Weekly Newsletter

The Black Urbanist Weekly #33 — What Should I Be Doing Right Now?

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly. I’m Kristen Jeffers and I’m making this weekly digital newsletter to share my Black, Spiritual, Diasporic North Carolinian, Working/Lower Middle-Class, Educated, Queer, CisFemme thoughts on how places and communities work. Think of this as my weekly column, sitting on your proverbial print paper’s editorial page or as so many other of your favorite newsletters do, in your inbox. 

This is edition #33 and I want to welcome all the new people who have come onto the list over the past few weeks and I want to thank those who have been here on the list with me since 2013 and those who I’ve picked up along the way. Thank you all for wanting to join me on this (mostly) weekly journey. 


That question depends on who you are. 
 

To my fellow Black queer feminist urbanists ( and all Black and brown souls under the weight of oppression)

REST.

Seriously.

Do something that invites joy. 

Mourn and grieve for our lost people, and express the gratitude that you are still breathing and not dead or so gravely ill from The Rona that you can’t read this letter. 

That your neck is clear of all feet, off the street and you are breathing on your own, outside of a jail cell or lifeless in a morgue awaiting autopsy.

That for this moment, you aren’t scanning groceries and hoping the next person scrolling by isn’t careless and coughing in their unmasked face.

That you have a few moments yourself in the midst of all the ventilators you have to keep running just so folks can think to see their families again.

That you can hug those children you’re trying to teach the best way you can, and finally, have gotten to the point they can declare summertime and give you a break.

That if you’ve managed to hold onto a paying job that you can do in your home, you can take extra naps and send extra donations to mutual aid.

And that mutual aid is here for you if it seems as if unemployment or even just a little extra help never comes through.

My Black siblings. Rest and rest well. Hug yourself and bask in the gratitude that the world that seeks to kill and exploit us didn’t win today.

Never apologize for your feelings and your tone when it comes to the sanctity of your life, health, and safety. 

Write out the vision, heal internally, and radiate outward in spaces and systems we created and which work well for us.

Hand the swords to those we trust to fight the battle for us and aid in dismantling the systems that their ancestors started and they have refined, that they realize no longer work for us and that they benefit from at our expense. Let them stand up.

To all of our abolitionists and accomplices. 

Keep educating yourself on how to dismantle the systems of your ancestors and peers that kill and maim Black and Indigenous people.

Decolonize your own mind and lift up the legacy and the witness of your non-White presenting or “model” siblings and elders.

Don’t erase the legacy culture of or force the assimilation of the children you adopt from other cultures who you think you’re saving.

Continue to step up on yours and our social media pages and educate and explain to your family, friends, and colleagues why we are fed up and ready to burn it all down and rebuild. 

How we didn’t have that much to lose and the companies we are so afraid of losing property either have (1) Corporate insurance that covers all losses or (2) A community of people that love them and want them to build back more sustainably, both their building and their business practices so that they are able to contribute and provide for a more just society and community. They might have both.

Explain and emphasize that you only get one life and once it’s snuffed out, it’s not coming back. And that Black and Indigenous Lives Matter.

Explain that assimilation and gentrification and colonization erases personalities and places that were already great. 

Sponsor and mentor us in your workplaces, with an equitable inclusion of our ideas in their fabric.

Fund our work and dreams and our schools and homes and businesses without restrictions and assumptions as to how well we will do it.

Fund mutual aid efforts, legal defense and bail funds, survivor, and friends GoFundMes.

Fund organizations, efforts, and collective work activities that seek to create the goods and services we need, without causing us all physical, emotional, and financial harm.

Defund as much as you can, corporate entities that still lack care and concern and once again, have insurance policies that can deem property replaceable, but see their employees as interchangeable and not worthy of safe working conditions, living wages, and necessary health care.

Allow and encourage our full cultural and bodily expression without question.

Folks, this is what we should be doing right now.

Other Things To Do

  • Mel Mitchell’s book, which I’ve been helping to promote, African American Architects: Embracing Culture and Building Urban Communities, is now available on Bookshop.org and IndieBound. Also, call your favorite BIPOC or independently owned allied bookstore and ask them to stock it.
  • SAVE THE DATE for my free lecture series How to Communicate in the Modern World, in support of my course for design professionals, community institutions and concerned citizens and residents to master relevant communication tools and skills to aid in their work with and for communities How to Communicate in the Modern World with Mastery. Join the free lecture series on Fridays, starting June 5th at 1 pm Eastern leading up to the course launch of  How to Communicate in the Modern World with Mastery on July 10th.
  • I have revamped my survey on Black Queer Feminist Urbanist women so that it’s more mobile-friendly and so anyone else who feels they can comment on what my experience would be like in your city and what your own experiences have been with land and land-related issues are.  Find it here. Black women-identified folks, you’re still encouraged to fill out the other survey using a laptop or desktop, but you can fill out the mobile one as well and mark off that you are a Black woman.
  • You can book me— on your media platform, as a keynote/lecturer, or as a panel participant. I can do a virtual delivery. We can go ahead and start booking programming for late 2020 and 2021. Also, If you are a member of the press and you would love to get my expert commentary on deadline, you can reach me at (301) 578-6278.
  • Les, that wonderful life partner and sales advisor of mine, is great at hyping you up, making you laugh, and helping you or your organization make radical changes in your life and health. Join the email list for her company Les’s Lighthouse for periodic motivational updates. Also, if you need some laughter and motivation right now, check out some of her prior performances and motivational talks on YouTube. (Heads up, there’s saucy language, but hearty messages). She’s relaunched her podcast with some great interviews, including a familiar face to those who are active in the NUMTOT group on Facebook.

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

Love, 

Kristen

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