Revisiting Defining Myself for Myself: Creating a Black Queer Feminist Urbanism

The Black Urbanist Weekly for February 28 — March 6, 2022

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly, an email newsletter that highlights I, Kristen Jeffers’s, Black Queer Feminist Urbanist commentary on one key issue every week. This week I’m ending  Black History Month by centering my Black Queer Feminist Urbanist  Future as I continue to combat both civic and regular inferiority complexes.  I’m also thankful for sponsorship for this newsletter from Rail~volution and my Patreon supporters. You can also advertise your Black and/or queer-led business, your upcoming urbanist conference, your next job/RFP announcement, or anything nice that we agree on together that’s less than 350 words. Rates start at $75/week for a four-week commitment and there are special packages for those aforementioned Black and/or queer-led businesses. Learn more

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The world is different for Black Queer Feminist Urbanists. The world is different for each and every human being. Planning for and embracing those differences is a key to healing our civic and regular inferiority complexes.

If I had to craft a theme song, thesis statement, or even a mantra for the last few years of my work, this would be it. 

The work started in the Fall of 2018. Falling in love and falling in love and making the resultant life changes I did, really shook how I was doing this work.

However, as early as the Fall of 2016 I had stopped trusting institutions and specifically the greater urbanism industry to do this right. 

This in 2016 being supporting me as a Black woman in the workplace, movement spaces, and even on event stages — notwithstanding today’s this that started in the fall of 2018 of embracing my full Black non-binary femme identity, while in a committed partnership with a lovely Black masculine of center lesbian woman.

Both of us from two corners of the Upper U.S. South, but with different childhoods and workplace experiences, and queer lives.

But both important, vibrant, and worthy of amplification.

However, when we, meaning all us humans, were all, not just some, but all afraid that we could die by breathing in the outside air, having a conversation about how my Black woman/femme/queerhood was different felt frivolous.

But then some died of Covid-19, and we lived on. Well, some of us. Some of us, mostly Black, still continue to die at the hands of state-sponsored forces, sometimes police, other times lack of support or income by the government or even our jobs that should be paying us a living wage or in hospital rooms because our healthcare wasn’t adequate.

We may have survived, but so many of us were tired.

I know I was tired from May 25, 2020, until about… well, let me be real, I’m still tired. 

But, I realized that spelling out to the world why it mattered that the cities we planned and governed should consider how the world is unique and special for Black women and gender diverse/marginalized individuals is still worthy.

And not just worthy, energy-producing, and life-giving. This is how I stay woke.

I’ve broken down what I’ve come to call my Black queer feminist urbanist manifesto a couple of times. Recently in this YouTube video from November of 2021 that served as the opening of my inaugural Black Queer Feminist Urbanist summit. And to be honest, you can see the roots of what I’m talking about today in this 2011 Pecha Kutcha Raleigh talk, which sets me on this course even when I thought I was just out here proving my existence as just Black feminine urbanist.

Today, I’m back with more clarity and to track my evolution between these two talks and beyond and to tie up this series that’s leaned into our history and legacies of our ancestors, what it takes to create communities safely and how to honor the spirit of our community and its needs. This week, we end on the self and how I practice political self-care. 

Yes, this is where I define myself for myself. You can too, but first, let me break it down for you.

First of all, this framework assumes that a city already leads in Black women’s outcomes in education, employment, and healthcare. Remember that CityLab article/study on these from 2019? That’s our baseline.

And then to that, I added 8 things, in short, and in no particular order:

  1. Workplaces and spaces, that pay and fund fairly; inclusive, and respectful of all genders presentations and sexualities of Black people, as well as their strength, intellect, and leadership.
  2. Hair salons that love and affirm the way my hair comes out of my head and can be creative with it, priced fairly and clearly.
  3. Artist, maker, creative, and hobby spaces, funding, and communities that are inclusive of Black people, respectful of our culture, and believe in fair compensation for creative works of pay.
  4. A balance of comfort and sustaining food
  5. Bookstores and libraries, especially with staff, titles, and events centering BIack, Queer and Feminist thought and people.
  6. Indoor and outdoor recreation areas with staff and programming that is Black-friendly and LGBTQIA- affirming.
  7. Houses of faith, that center Afro-Diaspora faith traditions, and other indigenous spiritual practices, that also affirm queer and trans identities, partnerships, families, participation, and leadership.
  8. LGBTQIA+ spaces that aren’t white supremacist, classist, ableist, and privileging/hostile to some of the identities of the acronym over others.

And to my original 8 requirements, I want to add a 9th, adequate public transportation.

I’m shocked I left it out the first time, but that’s just how easy it takes for even someone who’s hyper-aware of challenges to take things for granted. I’ll admit here that having a personal vehicle, even one I share with another person, makes me take things for granted.

This is why this framework is something all of us should consider when we are thinking about where to live, even though it is infused by my must-haves and haves that I think of when I think of a city that makes Black women and gender-expansive/diverse feel loved and wanted, not just tolerated and needed.

Breaking down this framework is far too big for one newsletter…

…so over the next few weeks, I’m going to do what I wanted to do in the Spring and Summer of 2020 and that breaks this framework down section by section across the next few newsletters, to help us build that Black queer feminist urbanism.

Because yes, I 100% believe, as we go from Black History to Women’s History month, that the liberation of Black gender-marginalized folks (that includes my fellow non-binary and trans folks) and the creation of spaces that serve in our liberation, set us all free.

Before You Go

For those of you who are able and itching to get out to another in-person conference, Rail~Volution will be in Miami next October, and as in years past, scholarship opportunities will be available. 

Are you involved with transit, mobility, and development projects or investments? Are you dedicated to their potential to shape better places to live for everyone — to build more equitable and sustainable communities? Do you have new approaches or innovations to share?

The annual Rail~Volution transit and community development conference will be in-person in Miami, Florida, next October 30- November 2. The Call for Speakers for the conference is now open, through March 16.

As we look forward to coming together in Miami, we’re focusing both on the ways mobility and development are being transformed and on solidifying the basics. We want the 2022 conference to be a place to reinvigorate the vision for transit-oriented communities and to share nitty-gritty know-how across all aspects of the work, from community engagement to planning, policies to technology, engineering to design financing to implementation, operations to metrics, and evaluation.  

Submit a proposal and make sure your experience is in the mix! For full information and the link to submit, visit railvolution.org/callforspeakers. Scholarships are available and Covid-19 protocols will be taken. 

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I have so much more I want to say and I don’t want to get stuck with what email service to use. One thing I do want to clarify is that there will always be a free edition of this newsletter, even on Substack. However, that will come with ads, like the one above for Rail~volution. But, you can tell me in the survey what kind of ads you want to receive and a little more about who you are in a way that I can better write this newsletter for you.

Or you can advertise your Black or queer-led business,  job, RFP, conference, achievement, or even a shoutout. Rates start at $75 a week for a four-week commitment, but there are one, two, three week options available, plus opportunities to extend. Learn more about our new advertising program.

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Finally, next week, I will be re-opening the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist Lounge for fellow Black Queer Feminist Urbanists to walk through this framework together. What you’ll see in these next few emails is how our allies should show up and work to create this space for us, but we will be digging deeper into how to create this space for ourselves over on Mighty Networks. Mighty Networks is also going to be where I build out my consulting services for anyone who needs moving, resume, career and other help, but you can still email me directly at kristen@theblackurbanist.com and request a strategy service, starting at $150 for one session and $75/session for a package of four. 

Until next time,

Kristen