The state of my union is good, but it could be great.

Welcome to Defying Gentrification, Crafting Liberation, the newsletter of me, Kristen Jeffers. A Black, queer, feminist, disabled, urbanist elder millennial (born 1985) from Greensboro, North Carolina USA, who lives in Southwest Washington, DC. 

This newsletter is my personal letter opening you up to how I crusade for a better living environment and my love for fiber craft. This week, I am using the US President’s annual State of the Union speech to reflect on my own state AND invite you to join my new initiatives, which are now open for registration. And yes, I had some time to do some crafting this week, but we’ll get to that in the middle this email. 

So what is the state of my union, my life, my body in these times? 

This week, it’s grief. And yes, all of the stages are a circle, a sphere even.

My dad would have been 64 today.  For 11 years, he hasn’t been here to celebrate me or himself. He was proud of being born in the year of the Greensboro Woolworth Sit-in. We had a regular booth at the Stamey’s on High Point Road (now Gate City Boulevard)  next to the Greensboro  Coliseum, where we would discuss local and state politics the way many are discussing last night’s State of the Union and all the responses. 

If he were here today, I would be at home this week, sitting in that booth, or maybe outside on our porch with takeout because like many Southern fast-food establishments, you’re eating in places that wouldn’t have let you sit in them because of your Blackness many years ago and others that wish you would take your trans, queer, and dare I say feminism outside today.

And don’t get me started on air purification. You definitely smelled the pig smoker and the cigarette smoke from the smoking section in that Stamey’s then and the windows open would just kill any attempts to mitigate our southern humidity and blankets of yellow pollen indoors.

But wherever we would be sitting, I would be bringing up the fact that Biden had a few sick burns (give this man all of his potato chips!). But, Palestine and all the unnamed countries that are under genocide, many because of our military and economic interests, were not adequately mentioned or honored. 

COVID is not over. My stomach and eye twitch, for which I have to take an antacid and an allergy pill at night to keep at bay, would like to have a word with the president. I know Biden would be angry if I told him he was an overgrown bag of malarkey because he was coughing and stuttering through his speech. But, I feel like he would call me a bag of malarkey because I still mask and I am asking that everyone remember all forms of mitigation, especially air purification and testing if they aren’t going to cover their faces.

Oh,  and I don’t remember hearing a thing about student loan forgiveness and a true Medicaid for All.

But then, I would turn my phone to Dad, show him this Instagram post:

https://www.instagram.com/p/C4PQQteOv5c/?img_index=1)

and this response video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrZpiylf4nA .

It’s been long enough ago that I can’t say what he would say, but his spirit and ancestry that runs through me radicalized at losing him the way we did, tells me that I need to do everything I can.

And, I would tell him that picture of the Waffle House in Home Depot is real, somewhere ;).

All jokes aside, it’s my great pleasure to open up the registration for the Defying Gentrification Fellowship

The fellowship will entail:

• One week of lunchtime ( 11 am – 1 pm Eastern Daylight Time) lecture sessions and Q&A on the three key ways to defy gentrification from April 1-5 2024. These will be recorded and available to you in our Podia portal.
• Exercises to help you craft your plan to defy gentrification
• Reading materials to help you understand what gentrification really is and why we must defy, then eradicate it for all humans to thrive on the Earth.
• One post-lecture 90-minute strategy session
• Ongoing alumni group virtual and possibly in-person meetups, to aid in your quest for success in defying gentrification and see if you’re ready to move into our ambassadorship program, where you will have even more time with me to eradicate gentrification. I didn’t want to put that on you just yet, because I know you do a lot of this work already, but you don’t always have space to process.

This fellowship is for:

• People of the African diaspora, namely those who have been a victim of gentrification-related displacement, harassment, and cultural erasure who need a place to process and heal.
• People of the global majority (non-white folks) who have been roped into gentrification schemes, but want to do right by their communities.  However, this first cohort will focus specifically on the experiences of those in the African Diaspora in the (so-called) Americas and other English-speaking countries and you may want to wait for a future cohort where we focus more on your experiences and have mentors and leaders with that lived experience. However, I’d love to have you too, to help us shape a lot of the decolonial topics and praxis we will be shaping together,  but you may not feel like you learned anything. You will get one-on-one time with me and a network of like-minded peers, so do consider joining us.

Investment in yourself and our journey: Each course is $695 for the inaugural section with an optional 12-month payment plan of $59. If you pay in full before April 1, you will receive a bonus one-on-one planning session with Kristen, in addition to your post-launch week strategy session.

We will have a formal scholarship plan in future cohorts and we will open them up to more people, but for now, I’m aiming for 10 people who can make this kind of investment with me, so I can see what it would take to make this kind of training, not only sustainable but a very competitive and affirming alternative to some of our professional certifications and training courses, as well as college curriculums. Register here:

Defying Gentrification Fellowship Intensive

(You can also add  yourself to our waitlist if slots are already full at the link above)

Feel free to comment or reply back if you have any questions. Next week, I’ll be back in your inbox with details about our Eradicating Gentrification  Ambassadorship. Yes, I’ve shifted focus on that one a little bit, because I believe in us and what we are capable of doing.

Now, before you go, some pictures of my craftiness this week.

Until next time,

Kristen