substack, but know that nothing in this newsletter is going behind paywall, this is considered a love offering.

***

And if you want to support my textile and fiber work, head over to www.kristpattern.com.

Until next time,

Kristen

The Earth is always there to hold us, mold us, and heal us. Can we let it do its thing, instead of trying to manipulate it, causing its destruction? 

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly with Kristen Jeffers, an email newsletter that highlights the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist thoughts and commentary of me, Kristen E. Jeffers, an internationally-known urban planner,  fiber designer, and contributing editor. Think of this as an editorial page column, but directly in your email.

 Let’s get started with a few words of reflection from me, then my weekly section on my Black queer feminist urbanist principles, “The Principle Corner”, then By the Way where I highlight articles and projects I had a hand in externally or really wanted to highlight; On the Shelf, On the Playlist where I share book and music recommendations, and finally Before You Go, where I share any ads and announcements if I have them and ways to support this work financially and externally. 

I spent the first 9 years of my life with my own backyard. And it was a paradise, especially in the springtime. 

Four trees bearing our state’s official flowers, the Dogwood, lined up along an intriguing slope up to our neighbors behind us. While it wasn’t a great hill for sledding, especially since I could count the number of snows in the yard on my hands, it was still a great place for picnics on the hill with my parents, swinging as high as I could go on my Sears swing set, and my forays into being a junior gardener, thanks to accompanying my mom to all the area nurseries, namely Greensboro’s New Garden, which at the time had a junior garden club. 

I need to stop here and talk about how the natural world tried to betray me before we turn it back around and talk about moments like what opens this week’s newsletter, where I’m hanging out with a beloved local cherry blossom tree.

For a hot minute as a child, I would run around saying I was allergic to the sun, especially as it had started its steady climb of getting hotter and hotter in the early 1990s and I hated it. 

I no longer say that as I learned that folks who are actually allergic to the sun have much different challenges. The original child I saw like this had to wear a HazMat suit when he was on Oprah in the 1990s because sunlight and even studio lights were too bright and hot to not burn their skin. I couldn’t find a direct link to that episode, but I found these links to children who have much different options, namely, a summer camp where they can all play outside together after dark.

However, me and the dogwoods had too much fun one day and my parents noticed that I was swelling in my face. By the time they called my pediatrician and got me to our local Eckerd Drug (RIP), for some extra strength Benadryl, everything looked extra smushed and blurry. I remember taking said Benadryl and waking up the next morning ok. However, at least I had my own swing set, tree set, pediatrician, and parents with pediatric health insurance on me. Even my situation could have been worse had that not been the case.  But I still stayed inside more often than not for the next few years.

I’m not going to link to every single resource and history link about how Black folks have had to battle Jim Crow in its various permutations to have access to outdoor space. Same with all the support groups that are growing to help Black folks get back outside in nature.

I will say that the reason nature is number one for me for comfort now is square because of what we’ve been going through these last few years. Once we got the go-ahead that we could start going outside again, with a mask on, if we weren’t  “essential”, Les suggested we go to the National Harbor entrance to the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail.

It was so humid that June day, but it was like a switch went off for me. One, all I needed was a light cloth mask. Two, it connects all three jurisdictions (DC legally extends down the Potomac in the water to the original boundary stone in Jones Point Park) on foot. We’d hiked the whole Wilson Bridge portion of the trail before on a warm January day in early 2020, but this became a lifeline for us and still is. (In fact, we are overdue for a hike). 

Since then, we’ve kayaked and walked other adjacent trails and I really realized that no one out here, especially here in the DC area, cares about what my body looks like, sounds like, feels like, and if I really “belong” here. 

I got a taste of how awesome just biking (and Segwaying at least once or twice)   the National Mall as a 14-mile trail loop was when I worked as a bike tour guide on the National Mall in 2019 as I went through another transitional year running this platform.

But I was technically at work and I couldn’t tell those tourists all of the Black histories I wanted to at all of the monuments and on Capitol Hill (besides admitting that the statue at the top of the Capitol Building is a beloved Confederate symbol). And while I was tipped very generously, it wasn’t enough to risk my life and lungs through the spring of 2020 if we were deemed essential workers, because we were working outdoors, with no need to socially distance.

However, the trails now are hobbies and refuges and I’m overdue to spend time on one! And this is how natural spaces, including river kayaking and the beachfront, are my most comfortable space. Next week, my second most comfortable space — bookstores and libraries!

The Principle Corner

Each week, I’m taking a moment to share how I’ve been building the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist practice and ethic, so we can approach this work from a similar starting point.  In this section over the next few weeks of these themed newsletters, I’ll be reminding you why I’m ranking spaces in the first place and how that’s building up into launching phase one of the usable Black Queer Feminist Urbanist dashboard. 

I came up with nature trails and river activities being first by listing ten places on a vertical scale of 1-10 with 1 being the safest for me and ten being the least.

I’m still working on how I want to collect this kind of information from you, and how it would work in an interactive dashboard, but for now, just email me your top ten. Let me know if you’d want me to share it in a future edition of this space!

And for reference, Here’s the vertical version of my Personal Space Comfort Index  from most to least comfortable, with this week’s space in bold and next week’s space in italics:

Nature Trail/River Kayaking

Bookstores and Libraries

Craft circles, stores, and festivals

Places that sell and serve food (restaurants/grocery stores/bars)

Private residences

Public transportation

Schools and workplaces

Healthcare facilities

Hair Salons

Churches* (I’ll explain this asterisk in a few weeks when I break down why I feel least comfortable in a church but not necessarily in spiritual spaces). 

By the Way

Here’s where  I share other articles/videos that were noteworthy for me this week in this section. Apologies in advance for things behind a paywall. Some things I subscribe to and others I grab just before the wall comes down on me. I will start marking these articles and describing them. 

For starters this week, this article on how Black folks were steered, then  somewhat left-behind in the suburbs in the 1970 and 1980s  was chilling.  It’s by the late activist Yulanda Ward, who was believed to be assassinated because of her housing activism as a DC resident in 1980. What gave me the chills was that what she was saying, isn’t that much different than what I and other Black housing bloggers, planners, elected officials, and activists say on a regular basis. 

Also, maybe she wasn’t assassinated and her own community failed her.  In saying that I’m making the presumption that the thieves that killed her while robbing her were cis Black men and it may have been motivated by sexism for her daring to speak over powerful Black male activists. We still have that antagonism by cis Black men and some cis Black women towards those with marginalized gender expressions in our community and sometimes ourselves in the mirror when we don’t “measure up”. 

This is now the time when we must consider how we will govern ourselves in the “promised lands”, otherwise, the cycle of us being displaced will continue and we won’t have any tools to help ourselves and our accomplices against those new battles.

***

Then, I’ve been battling a more personal battle with accepting my body has changed. While I’ve been able to protect myself from COVID-19 thus far, I have not been able to prevent other health challenges, which have produced some weight gain.  

The onslaught of diet culture, getting back to “normal” after lockdown, and having to say goodbye to some of my favorite garments has been hard. Giving myself the space to create the clothes I needed and wanted, along with learning to love myself as I am,  is why I rebooted Kristpattern. 

The other was that in the middle of 2020, I would have never imagined that so many of you still want to read and even financially support this newsletter and that I could find a way back to the in-person podium, the virtual podiums would continue to come and that I would be able to work with some previous clients in an impactful and affirming way. I needed some way to pay the bills, but now it’s become an expensive, but affirming hobby that’s granted me an amazing community of people that know me not for this page, but know me because I’m the fun crocheter who makes things in bright colors and cool yarns that actually fit!

I still thought I was the only urban planner turned sustainable and inclusive fashion maker, though, through my travels down inclusive mid-to-plus sized fashion, I found Sotela, a made-to-order, size-inclusive, labor-inclusive, person of color-run clothing house. 

I have yet to order any of these clothes, but I do like this idea of flexibility in sizing, as this is the real issue I have with my size, I hate the idea of having to throw out my clothes every year because my body just does what it’s going to do. I’ll let y’all know how this brand goes. Also, please shout out your sustainable and inclusive fashion favorites.  And yes, in two weeks I’ll be going back into why craft spaces are my number three most comfortable space!

***

One day though, I’ll have this experience, that managed to slip through the paywall long enough for me to PDF for you, of being a Black person assigned female at birth, challenging those assignments, and finding a sense of place in my body, at the sea, bathing all of it in peace.

On the Shelf, On the Playlist

My local library, in this case, the DC Public Library, despite my access to several of our region’s libraries, had an e-book copy of Meet Me by the Fountain by Alexandria Lange. So far, I’m in the first chapter or so, where it breaks down how Victor Gruen came to create Northland Mall in Southfield, Michigan. Fun fact, my aunt has lived near there for over 40 years on the Detroit proper side and when the mall finally closed in 2015, she AirDropped me several pictures from its last days. To be expected, GNC and Foot Locker were hanging on tight. (There’s some dead mall humor here about how these stores are the last to go).

And, I’m just as happy to see so many young  R&B singers come out of the DMV region and get national airplay. Once upon a time,  if you were an artist in the  Mid-Atlantic region, you pretty much packed up your bags, unless you were ok doing piano residencies Roberta Flack style or singing in your hometown gospel quartet and moved to New York, LA or Nashville, depending on your preferred music style. 

Now, not only can artists launch from wherever home is; some of these artists, like PG County, Maryland native Alex Vaughan featured in the main link above and Fayetteville, NC native J. Cole, are making labels and festivals and open mics so we can travel as much as we want to, while still making good music. Which reminds me, that guitar of mine in the closet at my current apartment in Oxon Hill and my Casio keyboard at my mom’s house in Greensboro are getting too dusty…

Oh, and yes, this week’s title is a gender-neutralized ode to this song, which I might have to use those dusty instruments to cover in honor of my dad, who really liked this song and wanted me to learn all the words to it, and to honor and lift up all my fellow trans and nonbinary spirits of the world, who need reassurance that their bodies are just as natural as anyone else’s bodies. 

Before You Go

This is our last section, where I have classified advertisements for others, but I also advertise things that I’m doing that are for sale or for hire. Rates start at $75 a week for a four-week commitment and $150 for just one week. Learn more and get started with your ad!

Mpact: Transit + Community conference (formerly called Rail~Volution) is inviting you to submit a proposal to speak at the 2023 conference coming to Phoenix, AZ, in November. If you work on transit, connected mobility options, supportive land use & development, share your experience via a proposal. Full information here: https://www.mpactmobility.org/conference/speakers/. 

The deadline to submit is March 31, 2023. 

The conference is known as a place to learn new tools and forge cross-sector connections. It focuses on the whole community built around transit and multimodal investments, from the modes themselves to housing, business, and economic development, including the implications for health, safety, equity, sustainability, access to opportunity, and overall quality of life. 

To submit a proposal, review the Call for Speakers Information packet, download the worksheet to draft your submission, then submit using an online form. (All the links are on this page: mpactmobility.org/speakers.) Your proposal is an indication that you are willing and able to be in Phoenix for the conference. Speakers can attend for free for the day they are speaking (the session schedule will be available in July) or will need to pay the full rate to attend the entire conference. Scholarships are available to people affiliated with community organizations and non-profits. 

The 2023 conference comes at a time when transit and development models are in flux and (in the US) federal infrastructure funding is rolling out. How are your projects or initiatives changing to respond to challenging times? How are you doing things differently to achieve better outcomes for your community? What are specific approaches to reversing disparities? To innovative financing? To more sustainable energy choices? To engaging community members in decision-making? To succeed in mitigating heat, fires, and flood or taking a systemic approach to climate change? 

The Call for Speakers for Mpact Transit + Community 2023 is your chance to join the conversation and shape the vision for how our communities move and thrive.

***

Postdoctoral Scholar Fellow – Homelessness Hub

Location: University of California, San Diego

Homelessness Hub, a research entity in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at UC San Diego invites applications for a postdoctoral fellow working in the area of homelessness and/or housing precarity.

The official postdoctoral scholar fellowship appointment will be through the UC San Diego Department of Urban Studies and Planning. The postdoctoral scholar will work under the supervision of the Homelessness Hub leadership team: Dr. Jennifer Nations, Dr. Mirle Rabinowitz Bussell and Dr. Leslie Lewis.

Homelessness Hub is focused on research, education, and communications on housing and homelessness-related topics for San Diego and neighboring regions. Equity and justice are integral to our work and we center the experiences of individuals with lived experience of homelessness. We are actively expanding our research agenda and will do so by leveraging new and existing collaborations.

A highly qualified postdoctoral scholar is sought to contribute to all aspects of

Homelessness Hub’s research process. Position duties include but are not limited to: developing research design and methods; data collection and analysis; writing manuscripts and grant proposals; and mentoring and supervising students and research assistants.

Program: https://homelessnesshub.ucsd.edu

Department: https://usp.ucsd.edu

Salary range: A reasonable salary range estimate for this position is $64,522-$72,000.

APPLY LINK: https://apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF03524

***

If you want me to show up on your panel, keynote, or podcast book a complimentary consultation call. I still have open availability for 2023 and 2024.

***

I have created a special landing page, www.theblackurbanist.com/books, that’s not only a home for my upcoming volume, A Black Urbanist Journey to a Queer Feminist Future,  but all those books in the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist canon.

***

if you want to send me money for quick expenses or like a tip jar, you can Venmo me or buy me a Ko-fi. If you become a Patreon, you can do that on a set monthly basis, along with a special thank you note each week! The GoFundMe is still alive if you want to make large donations quickly and you can subscribe on Substack but know that nothing in this newsletter is going behind a paywall, this is considered a love offering. 

***

And if you want to support my textile and fiber work, head over to www.kristpattern.com. 

Until next time,

Kristen

Without humanity, everything we build is just statues and structures and experiments. Empty, hostile, and haunting. When we think about how people use what we make, and honor their diversity and ensure their inherent humanity, we always win.

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly with Kristen Jeffers, an email newsletter that highlights the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist thoughts and commentary of me, Kristen E.  Jeffers, an internationally-known urban planner,  fiber designer, and contributing editor. Think of this as an editorial page column, but directly in your email.

Let’s get started with a few words of reflection from me, then my weekly section on my Black queer feminist urbanist principles, “The Principle Corner”, then By the Way where I highlight articles and projects I had a hand in externally.; On the Shelf, On the Playlist where I share book and music recommendations, and finally Before You Go, where I share any ads and announcements if I have them and ways to support this work financially and externally. 

So, I’m trying to not open these emails with a sermon, but right now, I have to highlight that we are in a very real crisis of unsafe spaces. Note that I don’t say uncomfortable spaces, because there’s a difference. 

Not parsing out that difference is costing us lives. 

In my definition, unsafe space is someone threatening verbal or weaponized violence against you for covering your face or not looking, sounding, or even feeling the way you’re “supposed” to feel for them. Unsafe space is also space that is physically inaccessible. 

An uncomfortable space is when someone’s behavior or look isn’t pleasurable or appealing to you, but they aren’t endangering your life or well-being for being in the space. Also, their being in the space isn’t keeping you from coming in and thriving, either on your own or with assistance.

These distinctions get muddy when we have faith traditions that teach that being allowed to be in the presence of the Divine means looking or acting or being a certain way. Never mind humans, even if you believe we just evolved without any overarching actor, just are. No qualifications or questions. However, in our souls, we’ve decided that sometimes some people don’t belong or aren’t good enough.

Sometimes the person we decided wasn’t good enough is us.

And in a world where we’ve created tools that can make dirt and powder weapons of mass destruction, where we use our bare hands to snuff out the breath or beat down the brains of those we don’t like, the lines are further blurred between uncomfortable and unsafe spaces.

But we owe it to ourselves, as cliche as all of this sounds, to be in the right relationship with humans. 

And if you ever wonder, especially if you’re new around here why I spend so much time talking about who actually uses those 15-minute cities, those shiny new office cubicles with HEPA filters and the outdoor seating cafes, and yes, the bus, it’s because they’re all for naught if they’re empty.

Because you want your building to be more than a tall, expensive statue of windows.

You want your transit system to be more than a life-sized, gas or electric-powered Hot Wheels toy set on a fixed track.

Because we are all worthy and none of our labor is in vain.

(Also, I want to shout out my therapist for nudging me to start thinking about what’s uncomfortable vs. what’s unsafe. I want to put in a note here to encourage you to find a therapist that knows that much of what we consider mental health is just health and who can help you handle systemic oppression while also learning how to break it down).

The Principle Corner

Each week, I’m taking a moment to share how I’ve been building the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist practice and ethic, so we can approach this work from a similar starting point.  This week, I wanted to pause with the specific principles and talk a little more about this Black Queer Feminist Index I’m shaping.

So last week, we ran into a bit of a technical difficulty with my Personal Space Comfort Index.  

However, this week, rather than panicking when my measure didn’t work right and dumping it (see, I’m just as guilty as others of discarding data and measures, not because they don’t work, but because they don’t seem to work), I am sharing as much of the index as I can, because next week, based on what we’ve been talking about in our opening reflections, I want to dig into why these spaces are uncomfortable for me. And, I want to find a survey software to help me make this easy for you to do so that I can collect and compare data.

In the meantime, you can just do your own 1-10 list on a piece of paper or list from the most comfortable, to least comfortable, spaces that you are most comfortable in. Another advantage of doing this is that you can write out the names of the spaces in the way you know them, not just in the way that others code them for analysis.  If you’d like me to compare and contrast, feel free to email me at kristen@theblackurbnanist.com if this is not already in your inbox. If it is in your email, reply back or leave it in the comments on my website or Substack. 

Now, without further ado, the list. Here’s the vertical version of my Personal Space Comfort Index  from most to least comfortable:

Nature Trail/River Kayaking

Bookstores and Libraries

Craft circles, stores, and festivals

Places that sell and serve food (restaurants/grocery stores/bars)

Private residences

Public transportation

Schools and workplaces

Healthcare facilities

Hair Salons

Churches* (I’ll explain this asterisk in a few weeks when I break down why I feel least comfortable in a church but not necessarily in spiritual spaces). 

By the Way

Here’s where  I share other articles/videos that were noteworthy for me this week in this section. Apologies in advance for things behind a paywall. Some things I subscribe to and others I grab just before the wall comes down on me. I will start marking these articles and describing them. 

So yes, you might have seen that one of Lyft’s pages honored me and 9 of my colleagues as one of their top-ten people to follow in transportation and they drew me and four others on the list. I’ll echo here what I said on my personal Facebook when I posted it there earlier today: 

In the fall of 2017 and spring of 2018 I was driving Lyft to help build up my budding transportation, design, and media business, and now I’m one of their top-ten leaders.

While a lot of these rankings can be political and yes, even petty, I do honor that I’m not doing the work in a vacuum or in vain.

Also, we all need to be lifting each other up when we can. It’s why appreciate so much the opportunity earlier this month to be on KBOO Community Radio’s monthly The Bike Show, currently co-hosted by my dear friend in the urbanism space,  Nedra Deadwyler.  I haven’t shared it before now because I felt super rambly and we had technical difficulties. But again, what I think is rambles, many of you get insight and light, especially those of you with whom we share marginalized intersections. I hope this interview and the Lyft article above empower you. Not just in your work, but you as a human. 

And since we are talking data, I absolutely support disaggregation of ethnicities within assumed ethnicities like Asian and African-American. We have a similar thread, but we are not all the same and it matters when people are baselining average salaries and presumed well-being on a number that’s skewed by those doing the best in our community. 

Finally, I’m also still thinking of this after watching this documentary by Tracee Wilkins of NBC Washington about how Charles County has become the new destination county for Black folks of means in the DC area. In addition to everything that’s been said by myself and other writers that I highlighted some of last week, I really worry that our classism is going to do us in. It’s also why I’m somewhat hesitant to disaggregate some data points, but I know that we need both measures to ensure the actual liberation of all oppressed people.

On the Shelf, On the Playlist

It’s that time of year that I look to blast soft, airy, spring-like jazz and R&B music. In 2020 and again in 2023 with his new record, Braxton Cook’s jazz has floated to the top of my list. Additionally, Maxwell’s Embrya is back in my rotation, as it celebrates its 25th anniversary. But, I finished today’s newsletter with both of Kelela’s full-lengths back-to-back.

And I pulled Moya Bailey’s breakdown of how she crafted the concept of misogynoir off my physical shelf. It’s already in the canon, because, reasons, but as we continue through this month, I want to really soak in and understand this concept as a creator of media.

Before You Go

This is our last section, where I have classified advertisements for others, but I also advertise things that I’m doing that are for sale or for hire. Rates start at $75 a week for a four-week commitment and $150 for just one week. Learn more and get started with your ad!

Mpact: Transit + Community conference (formerly called Rail~Volution) is inviting you to submit a proposal to speak at the 2023 conference coming to Phoenix, AZ, in November. If you work on transit, connected mobility options, supportive land use & development, share your experience via a proposal. Full information here: https://www.mpactmobility.org/conference/speakers/. 

The deadline to submit is March 31, 2023. 

The conference is known as a place to learn new tools and forge cross-sector connections. It focuses on the whole community built around transit and multimodal investments, from the modes themselves to housing, business, and economic development, including the implications for health, safety, equity, sustainability, access to opportunity, and overall quality of life. 

To submit a proposal, review the Call for Speakers Information packet, download the worksheet to draft your submission, then submit using an online form. (All the links are on this page: mpactmobility.org/speakers.) Your proposal is an indication that you are willing and able to be in Phoenix for the conference. Speakers can attend for free for the day they are speaking (session schedule will be available in July) or will need to pay the full rate to attend the entire conference. Scholarships are available to people affiliated with community organizations and non-profits. 

The 2023 conference comes at a time when transit and development models are in flux and (in the US) federal infrastructure funding is rolling out. How are your projects or initiatives changing to respond to challenging times? How are you doing things differently to achieve better outcomes for your community? What are specific approaches to reversing disparities? To innovative financing? To more sustainable energy choices? To engaging community members in decision-making? To success in mitigating heat, fires, and flood or taking a systemic approach to 

climate change? 

The Call for Speakers for Mpact Transit + Community 2023 is your chance to join the conversation and shape the vision for how our communities move and thrive.

***

Free training on data analysis and storytelling for organizations working in urban equitable development

The Equitable Development Data Insight Training Initiative (EDDIT) teaches organizations, non-profits, and local governments in the U.S. and Canada how to use their data and resources to document, reflect, evaluate, and communicate the impacts of their work to stakeholders and communities.  

Our skilled data analysis and storytelling experts help organizations reach new audiences using data and resources they already own. We work closely with your organization to create 20-30 hours of personalized modules designed to meet your data and narrative needs. Organizations located in small to mid-sized cities (with populations less than 500,000) are eligible for our Initiative.

We are looking for a wide range of equitable development projects, from a local community garden to a city-wide public transportation plan. If you know an organization who could benefit from free training in data analysis and storytelling, we encourage you to share this Initiative. Let’s build equitable cities together. There is no cost to apply. 

Find out more on our website.

The Equitable Development Data Insight Training Initiative (EDDIT) is a collaboration between UC Berkeley Centre for Community Innovation and University of Toronto School of Cities, funded by a $2.2 million (USD) grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

***

Postdoctoral Scholar Fellow – Homelessness Hub

Location: University of California, San Diego

Homelessness Hub, a research entity in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at UC San Diego, invites applications for a postdoctoral fellow working in the area of homelessness and/or housing precarity.

The official postdoctoral scholar fellowship appointment will be through the UC San Diego Department of Urban Studies and Planning. The postdoctoral scholar will work under the supervision of the Homelessness Hub leadership team: Dr. Jennifer Nations, Dr. Mirle Rabinowitz Bussell and Dr. Leslie Lewis.

Homelessness Hub is focused on research, education, and communications on housing andhomelessness-related topics for San Diego and neighboring regions. Equity and justice areintegral to our work and we center the experiences of individuals with lived experience of homelessness. We are actively expanding our research agenda and will do so by leveraging new and existing collaborations.

A highly qualified postdoctoral scholar is sought to contribute to all aspects of Homelessness Hub’s research process. Position duties include but are not limited to: developing research design and methods; data collection and analysis; writing manuscripts and grant proposals; and mentoring and supervising students and research assistants.

Program: https://homelessnesshub.ucsd.edu

Department: https://usp.ucsd.edu

Salary range: A reasonable salary range estimate for this position is $64,522-$72,000.

APPLY LINK: https://apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF03524

***

If you want me to show up on your panel, keynote, or podcast book a complimentary consultation call. I still have open availability for 2023 and 2024.

***

I have created a special landing page, www.theblackurbanist.com/books, that’s not only a home for my upcoming volume, A Black Urbanist Journey to a Queer Feminist Future,  but all those books in the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist canon.

***

if you want to send me money for quick expenses or like a tip jar, you can Venmo me. If you become a Patreon, you can do that on a set monthly basis, along with a special thank you note each week! The GoFundMe is still alive if you want to make large donations quickly and you can subscribe on Substack, but know that nothing in this newsletter is going behind paywall, this is considered a love offering. 

***

And if you want to support my textile and fiber work, head over to www.kristpattern.com. 

Until next time,

Kristen

Yes, you can go off vibes and create a space. However, we can’t expect all of our vibes to always vibe together and that’s where the data comes in to meet us.

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly with Kristen Jeffers, an email newsletter that highlights the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist thoughts and commentary of me, Kristen E.  Jeffers, an internationally-known urban planner,  fiber designer, and contributing editor. Think of this as an editorial page column, but directly in your email.

 Let’s get started with a few words of reflection from me, then my weekly section on my Black queer feminist urbanist principles, “The Principle Corner”, then By the Way where I highlight articles and projects I had a hand in externally.; On the Shelf, On the Playlist where I share book and music recommendations, and finally Before You Go, where I share any ads and announcements if I have them and ways to support this work financially and externally. 

The grocery store used to scare me. 

And no, I’m not talking about three years ago when we first went into COVID-19 lockdown, but when I was younger, I thought all these people were staring at me and how weird I was.

As much as I love the mall now, I felt the same way up in there too.

However, and this should have been a clue, I never felt nervous at the fabric store. Well, other than when it came time to cut fabric or use the actual sewing machine. But my body was never an issue and after all, this was a space celebrating creativity, especially for femme-presenting folks. (This was the 1990s, we were just starting to do better about this in the South, only to reverse course in so many ways).

And at Borders in the mid-1990s, there was always another quirky nerdy, even Black, child sitting around and reading just like me every Tuesday and Thursday night that my dad would take me, so I wouldn’t have to spend all my time at the fabric store where my mom worked 

Once I realized my hair wasn’t going to fall out, and I had a stylist that wanted my hair to grow and thrive,  I started to relax at my hair salon.

It was ok to step in a little mud and frizz out my hair on the nature trails because I was gradually being reminded that I too belong in natural spaces. After all, we all came from the Earth!

Coming out fully gave me a larger voice in matters and spaces of gender and sexuality.

Likewise with spiritual spaces, but depending on the denomination and their commitment to justice and liberation, that can still be a fraught environment.

Work and school can also be hit or miss.

And as much as I know many of you trust my judgment and would make a space better anyway, just because I told you I needed you too, sometimes, we need the kinds of measurements that we can easily distill and use to convince others to make our spaces welcoming.

It’s also how we de-marginalize ourselves so that instead of being history and history alone, we have a role in the present times, exactly where we need to be and nowhere else.

So, are you ready to measure better with me? Let’s go and scroll.

The Principle Corner

Each week, I’m taking a moment to share how I’ve been building the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist practice and ethic, so we can approach this work from a similar starting point.  This week, I wanted to pause with the specific principles and talk a little more about this Black Queer Feminist Index I’m shaping.

So, I opened up the newsletter with that thought because the big drop this week is my new measure. Introducing the Personal Space Comfort Index.  How does it work?

I created 10 space types and I ranked them from one-ten based on one being the least comfortable and 10 being the most comfortable. Sadly, the table is only rendering in some platforms, but not others and I found this out just before I pushed send on Friday afternoon (today).

Be patient with me, we will have an index because we absolutely need a measurement.

By the Way

Here’s where  I share other articles/videos that were noteworthy for me this week in this section. Apologies in advance for things behind a paywall. Some things I subscribe to and others I grab just before the wall comes down on me. I will start marking these articles and describing them. 

First,  I really appreciate reading how other urbanists, architects, and planners of color are reckoning with how this work has oppressed us, yet taking it back in ways that can heal us.  This architecture firm is one of many and I appreciate their candid thoughts on why it’s harder for us to start and sustain design firms as Black folks.

It’s especially relevant to think about how much control in what we are building as last Sunday I called home to my mom and she told me that Smith Homes, the housing project I spent my first nine years living with my mom and dad adjacent to, and several years visiting my dad in, until his untimely death almost a decade ago, is now being torn down. 

And not just bulldozed for replacement housing, of which I’m not sure the terms, but used as a training facility by the Greensboro Police and Fire departments. This was reported on back in November and December, but I was super busy and I didn’t make it to North Carolina in person then after all as I had hoped. 

Between this and the well-meaning, but off-base execution of the temporary tiny homes and safe sleeping lot for cars, I feel like my childhood home continues to slip away. No amount of Boomeranging will bring my dad and the lives and community back that seem to require one to have a certain salary or affiliation, even in my mid-sized hometown in the South. Plus, what will come of the community efforts to end violence and provide resources in these areas as the replacement housing is at least five years away, and there’s no guarantee that even if everyone is eligible to come back, they will. 

And this news comes to me as we continue to process the aftermath of yet another fire at the apartment complex in Silver Spring, Maryland now known as Arrive Silver Spring.  My friend and GGWash colleague Dan Reed spent several key childhood years in this building under another name and has broken down how this building came to be and every single vein of problems it has, past and present. They also manage to slide in their personal story in the most perfect way as they always do when they write about their life vis-a-vis urbanism.  

However, Dan’s story was one of my proudest edits thus far as one of GGWash’s contributing editors,  This story, from writer Olubusayo Shabi, is the other. She broke down the promised land myth people put on the Black communities of the DC metro area (which we affectionately call the DMV) and I’m so happy to have ushered in her first professional byline! There will be more! 

Finally, this may have not left Black feminist and queer/trans-Twitter, but yes Alice Walker has clearly and definitely joined the TERF squad. Unpacking everything around this is a whole other newsletter, but I wanted y’all to know that I saw it and it underscores why we have to make this month about gender marginalization and liberation and not just “womanhood”.

On the Shelf, On the Playlist

It’s something about Omar’s The Anthology that can always bring me comfort. Last March Omar’s song Winner popped up in one of my Get Up! Mixes on Apple Music and I ended up going down the entire rabbit hole of the album as it streams on Apple Music (which leaves out a few songs, for reasons I’m assuming are related to samples and contracts). I’ve not been an Omar fan as long as some, I came into the fold with his 2013 record, The Man. However, listening to this retrospective record, in part or whole can completely shift my mood. It got me through anticipation around my surgery last year and as I await if I have to go onto another round, I am happy to soundtrack it with our very early cherry blossoms this year.

Meanwhile, we talked a lot about Greensboro and DC in the last section and I’m digging into I Am Debra Lee, to learn more about one of my elders who made the NC to DC leap, with a whole lot of other places in the middle. And yes, it’s also a media memoir. I also have Jemele Hill’s memoir in the queue and it was an honor to read Dorothy Gillam’s memoirand meet her in person. Living Black woman/ femme-presenting media legends give me life as I both continue to write for you and nurture other writers! Especially as it continues to be hard out here for many of us to do our work and speak up.

Before You Go

This is our last section, where I have classified advertisements for others, but I also advertise things that I’m doing that are for sale or for hire. Rates start at $75 a week for a four-week commitment and $150 for just one week. Learn more and get started with your ad!

Mpact: Transit + Community conference (formerly called Rail~Volution) is inviting you to submit a proposal to speak at the 2023 conference coming to Phoenix, AZ, in November. If you work on transit, connected mobility options, supportive land use & development, share your experience via a proposal. Full information here: https://www.mpactmobility.org/conference/speakers/. 

The deadline to submit is March 31, 2023. 

The conference is known as a place to learn new tools and forge cross-sector connections. It focuses on the whole community built around transit and multimodal investments, from the modes themselves to housing, business and economic development, including the implications for health, safety, equity, sustainability, access to opportunity and overall quality of life. 

To submit a proposal, review the Call for Speakers Information packet, download the worksheet to draft your submission, then submit using an online form. (All the links are on this page: mpactmobility.org/speakers.) Your proposal is an indication that you are willing and able to be in Phoenix for the conference. Speakers can attend for free for the day they are speaking (session schedule will be available in July) or will need to pay the full rate to attend the entire conference. Scholarships are available to people affiliated with community organizations and non-profits. 

The 2023 conference comes at a time when transit and development models are in flux and (in the US) federal infrastructure funding is rolling out. How are your projects or initiatives changing to respond to challenging times? How are you doing things differently to achieve better outcomes for your community? What are specific approaches to reversing disparities? To innovative financing? To more sustainable energy choices? To engaging community members in decision-making? To success in mitigating heat, fires and flood or taking a systemic approach to 

climate change? 

The Call for Speakers for Mpact Transit + Community 2023 is your chance to join the conversation and shape the vision for how our communities move and thrive.

***

Postdoctoral Scholar Fellow – Homelessness Hub

Location: University of California, San Diego

Homelessness Hub, a research entity in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at UC San Diego, invites applications for a postdoctoral fellow working in the area of homelessness and/or housing precarity.

The official postdoctoral scholar fellowship appointment will be through the UC San Diego Department of Urban Studies and Planning. The postdoctoral scholar will work under the supervision of the Homelessness Hub leadership team: Dr. Jennifer Nations, Dr. Mirle Rabinowitz Bussell and Dr. Leslie Lewis.

Homelessness Hub is focused on research, education, and communications on housing andhomelessness-related topics for San Diego and neighboring regions. Equity and justice areintegral to our work and we center the experiences of individuals with lived experience of homelessness. We are actively expanding our research agenda and will do so by leveraging new and existing collaborations.

A highly qualified postdoctoral scholar is sought to contribute to all aspects of Homelessness Hub’s research process. Position duties include but are not limited to: developing research design and methods; data collection and analysis; writing manuscripts and grant proposals; and mentoring and supervising students and research assistants.

Program: https://homelessnesshub.ucsd.edu

Department: https://usp.ucsd.edu

Salary range: A reasonable salary range estimate for this position is $64,522-$72,000.

APPLY LINK: https://apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF03524

***

If you want me to show up on your panel, keynote, or podcast book a complimentary consultation call. I still have open availability for 2023 and 2024.

***

I have created a special landing page, www.theblackurbanist.com/books, that’s not only a home for my upcoming volume, A Black Urbanist Journey to a Queer Feminist Future,  but all those books in the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist canon.

***

if you want to send me money for quick expenses or like a tip jar, you can Venmo me. If you become a Patreon, you can do that on a set monthly basis, along with a special thank you note each week! The GoFundMe is still alive if you want to make large donations quickly and you can subscribe on Substack, but know that nothing in this newsletter is going behind a paywall, this is considered a love offering. 

***

And if you want to support my textile and fiber work, head over to www.kristpattern.com. 

Until next time,

Kristen

Yes, some things need to be measured properly to work. However,  when we measure actual humans in a certain way, it just creates marginalizations rather than liberation.

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly with Kristen Jeffers, an email newsletter that highlights the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist thoughts and commentary of me, Kristen E.  Jeffers, an internationally-known urban planner,  fiber designer, and contributing editor. Think of this as an editorial page column, but directly in your email.

 Let’s get started with a few words of reflection from me, then my weekly section on my Black queer feminist urbanist principles, “The Principle Corner”, then By the Way where I highlight articles and projects I had a hand in externally.; On the Shelf, On the Playlist where I share book and music recommendations, and finally Before You Go, where I share any ads and announcements if I have them and ways to support this work financially and externally. 

For years I thought I was a horrible writer.  Go ahead and laugh at this, but I’m serious. 

This was based on my not doing so well on the statewide writing assessment North Carolina gives to students in the fourth, seventh, and tenth grades. I learned through reading this document on the writing assessments as I knew them in school, that my class year of fourth graders was the first class to take the writing test in the fourth grade in the spring of 1996.

I do remember us being pushed hard and being told that it would have a huge impact on our future.  I also remember that this assessment tested how well we could write on a particular document. The document had some scanning bubbles for our demographic information, a page and a half of pre-written lines to limit our writing space and help us stay on prompt,  and the choice of said prompts. The tests were randomized by colors: Christmas red and green, plus grape soda purple which was supposed to keep us from cheating on each other.  

When my test came back, I had a level three. Which wasn’t bad and it lined up with what my natural abilities were at the time, but I felt like I just wasn’t good at persuasive or descriptive or declarative writing.

Despite having won a schoolwide, grade-wide writing award in the spring of 1994 that allowed second-grade me to go to my first invite-only writing conference at UNC-Greensboro. 

I’ll share more of that story in my book, but I won that award because I was good at making picture books I wrote and illustrated by hand.  We didn’t even have this software yet to type directly into the computer and we were many, many years away from iPads that render handwriting and scribbles.  However, with my mom’s help in proofreading and teaching me how to properly use a glue stick to cut out and tape my best illustrations in the book, after plenty of practice, I  had an award-winning book!

Looking back now, I realize that, the standard in the fourth grade was based on speed and tokenization. We were told that children in other countries could write persuasively and perfectly on demand in the fourth grade, why can’t us? And of course,  as I mentioned before, the test had been previously given in the sixth and ninth grades. Why the rush make us as fourth graders consume and process more information?

Never mind that adults get editors all the time. Some even get ghostwriters. And sadly, I wasn’t the only child that struggled with this particular assessment.

I share this now as I launch back into building the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist Index, in solidarity with similar efforts, some that I’ll link to further down in the email. The index as I continue to refine it will have different measures. These other researchers have different measures.

We are all people and everything about us is a data point. However, we will never all fit into one measurement and that’s more than ok!

Keep this in mind as we continue to honor these “marginalized months” and craft a world where we are honored and celebrated every single day without qualification.

The Principle Corner

Each week, I’m taking a moment to share how I’ve been building the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist practice and ethic, so we can approach this work from a similar starting point. This week, I wanted to pause with the specific principles and talk a little more about this Black Queer Feminist Index I’m shaping.

In 2018, I read this article in CityLab ranking cities for Black women. It turned my gears. First, because technically, this online platform predates CityLab (and its predecessor The Atlantic Cities) by about 2-3 years. 

Some of you may remember reading me the first time as a “contributor” to the site. I say “contributor” because this was the time before digital writing fees had caught up to print writing fees, and blogs were just wayward, say ghetto, children of The Press. I was also a 25-year-old millennial who had been told that the press was dead when all they really wanted to do was not figure out how to pay people. I say all this to say, the site never paid me and I have yet to ever have a paid article, drafted on either Atlantic site. Yes, I’ve had opportunities, but they all just seem to fizzle into the night.

So already, I’m concerned when I see this article, not because of its byline, but because of the platform and how the measure only seemed to pick up on education, healthcare, and the ability to get a job and house. Never mind there are so many other elements to living in a racialized Black, feminized body in cities across the globe.

So I added eight more measures and launched my first survey to assess them in 2019.

Then, I realized that the further we got away from that 2018 assessment, and the more y’all would come to my page first as an authority on Black feminisms and queer/trans life in cities, I wanted you to know the width and breadth of everyone doing this work and why.

I also wanted to make sure folks got proper credit. Hence the creation of the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist Canon.

And, I am passionate about helping folks find the right place for them. A friend in the industry told me earlier this week that I’d been speaking about healing and collective care in urbanism even as far back as our podcast recording in the spring of 2018. The manifestation in this case is coming together.

And so, you’ve been waiting for the results of what we call the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist Index. I don’t have results today, and soon I’ll have a new measure that you can take and help me in building this canon of research.

 I am also still committed to sharing other canons of research into Black feminisms and how Black folks, especially Black gender marginalized folks, navigate metro areas.

Next week, in this section, I’ll introduce our new measure. Then in the following weeks, we’ll get back to sharing the different principles of Black Queer Feminist Urbanism.

By the Way

Here’s where  I share other articles/videos that were noteworthy for me this week in this section. Apologies in advance for things behind a paywall. Some things I subscribe to and others I grab just before the wall comes down on me. I will start marking these articles and describing them.

I took notes on this article on conservatives who are moving to the American West (paywall) because they think that oligarchy will cause a world war.  While there’s overlap with the concerns on people becoming serfs or re-enslaved, the racism, ableism, and queer/trans antagonism stick out greatly, namely in how some in the article are conflating elite capture of Black Lives  Matter and LGBTQIA+ progress with the actual people and grassroots movements that demand our humanity.  Plus, many of these people running away are capable of fixing the problems they bemoan.

Meanwhile, you don’t have to like us, but, I wish folks wouldn’t impede on our ability to raise money and for cities to provide reparations,  like this Alexandria, VA  grant program that was canceled. (Paywalled, but here’s another and a gifted one describing what’s happened here)

This past week was declared Black Women’s History Month,  by Feminista Jones. I didn’t realize we were on this same wavelength and an official bridge week between Black and Women’s History Month had been created, but we are certainly in solidarity.  

And the same with the Movement for Black Lives declaring this month Black Feminisms Month. Here they break down the reason why we speak of Black feminisms,  as we come to the table together, as individuals in solidarity.

On the Shelf, On the Playlist

I finally finished Women Talk Money, the amazing volume on money and wealth with a decolonial, abundance for all lens compiled by Rebbeca Walker, daughter of Alice and feminist and writer in her own right.  It is now in the official Black Queer Feminist Urbanist Canon and I encourage you to pick it up and read it,  along with  We Should All Be Millionaires by Rachel Rodgers and  It’s About  Damn Time,  by one of my closest business mentors,  Arlan Hamilton. Especially after reading that link about the conservative version of the apocalypse,  those of us who have been marginalized economically in one shape or form, need to understand how to manage money without exploiting our Earth and fellow human beings and creatures.

If you’re having trouble with those direct Bookshop links, go to my Books section on my homepage and you can access the store through that link. You’ll then need to scroll across to each book and click on its cover. And yes, as an affiliate, I do benefit financially, but this is one additional way to support this work.

And because it’s finally streaming, I played Logic’s new record as Les and I drove the George Washington Parkway back from a doctor’s appointment in Bethesda and to our regular pickup at Whole Foods in Navy Yard. (I don’t care what anyone says, anything south and west of 695, but east of South  Capitol Street is Navy Yard. Fight me later). I really, really love having area-specific hip-hop for the Mid-Atlantic.  I am very intrigued by Logic’s ability to spit rhymes and reboot the audio skit for the next generation of hip-hop and honestly all music period. Also, that cover image y’all!

Before You Go

This is our last section, where I have classified advertisements for others, but I also advertise things that I’m doing that are for sale or for hire. Rates start at $75 a week for a four-week commitment and $150 for just one week. Learn more and get started with your ad!

Mpact: Transit + Community conference (formerly called Rail~Volution) is inviting you to submit a proposal to speak at the 2023 conference coming to Phoenix, AZ, in November. If you work on transit, connected mobility options, supportive land use & development, share your experience via a proposal. Full information here: https://www.mpactmobility.org/conference/speakers/. 

The deadline to submit is March 31, 2023. 

The conference is known as a place to learn new tools and forge cross-sector connections. It focuses on the whole community built around transit and multimodal investments, from the modes themselves to housing, business and economic development, including the implications for health, safety, equity, sustainability, access to opportunity and overall quality of life. 

To submit a proposal, review the Call for Speakers Information packet, download the worksheet to draft your submission, then submit using an online form. (All the links are on this page: mpactmobility.org/speakers.) Your proposal is an indication that you are willing and able to be in Phoenix for the conference. Speakers can attend for free for the day they are speaking (session schedule will be available in July) or will need to pay the full rate to attend the entire conference. Scholarships are available to people affiliated with community organizations and non-profits. 

The 2023 conference comes at a time when transit and development models are in flux and (in the US) federal infrastructure funding is rolling out. How are your projects or initiatives changing to respond to challenging times? How are you doing things differently to achieve better outcomes for your community? What are specific approaches to reversing disparities? To innovative financing? To more sustainable energy choices? To engaging community members in decision-making? To success in mitigating heat, fires and flood or taking a systemic approach to climate change? 

The Call for Speakers for Mpact Transit + Community 2023 is your chance to join the conversation and shape the vision for how our communities move and thrive.

***

If you want me to show up on your panel, keynote, or podcast book a complimentary consultation call. I still have open availability for 2023 and 2024.

***

I have created a special landing page, www.theblackurbanist.com/books, that’s not only a home for my upcoming volume, A Black Urbanist Journey to a Queer Feminist Future,  but all those books in the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist canon.

***

if you want to send me money for quick expenses or like a tip jar, you can Venmo me. If you become a Patreon, you can do that on a set monthly basis, along with a special thank you note each week! The GoFundMe is still alive if you want to make large donations quickly and you can subscribe on Substack, but know that nothing in this newsletter is going behind paywall, this is considered a love offering . 

***

And if you want to support my textile and fiber work, head over to www.kristpattern.com. 

Until next time,

Kristen