| This is The Black Urbanist Monthly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this monthly digital newsletter to share my Black, Spiritual, Diasporic North Carolinian, Working/Lower Middle-Class, Educated, Queer, Non-Binary Femme thoughts on how places and communities work. Think of this as my monthly column, the one that flaps open as you start browsing that coffee table magazine or printed alt-weekly newspaper or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox. This newsletter is always proud and always free. Black is Beautiful! Queer as in Heck Yeah! Power to the People! When I write the words Black Queer Feminist Urbanist together and apply them to myself and my work, it’s the spirit of the phrases above that I bring forward. My partner’s mom once told me that they didn’t want me to put myself, my work and relationship down by calling myself queer. She equated it with going around and using another semi-reclaimed word about her own daughter. Until 2015, I could count on my hands the number of people of African descent racialized as Black, that would proudly claim being Black in the land-use policy, planning, and building world. And who hasn’t wrestled with the idea of feminine as weak, even internally. And nobody wants to admit that rural transit, villages and ecosystems exist in tandem with urban systems. And that the designation of something as a suburb is racially motivated.But I’m a queer feminist in professional spaces today (with North Carolinian and Marylander ties) because Pauli Murray was first. And I’m a proud Black Urbanist because Melvin Mitchell walked with Stokley Charmicael (Kwame Ture) as they attempted to repair the Black main streets of DC in the same years my parents were coming of age tilling farmlands of their own central North Carolina Black communities, planting the seeds of their daughter’s quest to understand how it all works, through the lenses of place, creativity and design. And it is in this spirit of pride, creativity, reverence and hope for the future, that I hope you will join me for the month of October for my inaugural Black Queer Feminist Urbanism Festival/Summit At the summit we will do the following –Launch the inaugural Black Queer Feminist Urbanist Index for Global Metro Areas on Friday October 1st in a live virtual stream. –Go on a Black Queer Feminist Urbanist themed (socially distanced with proof of vaccination required) Potomac Waterfront Boat Tour with stops at several key points in National Harbor, Alexandria and The District Wharf on Saturday, October 16th. –Relaunch the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist School on October 31st –Have some other surprise conversations both online and offline that will be fulfilling and affirming. –Challenge white-led, cishet led firms and organizations to continue the restorative and reparative processes needed to ensure Black liberation and model what multicultural solidarity looks like when it does exist to serve white supremacy or capitalism. While the livestream of the report launch is free to stream and will stream on my Youtube Channel, and I’ll share highlights and key points of the boat tour in various videos — only by registering on Eventbrite for a paid ticket will you be able to receive one or more of the following: —Professional Certification Certificates for the report launch webinar and full copies of the report+annual access to the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist School at the Public Lecture annual rate. The new version of the school and archives of the report launch and boat tour will be available on Teachable, and completion of each module will generate a certificate. —An in-person boat tour ticket, which includes a treasure chest of my book, A Black Urbanist Journey to a Queer Feminist Future, along with several other specially produced objects highlighting some of my favorite Black, Queer, Feminist and/or Urbanist vendors, artisans and places along the DC Area Potomac Waterfront. You’ll also get everything in the first bullet. —The treasure chest only, mailed to your home + everything in the first bullet. If you want to do this and still join us on October 16th, you’ll be on your own to visit all the sites in the boat tour and there’s no guarantee that I and some of my special guests at each stop will be there. |
| Register on Eventbrite |
| Thanks to everyone who is already a Patreon and others who have already pre-registered and agreed to contribute art, knowledge and their connections to the launch of this event. And don’t forget to register for at least the live webinar stream. If you want to upgrade your ticket for any of the other benefits, you’ll be able to do so until October 1st. Until next time, |
| P.S. Learn more about my adventures in sustainable fashion and fiber. |
