courageous daughter
your mother sees you shining
hears you still, smiles wide
~Bekezela Mguni
Founder of Black Unicorn Library
Response to love letters #3
What does it smell like?
What does it taste like?
What does it feel like?
What does it look like?
What does it sound like?
What is the embodiment of Love?
Loving the way that I move...
~Leslie Parker
Response to love letters #4
To be in exile leads to understanding how we can be more welcoming; and how not to live within our wounding from inhabiting spaces that recreate non-belonging as part of an environment.
~Leslie & Bekezela
Call for love letters #5
A Palestine Statement
2.15.24
I dedicate breath and spirit to the people of Palestine
Palestine—unceded homelands
Palestine – land of ancient abundance
I move in solidarity with anticolonial struggle from Palestine, to the Congo, to Turtle island.
We are witnessing a genocide, the desecration of life and land across generations---past and future.
For generations Palestinian have endured brutal regimes of occupation and ethnic cleansing and the fall of 2023 marks a terrifying moment of escalation and permanent entrenchment of Israel’s violence against millions.
Palestine has sent love to us here in Minnesota, in 2020, in the form of rubber bullets and tear gas survival tactics – gifts of knowledge passed down during times of occupation
See, we have always been connected. We witness each other’s dead. We rage.
Palestinian people are fighting one of the most colonial, white supremacist, militarized state powers in our modern era.
Each passing day we stand witness to the full-scale destruction of Palestinian life. The bombing of hospitals. The execution of children. The entrapment of millions.
The violence of occupation, dispossession, collective punishment, and starvation are ceaseless.
Beyond a ceasefire, freedom and liberation for Palestine.
The life and liberation of all of us is entangled with global solidarity movements for Palestinain freedom.
Palestine will be free. Until then we are being called upon by Palestinian people to resist colonial rule in each and every way we can---boycotting, divesting, teaching, artmaking, dancing, protesting, writing, striking….
~ Naimah Petigny
LoveRoots
Rooting Love #1:
Ingredients
1 Tbsp spearmint
1 Tbsp lemon balm
1 Tbsp chamomile
1 tsp hawthorn leaf and flower
1 tsp meadowsweet
1 tsp rose hips
Large Teapot
2 Fancy Teacups
Sugar or honey (optional)
~Anonymous
Call for love letters #1
“Oh my, it was so nice to spend time with you. Our time together in a few words, swimming in black, dancing — a love letter in the making.”
~Janera Solomon, Founder of Fieldwork
Call for love letters #3
What does it smell like?
What does it taste like?
What does it feel like?
What does it look like?
What does it sound like?
What is the embodiment of Love?
Loving the way that I move…
What is its magnitude?
Loving my attitude?
What are you putting down
when I wake up?
In the morning
holding you
glowing like the sunshine above my rain,
any ways I love you still just the same.
Even with the scale of their affective quake, shaken awake
with multiple phrases.
taken. us. over.
We always recover,
after all sirens cease,
we hear kettles hiss
to remind us of the wetness from a lover’s kiss.
Above the influence
her epileptic episodes,
implode.
Don't stop,
she speaks in tongues
with the rootwork and magic wand.
No more trauma bonds!
He is the revolutionary to my calm.
Loosen wildly,
loosely,
returning rooted.
My forbidden fruit juice
dripping,
Aim your sight higher.
You'll find her
high
above you and resting beyond
his studied gaze.
Living inside truth they are reborn.
Unto you these words live
signed with love we forgive.
Remembering,
blue magic makes waves
steeped in vastness.
Who follows who?
Moving the way that I move.
Don't you hesitate,
we can't lose,
This too matters.
The pressing
of what we choose.
Tensions stop folding.
No more looking over shoulders.
It's
Your Time
Now
Divine
Sent
To
You
So Into Me
The soul,
losing all logic,
no more control,
gotta get outta that bowl!
Yes, more love
to be
continued…
~Leslie P.
Join Us
Leslie Parker, creating from the intersection of dance, pedagogy, conjuring, experimentation, and activism, kicks off Pillsbury House + Theatre's Makers Series with
LoverRoot.
The solo dance work-in-process explores Black popular culture(s), Hoodoo, and notions of revolution. Parker utilizes poetry collected from Black femmes, sound by DJ DeVante Jackson, and digital media by Leslie Parker and edited by Christian Jensen
Friday February 23, 7:00pm
Saturday February 24, 7:00pm
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Response to love letter #5
Remember.
You, me, we, I n’I seen it too.
It's the way Out,
the way In.
Don't doubt it.
Deep into the cellular memory our worlds,
colliding,
making it anew.
No matter
the sense that it costs you.
~ Leslie & Naimah
Call for love letters #4
How can we as a people collectively increase awareness of and add to the collection of Black love poetry?
Let's create multiple entry points to experiencing love,
For imagining our own keys to the future, igniting a renewal of sensuality,
Cultivating passion for the sake of tomorrow,
Where vulnerability is found within our strength and then translated with our nuanced love languages.
~Leslie & Janera