Amidst a difficult week for all of us, having lost our dear friend Zak, we share the text “We are each other’s medicine” written by Taylor Renee Aldridge and our new friend Jessica Lynne, who will be working with us this month in our 1st Black Feminist Skillsharing Workshop.
Jessica Lynne will be in residency with our organization sharing experiences, skills and knowledge on grant writing and black feminism. To be joined by new friends in difficult moments like this one reminds us to stay together, to talk openly, to turn to each other to heal and find strength to continue our work and struggle.
Zak we wished you were here with us too. And yesterday, in our first meeting, we kind of felt you were. We remembered times we had together, when you would come to our festivals and events, always bringing your friends you would introduce us to, to make us feel we are all together.
Some of us worked with you in Human Library (Ζωντανή Βιβλιοθήκη), struggling to overcome, each of us and collectively, the various stigma’s this society attaches to us when people see us on the street. But we are more than our stigmas.
We remembered when you took us to see a drag show.
We remembered your bright presence at Embros Theater, at Pride.
We remembered when you came to see our “Theater of the Oppressed” performances in which we brought issues like trafficking and racism to social discussion in theaters and neighborhoods. The same neighborhoods where you were so unfairly treated. We will not forget you. We will honor your memory, this month, in this workshop and always. It is difficult to feel joy when loss is so strong, but we know our lives and struggles bring both, and we need and must live them both with all they bring.
Jessica and Taylor remind us through the words of adrienne maree brown that “we are each other’s medicine”
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Welcome Jessica, thank you for joining us and for your care and solidarity.
We will keep you all posted throughout the month about the workshop.
See you all tomorrow, see you tomorrow Zak, on our streets. The streets we shared.
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