“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” –Audre (the) Lorde High blood pressure runs in my family. I have been taking medication to regulate it for six years and I recently started getting intense headaches and migraines that I realized were related to hypertension. Deadline-driven days have become so commonplace in my life that I didn’t recognize or respond to the “stress” anymore. It became normalized. A way of life. The way my life is. This is a problem. And sometimes I won’t sit down (read: take a break from …Read more »
Category Archives: Self-Care
Getting Free & Staying Free
It might seem a bit cliché for an English professor to be all like “Beloved is one of my favorite novels,” but it’s the truth. I love that book with a fiery burning passion. It’s one of those texts that I can always go back to and that never gets old. I can open any page and be moved, or laugh (yeah, there are some jokes in Beloved), or marvel at Morrison’s wondrous prose. The last few times I reread Beloved was because I was teaching it, which was cool. I mean, I love teaching the novel (and Morrison …Read more »
Atlanta Harm Reduction: Prevention as the First Response
Dear CFC Community, There are some places where people are warned never to go, known for violence, drug traffic, and poverty. For those who have not grown up in these environments we are taught to fear and/or condemn people who live there. This is not true of everyone. There are some s/heroes who “see the faces at the bottom of the well,” and offer a rope AND a bucket of food and water. Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC) is the rescue organization where prevention is key and care is unconditional. This week the CFC will spotlight AHRC because they need …Read more »
Category: Activism, Body, Feminism, Self-Care, Uncategorized | Tags: activism, Black feminism, care, community advocacy, health, HIV/AIDS, love, poverty
Not that Kind of Dr.
She has a substance abuse issue, she has anxiety disorder, she had an abortion during the semester (did not tell parents), she experienced sexual abuse by older female family members, she experienced being homeless (on her on) before coming to college, she is escaping a dangerous neighborhood and has lost several friends to gun violence, she has been on anti-depressant medication, she experienced physical abuse by her father, she is having major financial trouble, he is struggling and caring for his mother, he has gone without meals and shelter during college, she has struggled with peers pressuring her about weight, …Read more »
Dear Universe: A Book Talk with Yolo Akili
One of the perks of writing for the CFC is I get to shed light on projects that excite me. Dear Universe is one such project and it comes from my dear friend Yolo Akili. We had the opportunity to talk about his unique book and how it pushes the boundaries of traditional self-help and New age genres. Enjoy! 1. What made you want to write a book with this format of affirmations? My love of affirmation books made me want to put it in this format. I grew up reading books by Iyanla Vanzant, Susan Taylor, Wayne Dyer, Pema …Read more »
Category: LBGT*QIQTSAA, Self-Care, Spirituality | Tags: Affirmation, book, emotional justice, healing, Yolo Akili
Single, Saved, and Sexin: The Redux
One of the most controversial posts we’ve ever had here at the blog was called Single, Saved, and Sexin’: The Gospel of Getting Your Freak On. In that piece, over two years ago, I argued: Sex is a form of creative power. And it is in the literal fact of its creative aspects that we feel alive, fully human, and connected. I think God wants nothing less than this for us, and that requires regular, intimate connections of bodies, or at the very least a very regular, intentional and unapologetic intimate connection with our own body. So sex is …Read more »
thank you: a cfc women’s history month mix
“You are magnificent.” So read the final line of an email I received from the CFC’s Moya Bailey the first Friday of 2012. The subject line was, “Love for you in the new year!” It recalled the summer we became friends and its consequence on her journey. She offered thanks and called me by a name I still shrink from. We met ten Junes earlier in Harlem. We both were attending Kevin Powell’s HipHop Speaks! event at Riverside Church. She wrote I said hello. I remember that being the first of many summer days we sat together. Wee hours talking …Read more »
Category: Feminism, Gender, Girls, Music, Pop Culture, Self-Care, The CFC, Uncategorized | Tags: Mixtape, women's history month
Getting to Happy, or The Myth of Happily Ever After
Happy Endings? “Is this going to have a happy ending?” This question rose from an otherwise quiet classroom from a student who was getting worried since the documentary we were watching seemed to be going awry. The documentary, Home, follows the experience of a working-class single black mother of six children on her journey to buy a home to move out of the projects in Newark, New Jersey. I was a little caught off guard by the question, both because it sprang forth in the middle of the film, out loud and waiting for a response, and also because of …Read more »
Love Lessons: Musiq Soulchild & Tressie Cottom
When I sat down to write the song that came to mind was Musiq Soulchild’s Love. I thought about this perfect ballad because it allows for a much larger vision of love that includes all manner of relationships including the one we have with ourselves. Soulchild sings… Love So many people use your name in vain Love Those who have faith in you sometimes go astray Love Through all the ups and downs the joys and hurts Love For better or worse I still will choose you first I have been reflecting on the love of my sisters, particularly in …Read more »
Category: Feminism, Relationships, Self-Care, The CFC | Tags: love, Musiq Soulchild, self care, Tressie Cottom
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