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.
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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!
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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And if you want to support my textile and fiber work, head over to www.kristpattern.com.
Until next time,
Kristen