Yes, some things need to be measured properly to work. However, when we measure actual humans in a certain way, it just creates marginalizations rather than liberation.
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.; 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.
For years I thought I was a horrible writer. Go ahead and laugh at this, but I’m serious.
This was based on my not doing so well on the statewide writing assessment North Carolina gives to students in the fourth, seventh, and tenth grades. I learned through reading this document on the writing assessments as I knew them in school, that my class year of fourth graders was the first class to take the writing test in the fourth grade in the spring of 1996.
I do remember us being pushed hard and being told that it would have a huge impact on our future. I also remember that this assessment tested how well we could write on a particular document. The document had some scanning bubbles for our demographic information, a page and a half of pre-written lines to limit our writing space and help us stay on prompt, and the choice of said prompts. The tests were randomized by colors: Christmas red and green, plus grape soda purple which was supposed to keep us from cheating on each other.
When my test came back, I had a level three. Which wasn’t bad and it lined up with what my natural abilities were at the time, but I felt like I just wasn’t good at persuasive or descriptive or declarative writing.
Despite having won a schoolwide, grade-wide writing award in the spring of 1994 that allowed second-grade me to go to my first invite-only writing conference at UNC-Greensboro.
I’ll share more of that story in my book, but I won that award because I was good at making picture books I wrote and illustrated by hand. We didn’t even have this software yet to type directly into the computer and we were many, many years away from iPads that render handwriting and scribbles. However, with my mom’s help in proofreading and teaching me how to properly use a glue stick to cut out and tape my best illustrations in the book, after plenty of practice, I had an award-winning book!
Looking back now, I realize that, the standard in the fourth grade was based on speed and tokenization. We were told that children in other countries could write persuasively and perfectly on demand in the fourth grade, why can’t us? And of course, as I mentioned before, the test had been previously given in the sixth and ninth grades. Why the rush make us as fourth graders consume and process more information?
Never mind that adults get editors all the time. Some even get ghostwriters. And sadly, I wasn’t the only child that struggled with this particular assessment.
I share this now as I launch back into building the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist Index, in solidarity with similar efforts, some that I’ll link to further down in the email. The index as I continue to refine it will have different measures. These other researchers have different measures.
We are all people and everything about us is a data point. However, we will never all fit into one measurement and that’s more than ok!
Keep this in mind as we continue to honor these “marginalized months” and craft a world where we are honored and celebrated every single day without qualification.
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. This week, I wanted to pause with the specific principles and talk a little more about this Black Queer Feminist Index I’m shaping.
In 2018, I read this article in CityLab ranking cities for Black women. It turned my gears. First, because technically, this online platform predates CityLab (and its predecessor The Atlantic Cities) by about 2-3 years.
Some of you may remember reading me the first time as a “contributor” to the site. I say “contributor” because this was the time before digital writing fees had caught up to print writing fees, and blogs were just wayward, say ghetto, children of The Press. I was also a 25-year-old millennial who had been told that the press was dead when all they really wanted to do was not figure out how to pay people. I say all this to say, the site never paid me and I have yet to ever have a paid article, drafted on either Atlantic site. Yes, I’ve had opportunities, but they all just seem to fizzle into the night.
So already, I’m concerned when I see this article, not because of its byline, but because of the platform and how the measure only seemed to pick up on education, healthcare, and the ability to get a job and house. Never mind there are so many other elements to living in a racialized Black, feminized body in cities across the globe.
So I added eight more measures and launched my first survey to assess them in 2019.
Then, I realized that the further we got away from that 2018 assessment, and the more y’all would come to my page first as an authority on Black feminisms and queer/trans life in cities, I wanted you to know the width and breadth of everyone doing this work and why.
I also wanted to make sure folks got proper credit. Hence the creation of the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist Canon.
And, I am passionate about helping folks find the right place for them. A friend in the industry told me earlier this week that I’d been speaking about healing and collective care in urbanism even as far back as our podcast recording in the spring of 2018. The manifestation in this case is coming together.
And so, you’ve been waiting for the results of what we call the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist Index. I don’t have results today, and soon I’ll have a new measure that you can take and help me in building this canon of research.
I am also still committed to sharing other canons of research into Black feminisms and how Black folks, especially Black gender marginalized folks, navigate metro areas.
Next week, in this section, I’ll introduce our new measure. Then in the following weeks, we’ll get back to sharing the different principles of Black Queer Feminist Urbanism.
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.
I took notes on this article on conservatives who are moving to the American West (paywall) because they think that oligarchy will cause a world war. While there’s overlap with the concerns on people becoming serfs or re-enslaved, the racism, ableism, and queer/trans antagonism stick out greatly, namely in how some in the article are conflating elite capture of Black Lives Matter and LGBTQIA+ progress with the actual people and grassroots movements that demand our humanity. Plus, many of these people running away are capable of fixing the problems they bemoan.
Meanwhile, you don’t have to like us, but, I wish folks wouldn’t impede on our ability to raise money and for cities to provide reparations, like this Alexandria, VA grant program that was canceled. (Paywalled, but here’s another and a gifted one describing what’s happened here)
This past week was declared Black Women’s History Month, by Feminista Jones. I didn’t realize we were on this same wavelength and an official bridge week between Black and Women’s History Month had been created, but we are certainly in solidarity.
And the same with the Movement for Black Lives declaring this month Black Feminisms Month. Here they break down the reason why we speak of Black feminisms, as we come to the table together, as individuals in solidarity.
On the Shelf, On the Playlist
I finally finished Women Talk Money, the amazing volume on money and wealth with a decolonial, abundance for all lens compiled by Rebbeca Walker, daughter of Alice and feminist and writer in her own right. It is now in the official Black Queer Feminist Urbanist Canon and I encourage you to pick it up and read it, along with We Should All Be Millionaires by Rachel Rodgers and It’s About Damn Time, by one of my closest business mentors, Arlan Hamilton. Especially after reading that link about the conservative version of the apocalypse, those of us who have been marginalized economically in one shape or form, need to understand how to manage money without exploiting our Earth and fellow human beings and creatures.
If you’re having trouble with those direct Bookshop links, go to my Books section on my homepage and you can access the store through that link. You’ll then need to scroll across to each book and click on its cover. And yes, as an affiliate, I do benefit financially, but this is one additional way to support this work.
And because it’s finally streaming, I played Logic’s new record as Les and I drove the George Washington Parkway back from a doctor’s appointment in Bethesda and to our regular pickup at Whole Foods in Navy Yard. (I don’t care what anyone says, anything south and west of 695, but east of South Capitol Street is Navy Yard. Fight me later). I really, really love having area-specific hip-hop for the Mid-Atlantic. I am very intrigued by Logic’s ability to spit rhymes and reboot the audio skit for the next generation of hip-hop and honestly all music period. Also, that cover image y’all!
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 (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 success 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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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. 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 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