RING SHOUT P. DJELI CLARK IN CONVERSATION WITH VICTOR LAVALLE MODERATED BY ED HALL Charis Circle 2020-10-17 | Charis welcomes P. Djeli Clark in conversation with Victor LaValle for a celebration of Clark's dark fantasy historical novella, Ring Shout. Journalist and novelist Ed Hall will moderate the conversation. This event is co-sponsored by the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History.Ring Shout, a dark fantasy historical novella gives a supernatural twist to the Ku Klux Klan's reign of terror.In 1915, The Birth of a Nation cast a spell across America, swelling the Klan's ranks and drinking deep from the darkest thoughts of white folk. All across the nation they ride, spreading fear and violence among the vulnerable. They plan to bring Hell to Earth. But even Ku Kluxes can die.Standing in their way is Maryse Boudreaux and her fellow resistance fighters, a foul-mouthed sharpshooter and a Harlem Hellfighter. Armed with blade, bullet, and bomb, they hunt their hunters and send the Klan's demons straight to Hell. But something awful's brewing in Macon, and the war on Hell is about to heat up.Born in New York and raised mostly in Houston, P. DJÈLÍ CLARK spent the formative years of his life in the homeland of his parents, Trinidad and Tobago. P. Djèlí Clark is the author of the novellas The Black God’s Drums, winner of a 2019 Alex Award from the American Library Association; The Haunting of Tram Car 015; and A Dead Djinn in Cairo. His short story “The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington” (Fireside Fiction) has earned him both a Nebula and Locus award. He is loosely associated with the quarterly FIYAH: A Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction and an infrequent reviewer at Strange Horizons. He currently resides in New England and ruminates on issues of diversity in speculative fiction.Victor LaValle is the author of the short story collection Slapboxing with Jesus, four novels, The Ecstatic, Big Machine, The Devil in Silver, and The Changeling and two novellas, Lucretia and the Kroons and The Ballad of Black Tom. He is also the creator and writer of a comic book Victor LaValle's DESTROYER. He has been the recipient of numerous awards including the World Fantasy Award, British World Fantasy Award, Bram Stoker Award, Whiting Writers' Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, Shirley Jackson Award, American Book Award, and the key to Southeast Queens. He was raised in Queens, New York. He now lives in Washington Heights with his wife and kids. He teaches at Columbia University.Ed Hall: Alabama escapee and lifelong Southerner Edward Austin Hall co-edited the 2013 anthology Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond, which The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction suggested might be “one of the most important sf anthologies of the decade.” Dread Isle is his forthcoming first novel.
Cliterati Open Mic Featuring: Kelsey L. Smoot in celebration of we was bois together Charis Circle 2024-10-18 | Charis and Cliterati pair up to present an inviting and fierce open mic & reading series that celebrates new voices and seasoned veterans alike. Co-hosted by Karen G. and Theresa Davis, all are welcome to come and share their work. If you would like to participate as a reader or performer, all you need to do is arrive by 7:15 pm ET to sign up on the list. If you are a non-acoustic musician and would like to plug your instrument into our sound system, please contact info@chariscircle.org ahead of time to let us know so we can have the right setup for you! There are no genre, style, or form requirements, but please keep your set to under five minutes to allow everyone to have a turn! This month's featured poet is Kelsey L. Smoot in celebration of we was bois together. we was bois together examines identities and belonging through the lenses of Blackness, queerness, and gender non-conforming narratives. The poems act as an homage and an ode to traversing these identities from childhood through adulthood. The collection is a testament to the author's deep bond with their longtime best friend, weaving together shared memories and the evolution of their connection. Central to the narrative is "boihood worldmaking," a term coined by the author to express the collaborative process of shaping their own realities and narratives. Each poem resonates with authenticity, offering a glimpse into a world where resilience, friendship, and self-discovery intertwine to create a powerful narrative of belonging and empowerment.Kelsey L. Smoot (they/them/he/his) is a gender theorist, a committed Southerner, a writer, and a poet. Their work and writings explore the process of identity formation at the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality. Selfhood and cultural constraints—such as masculinity and its associated expectations—coalesce in their writing. Their autoethnographic style has become a lens through which they understand their personal experience traversing the US sociopolitical landscape. Having grown up bicoastal and spending the majority of their adult life in a state of transience, Kels draws from his eclectic life experiences both deep fear and great optimism regarding what people are capable of. This tension is reflected in his published writing which can be found in Barely South Review, The Guardian, HuffPost, Voicemail Poems, The Amistad, and at their website, www.queerinsomniac.me When not writing, Kels can be found performing at The Space (a premiere open-mic based in Kennesaw, Georgia), perusing an antique store, or running the streets with their bois. This is a Charis Circle From Margin to Center Literary Event. The suggested donation is $5, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
52 Weeks to a Sweeter Life for Caregivers, Activists and Helping Professionals: Farzana Doctor Charis Circle 2024-10-18 | Charis welcomes Farzana Doctor in conversation with Dr. B. Nilaja Green for a discussion of 52 Weeks to a Sweeter Life for Caregivers, Activists and Helping Professionals: A Workbook of Emotional Hacks, Self-Care Experiments and Other Good Ideas, a practical guide to self-care and community care, written for helpers--the caregivers, activists, community leaders, mental health and medical professionals who are the first to help others, but the last to seek help themselves.As an activist, community organizer and social worker, Farzana Doctor has preached self-care to hundreds of people struggling with burnout and exhaustion. But for years she couldn't manage to take her own advice.Many other helpers she knew were the same: they knew the signs of burnout, and they understood the science of self-care. Maybe they'd taken workshops on vicarious trauma; maybe they'd even taught them. But still they struggled to escape the cycle of overwork, overwhelm and recovery. 52 Weeks to a Sweeter Life is a workbook that speaks directly to these people--and anyone who struggles to pause, set boundaries and centre their own needs.The workbook contains fifty-two lessons, one for each week of the year. Each week, readers will find a simple new idea and an experiment for trying it out, with deeper dives into the material provided, but every level of participation celebrated. Throughout, Doctor embraces both community care and self-care at the same time, showing readers the overlap between the two.Beautifully written, direct and insightful, this workbook is a gentle and practical guide to a more balanced life, written for those who need it most.Farzana Doctor is a Tkaronto-based author, activist and psychotherapist. She’s written four novels: Stealing Nasreen, Six Metres of Pavement, All Inclusive, and Seven, and a poetry collection, You Still Look The Same. Her new self- and community care workbook for helpers and activists—52 Weeks to a Sweeter Life—has just been released. In 2023, Farzana received the prestigious Freedom To Read Award. Look out for her forthcoming YA novel, The Beauty of Us, in September 2024. Learn more at www.Linktr.ee/farzanadoctor Dr. B. Nilaja Green writes, speaks and engages at the intersections of individual psychological distress and collective sociocultural oppression. As an Atlanta based Licensed Clinical & Community Psychologist, Dr. Green is certified in trauma informed care and delivering specialized culturally responsive trauma treatments to vulnerable populations such as military veterans, Black women, and members of the LGBTQ+ community through her integrative mental health care practice, Standpoint Wellness. She has engaged in several community level initiatives, including collaborating with the mayor of East Point, in Atlanta to create community level conversations addressing, issues of race, class, history and equity. Having made appearances on several podcasts and in print media, Dr. Green strives to share her message of culturally relevant, holistic mental health practice on various platforms. In service to her profession, she supervises, writes, leads workshops and trainings asking clinicians to cultivate their own radical introspective practice and to approach care of clients with greater cultural humility.In addition to her formal training and years of clinical experience, Dr. Green has also incorporated her love of creative writing and journaling into her clinical work. In service to the community, she created an award winning, community writing group for healers that ran for four years in the Atlanta area, out of which she has developed The Radical Introspection Method for Therapists and trainees. As a foundation for her career, Dr. Green received a B.A. in English & Psychology from Georgetown University and her doctoral degree in clinical and community psychology from Georgia State University. She completed her internship and postdoctoral training at Yale University, Department of Psychiatry in New Haven, CT. She has been featured in the AJC and made appearances in the Huffington Post and Teen Vogue as well as on several podcasts addressing trauma, racial justice and the Strong Black woman paradigm. She is the creator of Introspective Journal, an innovative tool to help therapists take better care of themselves, deepen self-awareness and create masterful therapy. In addition to managing her practice, she holds an adjunct professor role at Emory University Rollins School of Public Health. She currently lives in Atlanta with her spouse and their stubborn older dog, Bean and new puppy JB. She can be reached here: drbnilaja@standpointwellness.com; www.standpointwellness.com
Meet Me There: Featuring I want to start by saying by Samuel Ace Charis Circle 2024-10-11 | "Meet Me There" is a monthly intergenerational poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction experience curated by trans/genderqueer poet and sound artist Samuel Ace. Writers exploring genre and gender boundaries will be a special focus of this series. This event takes place on the second Thursday of each month at 7:30 pm ET. Some months our readings will take place at Charis Books with an option to watch virtually, and some months the event will be fully virtual, so be sure to check the listing!October's featured poet is extra special! We are celebrating "Meet Me There" host Samuel Ace and his newest collection, I want to start by saying. Samuel Ace’s I want to start by saying is a constellation of memory, personal and place-based histories, dailiness, repetition, art-making, and desire.Featured PoetAce’s insistent titular phrase acts as drone and anchor—invocation and prayer—propelling the peripatetic narrator from Cleveland to New York to Tucson, western Massachusetts to Atlanta and back again, line by line. Part essay, part memoir, and part collage, Ace explores the difficulties of romance, childhood, betrayal, and writing, establishing each sentence as a location to begin anew; to utter, accrete, and break again.Samuel Ace is a trans/genderqueer writer and sound artist. His latest books are I want to start by saying (Cleveland State University Poetry Center 2024), Our Weather Our Sea (Black Radish 2019), and Meet Me There: Normal Sex & Home in three days. Don’t wash. (Belladonna* 2019). Ace is the recipient of the Astraea Lesbian Writer Award and the Firecracker Alternative Book Award in Poetry, as well as a repeat finalist for both the Lambda Literary Award and the National Poetry Series. Recent work can be found in Personal Best: Makers on Their Poems that Matter Most, Essential Queer Voices of U.S. Poetry, Fence, BathHouse, The Texas Review, Poetry, We Want it All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetry, Best American Experimental Poetry, and many other journals and anthologies. Poet Friends Andrea Abi-Karam is a trans, SWANA, punk poet-performer cyborg. They are the author of EXTRATRANSMISSION (Kelsey Street Press, 2019), Villainy (Nightboat Books, Sept 2021), and with Kay Gabriel, they co-edited We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics (Nightboat Books, 2020). They are currently writing a poet's novel about crushes. Maura M.M. is a dyke ritual poet and performer from the headwaters of the Mississippi in Bemidji, MN. Their poetry interrogates the pressures between sleep obsession and dyke desire within the context of US gun violence and arms of colonialism. Wheatpasting informs her practice by bringing guerrilla poetry to public space as acts of queer reclamation and visual disruption. They curate the B HOT READ A POEM reading series to uplift local queer poets. Her work appears in Terse Journal, The Texas Review, and South Broadway Press, aside from her chapbook Only Interested in Everything by Meekling Press. Maura holds an MFA in writing and poetics from Naropa’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics where they taught research-based writing until recently relocating to Atlanta. Saretta Morgan was born in Appalachia and raised on military installations. Her work considers the ecologies and intimacies that materialize in the shadows of U.S. militarization. From 2018-2023 she lived between the Sonoran and Mohave Deserts where she organized with the grassroots humanitarian aid organization No More Deaths, as well as several community-based initiatives that centered wellness for BIPOC and immigrant communities. Her first full-length book of poems, Alt-Nature (Coffee House Press, 2024), emerged from those experiences. She is also the author of the chapbooks Feeling Upon Arrival (2018) and room for a counter interior (2017). More at sarettamorgan.com.
New Mistakes: Clement Goldberg in conversation with Gina Abelkop Charis Circle 2024-10-08 | Charis welcomes Clement Goldberg in conversation with Gina Abelkop for a celebration of New Mistakes. Classic human follies of desire and ambition foreground a revelatory awakening the planet needs.UFOs in formation in the sky. Vegetation—from cranky houseplants to wise old conifers—telepathically transmit their complaints. A cat gone viral rebels against her influencer caretaker. In California, interconnected strangers find one another, drawn by messy threads of sex and art, their lives falling apart as an extraordinary new reality arises.In this debut novel by Clement Goldberg, classic human follies of desire and ambition foreground a revelatory awakening the planet needs. By turns tender and hilarious, visionary and perceptive, New Mistakes wittily shows us how we live today, and how we might, astonishingly, live tomorrow.CLEMENT GOLDBERG is an award-winning Multidisciplinary Artist, Writer, Director and Animator who is non-binary trans and queer. They work across disciplines to create satirical yet hopeful projects that center collective grief rooted in climate crisis, cultural erasure and extinction. Clement’s debut novel New Mistakes is forthcoming from DOPAMINE Press / Semiotext(e) September 2024. Their feature film project Let Me Let You Go received a 2022 Creative Capital Award.Gina Abelkop is the author of the poetry collections I Eat Cannibals (co.im.press 2015) and Darling Beastlettes (Apostrophe Books 2012). Her writing has appeared in The Weird Sister Collection, Fence, and Lavender Review, amongst others. She is currently at work on a novel titled Strawberry World.The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate or in person at the event.
Medical Gaslighting: How to Get the Care You Deserve in a System that Makes You Fight for Your Life Charis Circle 2024-10-08 | Charis welcomes Ilana Jacqueline in conversation with medical professionals Dr. Jenaya Calderilla and Dr. Alopi Patel for a discussion of Medical Gaslighting: How to Get the Care You Deserve in a System that Makes You Fight for Your Life. This practical, realistic guide is designed to help women fight medical bias and neglect in order to get the care they need—and deserve.For women, the possibility of experiencing medical gaslighting—having a health care provider dismiss or ignore their concerns without considering appropriate testing or creating a treatment plan—has always been a very real and present danger, with consequences ranging from self-doubt and emotional stress to delayed diagnosis and death. And being a woman of color, transgender, or disabled only compounds the risk.Today, more women are aware of medical gaslighting than ever—but awareness isn’t enough. In Medical Gaslighting, you’ll equip yourself with the tools you need to be fully heard at every step of the process, including:Mastering the ability to request, revise, and read your electronic medical records so you and your medical team are on the same page.Responding effectively when you recognize the signs, language, and scenarios associated with medical gaslightingGive yourself a fighting chance against common medical bias by being mindful of how you present yourself as a patient. With expert advice and stories from women across the medical spectrum who fought medical gaslighting and lived to tell their stories, patient advocate (and rare disease patient), Ilana Jacqueline provides a combat guide for increasing your confidence—and success—when advocating for your health.You might have to get naked in the exam room, but you don’t have to walk in unarmed. Medical Gaslighting is your guide to taking control of your healthcare.Ilana Jacqueline is a speaker, author, patient, and advocacy strategist whose journey to a rare disease diagnosis forced her to face a lifetime of medical gaslighting. While her personal experience as a patient has lent her compassion for what all women are subject to in the exam room, it is her experience as a patient advocate that opened her eyes to the reality that no matter how rare or common the condition may be, it often takes women longer to be heard by the medical community. She is the author of Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness and an educator for patients in all stages of their journey on how to have meaningful and collaborative conversations with their care teams. Her work across social media, particularly in the area of medical gaslighting, has helped to empower patients to be an active participant in their own care.Jenaya Calderilla, DO, is a board-certified physician who, after many years of clinical practice, decided to dedicate her time to education and advocacy full time. As a primary care physician, Dr. Calderilla provides preventive care and treatment of acute and chronic diseases and injuries for people of all ages. She has a diverse health care background in emergency medicine, hospital medicine, skilled nursing facility care, hospice care, complex wound care and outpatient primary care. Dr. Calderilla is passionate about shared decision-making and strives to ensure that every patient leaves the office feeling educated and empowered. She is also very active on social media providing health education and patient advocacy resources to the public. Her advocacy has been a lifeline for patients who are struggling to find compassion and empowerment in the American healthcare system.Dr. Alopi M Patel is a double board certified anesthesiologist and interventional pain physician. She attended New Jersey Medical School at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She specializes in treating male and female pelvic pain. She is also certified in lifestyle medicine by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM). Dr. Patel is an accomplished women's health advocate known for her contributions not only in patient advocacy but also supporting women in the workplace. She has worked with national organizations to create awareness and find solutions to supporting women's health conditions in the workplace from menstruation to menopause. Dr. Patel launched a podcast called The Hurt by The Female Pain Docs alongside her friend and colleague, Dr. Meera Kirpekar. The podcast is meant to empower and educate patients regarding their health on topics within anesthesiology, pain medicine and lifestyle medicine. As a faculty member, Dr. Patel is actively engaged in clinical research projects and mentorship activities. She has given lectures nationally and has received awards for her contributions to the field.
By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land Rebecca Nagle Charis Circle 2024-09-30 | Charis welcomes Rebecca Nagle in conversation with Kaitlin Curtice for a discussion of By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land, a powerful work of reportage and American history that braids the story of the forced removal of Native Americans onto treaty lands in the nation’s earliest days, and a small-town murder in the ‘90s that led to a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming Native rights to that land over a century later.Before 2020, American Indian reservations made up roughly 55 million acres of land in the United States. Nearly 200 million acres are reserved for National Forests—in the emergence of this great nation, our government set aside more land for trees than for Indigenous peoples. That changed on July 9, 2020, when a high-profile Supreme Court case—which originated with a small-town murder two decades earlier—affirmed the reservation of Muscogee Nation. The ruling resulted in the largest restoration of tribal land in U.S. history, merely because the Court chose to follow the law.In the 1830s Muscogee people were rounded by the US military at gunpoint and forced into exile halfway across the continent. At the time, they were promised this new land would be theirs for as long as the grass grew and the waters ran. But that promise was not kept. When Oklahoma was create on top of their land, the new state claimed their reservation no longer existed. Over a century later, when a Muscogee citizen was sentenced to death for murdering another Muscogee citizen, his defense attorneys argued the murder occurred on the reservation of his tribe, and therefore Oklahoma didn’t have the jurisdiction to execute him. Oklahoma argued that reservation no longer existed. In the summer of 2020, the Supreme Court said: no more; a ruling that would ultimately underpin multiple reservations covering half the land in Oklahoma, including Nagle’s own Cherokee Nation. Here Rebecca Nagle tells the story of the generations-long fight for tribal land and sovereignty in Eastern Oklahoma. By chronicling both the contemporary legal battle and historic acts of Indigenous resistance, By the Fire We Carry stands as a landmark work of American history. The story it tells exposes both the wrongs that our nation has committed in its long history of greed, corruption and lawlessness, and the Native battle for the right to be here that has shaped our country. Rebecca Nagle is an award-winning reporter, writer, and citizen of Cherokee Nation. She is the creator and host of Crooked Media’s chart-topping podcast This Land. Her work has been featured in The Atlantic, the Washington Post, the Guardian, USA Today, Teen Vogue, the Huffington Post, among other outlets. Nagle lives in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.Kaitlin Curtice is an award-winning author, poet-storyteller, and public speaker. As an enrolled citizen of the Potawatomi nation, Kaitlin writes on the intersections of spirituality and identity and how that shifts throughout our lives. She also speaks on these topics to diverse audiences who are interested in truth-telling and healing.
Parallels from the Parables: Lessons from Octavia E. Butler for Today with Dr. Susana Morris Charis Circle 2024-09-27 | Charis welcomes Dr. Susana Morris for a teach-in on the prophetic wisdom of Octavia Butler. Dr. Susana Morris is the former Charis Circle board chair, an Associate Professor of Literature, Media, and Communication at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the author of the forthcoming biography of Octavia Butler: Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler.Together she will help us explore why so many people have found comfort in Butler's visions of the future and of other worlds even when they are not idyllic. Now that we are living in the very time of Parable of the Sower, what can we learn from the protagonist, Lauren Olamina's, journey to a world beyond Earth? What does it mean to "take root among the stars," and what did Butler have planned for her third book in the series which was not finished at the time of her death? Dr. Morris will answer your questions and catch you up on your Butler knowledge so you can be in the know as we look forward to our 'Take Root Among the Stars" themed birthday celebration on Saturday, November 2nd! For more details about our celebration visit: charisbooksandmore.com/charis-turns-50Susana Morris is Associate Professor of Literature, Media, and Communication at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She has been an Anschutz Distinguished Fellow at Princeton University and was most recently the Norman Freeling Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan. She is the author of Close Kin and Distant Relatives: The Paradox of Respectability in Black Women’s Literature (UVA 2014), co-editor, with Brittney C. Cooper and Robin M. Boylorn, of The Crunk Feminist Collection (Feminist Press 2017), and co-author, with Brittney C. Cooper and Chanel Craft Tanner, of the young adult handbook, Feminist AF: The Guide to Crushing Girlhood (Norton 2021). She is the co-founder of The Crunk Feminist Collective and has written for Gawker, Long Reads, Cosmopolitan.com and Ebony.com, and has also been featured on NPR, the BBC, Essence magazine, and the New York Times. She is currently at work on a cultural biography of Octavia Butler, Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler.The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate or in person at the event.
Monogamy? in This Economy?: Finances, Childrearing, and Other Practical Concerns of Polyamory Charis Circle 2024-09-27 | Charis welcomes Laura Boyle in conversation with Libby Sinback for a discussion of Monogamy? in This Economy?: Finances, Childrearing, and Other Practical Concerns of Polyamory--Laura Boyle. More and more queer and not-so-queer partners are taking the plunge and deciding to live and parent together. But wait - who lives with who? How do you navigate parenting children? How do you set up your home/finances/bathrooms? Laura Boyle, having interviewed over four hundred people living in every polyamorous configuration under the sun - has answers for you. Forget 101s on jealousy and New Relationship Energy - this wise and pragmatic guide gets into the nitty gritty of living in polyamorous households long-term.Laura Boyle is a relationship coach, educator, and the voice behind the blog at readyforpolyamory.com and the accompanying podcast. She has been an expert voice on the topics of polyamory and parenting for the Boston Globe, the Economist, Parents Magazine, and Cosmopolitan, as well as being polyamorous herself for nearly 20 years. Her coaching practice is largely focused on helping non-monogamous folks through major life transitions, and she's based in New Haven, CT.Libby Sinback is a relationship coach, educator, and host of the podcast, Making Polyamory Work. She helps people who want to live and love outside the status quo break out of the harmful relationship patterns that are holding them back from nourishing, authentic, boundless love in their life. Libby believes love is why we are here and how we heal.The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate or in person the night of the event.
Come by Here: A Memoir in Essays from Georgias Geechee Coast Neesha Powell-Ingabire Charis Circle 2024-09-27 | Charis welcomes Neesha Powell-Ingabire in conversation with K Toyin Agbebiyi for a discussion of Come by Here: A Memoir in Essays from Georgia's Geechee Coast. In this powerful debut memoir, Neesha Powell-Ingabire chips away at coastal Georgia's facade of beaches and golden marshes to recover undertold Black history alongside personal and family stories.In May of 2020, Neesha Powell-Ingabire's hometown became infamous after a viral video spread of white vigilantes killing a Black man named Ahmaud Arbery. The small coastal city of Brunswick, Georgia became synonymous with this tragedy, which, along with the police murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, spurred an international movement that summer to end white supremacy.Neesha Powell-Ingabire, a millennial journalist, essayist, and organizer, grew up in Brunswick feeling alienated as a Black queer and disabled girl in a fraught racial and political environment. Come By Here: A Memoir in Essays from Georgia's Geechee Coast traces the genealogy of systemic racial violence while paying homage to the area's long history of Black resistance and culture keeping. Powell-Ingabire probes her personal connection to past and present: the victorious campaign to remove Brunswick's Confederate monument out of a public park, modern echoes of ancestral practices such as farming, fishing, and basket weaving, the fight for Geechee land in Sapelo Island, and the mass suicide of the Igbo people, who drowned themselves in Dunbar Creek rather than be enslaved.In Come By Here, Neesha Powell-Ingabire reckons with their home's collective history and their own history as a truth-telling exercise in line with Audre Lorde's advice: "It is better to speak."Neesha Powell-Ingabire (she & they) is a coastal Georgia-born-and-raised movement journalist, essayist, and community & cultural organizer living in Atlanta/traditional Muscogee territory. She’s the director of popular education at Press On, a Southern movement media collective.Neesha reports on the justice movements of the Black, trans, queer, and Southern communities to which she belongs and writes essays to recover her own history and the histories of her ancestors and their ancestral homes. Her writings have been published in various online and print publications, including Harper’s Bazaar, Oxford American, Scalawag, and VICE. Her forthcoming debut book, Come By Here: A Memoir in Essays from Georgia’s Geechee Coast (out on September 24 from Hub City Press), chips away at coastal Georgia’s facade of beaches and golden marshes to recover undertold Black history alongside personal and family stories.K Adetoyin (Toyin) Agbebiyi is a Black disabled lesbian, organizer, writer, and strategist from Kennesaw, Georgia. The majority of K’s work revolves around political education, writing, and organizing strategy in regards to ending the prison industrial complex. K has given trainings and lectures at universities such as Yale, Columbia, the University of Michigan, the University of Iowa, and the University of Illinois- Chicago Medical School. K’s writing has been featured on Rewire News, WearYourVoice and also in MoMA PS1. They’ve also been featured in magazines such as BITCH and Glamour. In 2020, they were chosen for the BITCH 50 list. K currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia. When they are not working and organizing, they enjoy spending time reading, exploring outside, and hanging out with their friends. To learn more about K visit their site https://kagbebiyi.cargo.site/
78 Acts of Liberation by Lane Smith and The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy Charis Circle 2024-09-23 | Charis welcomes Lane Smith and Margaret Killjoy for a discussion of their books 78 Acts of Liberation: Tarot to Transform Our World and The Sapling Cage.About 78 Acts of Liberation: A guide to reading Tarot as a spark for community engagement and social change. The cards in the Tarot deck offer seventy-eight invitations for change, not only in our inner life, but beyond. Lane Smith invites us to read each card with an eye toward the collective—how we can contribute to liberation in the world.About Lane Smith: Lane Smith has over 20 years of experience as a Tarot reader, organizer, and activist. They are the editor of the Tarot & Politics zine and a member of the Solidarity Tarot group in Baltimore. With two master’s degrees—one in social work, one in humanities and social thought—they have been involved in public health supporting harm reduction, the movement that helped end the death penalty in Maryland, and more. Smith lives in Baltimore, Maryland. About The Sapling Cage: In the gripping first novel in the Daughters of the Empty Throne trilogy, author Margaret Killjoy spins a tale of earth magic, power struggle, and self-invention in an own-voices story of trans witchcraft.About Margaret Killjoy: Margaret Killjoy (she/they) is a transfeminine author, musician, and podcaster. She is the author of The Sapling Cage (Feminist Press, September 2024) and other books including The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion, A Country of Ghosts, We Won’t Be Here Tomorrow, and Escape from Incel Island. She is the host of the radical history podcast Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff and the individual and community preparedness podcast Live Like the World is Dying. She is the principal songwriter for the atmospheric black metal band Feminazgûl. She lives in West Virginia.The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate
Black Feminist Writing: A Practical Guide to Publishing Academic Books A Roundtable Charis Circle 2024-09-23 | Charis welcomes author Dr. Stephanie Y. Evans for a roundtable discussion of her book, Black Feminist Writing: A Practical Guide to Publishing Academic Books with Black feminist scholars Dr. Jayme Canty, Rosalynne Duff, Parker Foster, and Dr. Kisha Braithwaite. Together they will discuss the rich history of Black feminist writing to help scholars manage the stress of writing and publishing academic books.About the AuthorDr. Stephanie Y. Evans is a Professor of Black Women's Studies in the Institute for Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) and affiliate faculty of Africana Studies (AAS) at Georgia State University. She served twelve consecutive years as department chair at Georgia State University, Clark Atlanta University, and University of Florida. Professor Evans has sustained a research interest in Black women's intellectual history for over two decades. She is author of four academic books, including Black Women in the Ivory Tower, 1850-1954: An Intellectual History (UF Press, 2007), Black Women’s Yoga History: Memoirs of Inner Peace (SUNY Press, 2021), and Black Feminist Writing: A Practical Guide to Publishing Academic Books (SUNY Press, 2024). She is also co-editor of five books including Black Women’s Mental Health: Balancing Strength and Vulnerability( SUNY Press, 2017). Her research is rooted in educational history but has evolved to include mental health and wellness as a way to address systemic stressors of being department chair. She began studying Black women’s wellness in 2013 and expanded her research on memoirs from investigating “the life of the mind” to practicing the life of the mind, body, and spirit. In her writing, teaching, and speaking, she works to share how Black women elders—especially educators—have navigated the relentless demands of academe. About the Panelists Dr. Jayme Canty (she/her) is a humanities scholar and oral history scholar who amplifies marginalized voices in her research, teaching, and activist service. She is an intersectional humanities scholar-activist with a focus on the experiences of Black women and Black queer persons living in or from the American South. Her work intends to humanize the experiences of marginalized Southern Black persons. Her research focuses on the collective narrative of how the American South shapes and molds the experiences of Southern Black queer lesbian women and persons. She has presented at several conferences about her research, such as Women’s Gender, and Sexuality Studies South (WGS South), National Council of Black Studies (NCBS), and National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA). In 2022, she was appointed as a board member of WGS South, working as the Black Indigenous Persons of Color (BIPOC) Caucus chair. Her current research chronicles the collective narrative of Southern Black queer lesbian women and gender non-conforming persons, uncovering how the American (US) South, particularly the Christian Black Church, shapes and molds their lived experiences. Her forthcoming manuscript, Snapping Beans: Voices of a Black Queer Lesbian South, outlines the ways the South informs their intersectional identities. She is currently a professor at her alma mater, Clark Atlanta University.Rosalynne Duff (She/ Her/ Hers) is an international educator, leader, and healer with over a decade of experience in urban education. Her research centers on Black Women's liberatory practices and transformational pedagogy. She is a doctoral student of Teaching and Learning at Georgia State University, examining Teaching and Teacher Education, developing a framework for critical contemplative pedagogy, an integration approach to educational equity, SEL, and academics. Parker Foster is a Research Associate with the Center for Policy, Research, and Evaluation at the NYU Metro Center. She conducts research on various projects related to educational equity. Additionally, Parker is currently a third year Doctoral student in Georgia State University’s Educational Policy Studies Program utilizing qualitative research to explore the impact of race and gender on the education of young people, with a focus on Black girls. Parker has a Masters in Educational Policy Studies from Teachers College, Columbia University and a Bachelors from Howard University.Kisha Braithwaite, PhD, MSCR is a counseling psychologist and Fellow of the American Psychological Association. She is the Poussaint-Satcher Endowed Chair in Mental Health, and Associate Director of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM). Also, at MSM Dr. Braithwaite is Professor and Director of Research & Scholarship for the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, and Professor in the Department of Community Health & Preventive Medicine.
Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine by Hannah Moushabeck and In This Family by Shelly Anand! Charis Circle 2024-09-23 | This is a conversation geared towards adults who are interested in how children's authors and publishers are navigating the politics of writing and publishing in a time of solidarity with Palestine. This portion of the conversation will be moderated by educator and author, Gayatri Sethi. This event is co-sponsored by the Refaat Mobile Library, a traveling volunteer-run liberation library in Atlanta created in honor of Palestinian poet & professor Refaat Alareer. About the participants:Shelly Anand is the author of the acclaimed picture book Laxmi’s Mooch, which was featured on the Today show, NBC News, and in Glamour magazine. Shelly is also an immigrant and labor rights attorney based in Atlanta, Georgia. She received her BA from Wellesley College and her JD from the University of North Carolina School of Law at Chapel Hill. She lives in Georgia with her fabulous husband and two adorable but also naughty children.Hannah Moushabeck is a second-generation Palestinian American author, editor, and book marketer who was raised in a family of publishers and booksellers in Western Massachusetts and England. Born in Brooklyn into Interlink Publishing, a family-run independent publishing house, she learned the power of literature at a young age. She is the author of Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine (Chronicle Books, March 2023). She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts on the homelands of the Pocumtuc and Nipmuc Nations.Gayatri Sethi (PhD) is an educator, writer, and independent consultant. She teaches and writes about Social Justice, Global Studies, and Comparative Education. Born in Tanzania and raised in Botswana, she is of Punjabi descent, multilingual, and polycultural. She reflects on these lifelong experiences of identity, immigration, and belonging in her debut non-fiction book titled Unbelonging.
Cliterati Open Mic Featuring: Trinity Faith in celebration of Brown Girl Almighty Charis Circle 2024-09-23 | Charis and Cliterati pair up to present an inviting and fierce open mic & reading series that celebrates new voices and seasoned veterans alike. Co-hosted by Karen G. and Theresa Davis, all are welcome to come and share their work. If you would like to participate as a reader or performer, all you need to do is arrive by 7:15 pm ET to sign up on the list. If you are a non-acoustic musician and would like to plug your instrument into our sound system, please contact info@chariscircle.org ahead of time to let us know so we can have the right setup for you! There are no genre, style, or form requirements, but please keep your set to under five minutes to allow everyone to have a turn! This month's featured poet is Trinity Faith in celebration of Brown Girl Almighty. Brown Girl Almighty is a transformative collection of poetry that illustrates the evolution of a woman from a girl. This powerful anthology unfolds twenty-three years of growth, resilience, and self-discovery. By honoring the past, may we progress into the future.Trinity is a poet, YouTuber, and holistic healer from Atlanta, Georgia. She received her education at North Carolina A&T State University, where she reigned as the poet laureate of the 2019 - 2020 school year. Her passion for creating community has inspired a string of events, ceremonies, and spiritual retreats all around the world. She finds joy in connecting with others and helping them see the world in a new way. In 2024, she achieved her lifelong dream of publishing her poetry book, Brown Girl Almighty.
An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children: Jamaica Kincaid with Tiphanie Yanique Charis Circle 2024-09-16 | Charis and Auburn Avenue Research Library welcome Jamaica Kincaid in conversation with Tiphanie Yanique for a celebration of An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children, a unique collaboration from two of America’s leading artists that explores the fascinating and hidden history of the plant world.In this witty, deeply original book, the renowned novelist Jamaica Kincaid offers an ABC of the plants that define our world and reveals the often brutal history behind them.Kara Walker, one of America’s greatest visual artists, illustrates each entry with provocative, brilliant, enthralling, many-layered watercolors.There has never been a book like An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children—so inventive, surprising, and telling about what our gardens reveal.Jamaica Kincaid was born in St. John’s, Antigua. Her books include At the Bottom of the River, Annie John, Lucy, The Autobiography of My Mother, My Brother, Mr. Potter, and See Now Then. She teaches at Harvard University and lives in Vermont. Tiphanie Yanique is the author of the award-winning novels Land of Love and Drowning and Monster in the Middle, as well as the poetry collection Wife. Winner of the 2014 Center for Fiction First Novel award, and a National Book Foundation 5 under 35 honoree, she has also received a Rona Jaffe Award and a Fulbright scholarship. Her short fiction has been published in The New Yorker and anthologized in Best American Short Stories 2020. Originally from the Virgin Islands, she now lives in Atlanta, where she is a professor at Emory University. By existing at the intersection of creative expression and the Black experience and accepting the guidance of his ancestors, he creates, authors, and magnifies the truth and depth of Blackness. From loose sketches and tight lines to blocks of color and nuances of mixed media, his art manifests in visual expressions to the questions, “What came before?” and “What truth must be told?”
Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War Charis Circle 2024-09-16 | Charis welcomes Dr. Edda Fields-Black for a discussion of Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War. The story of the Combahee River Raid, one of Harriet Tubman's most extraordinary accomplishments, based on original documents and written by a descendant of one of the participants. Most Americans know of Harriet Tubman's legendary life: escaping enslavement in 1849, she led more than 60 others out of bondage via the Underground Railroad, gave instructions on getting to freedom to scores more, and went on to live a lifetime fighting for change. Yet the many biographies, children's books, and films about Tubman omit a crucial chapter: during the Civil War, hired by the Union Army, she ventured into the heart of slave territory--Beaufort, South Carolina--to live, work, and gather intelligence for a daring raid up the Combahee River to attack the major plantations of Rice Country, the breadbasket of the Confederacy. Edda L. Fields-Black--herself a descendent of one of the participants in the raid--shows how Tubman commanded a ring of spies, scouts, and pilots and participated in military expeditions behind Confederate lines. On June 2, 1863, Tubman and her crew piloted two regiments of Black US Army soldiers, the Second South Carolina Volunteers, and their white commanders up coastal South Carolina's Combahee River in three gunboats. In a matter of hours, they torched eight rice plantations and liberated 730 people, people whose Lowcountry Creole language and culture Tubman could not even understand. Black men who had liberated themselves from bondage on South Carolina's Sea Island cotton plantations after the Battle of Port Royal in November 1861 enlisted in the Second South Carolina Volunteers and risked their lives in the effort. Using previous unexamined documents, including Tubman's US Civil War Pension File, bills of sale, wills, marriage settlements, and estate papers from planters' families, Fields-Black brings to life intergenerational, extended enslaved families, neighbors, praise-house members, and sweethearts forced to work in South Carolina's deadly tidal rice swamps, sold, and separated during the antebellum period. When Tubman and the gunboats arrived and blew their steam whistles, many of those people clambered aboard, sailed to freedom, and were eventually reunited with their families. The able-bodied Black men freed in the Combahee River Raid enlisted in the Second South Carolina Volunteers and fought behind Confederate lines for the freedom of others still enslaved not just in South Carolina but Georgia and Florida. After the war, many returned to the same rice plantations from which they had escaped, purchased land, married, and buried each other. These formerly enslaved peoples on the Sea Island indigo and cotton plantations, together with those in the semi-urban port cities of Charleston, Beaufort, and Savannah, and on rice plantations in the coastal plains, created the distinctly American Gullah Geechee dialect, culture, and identity--perhaps the most significant legacy of Harriet Tubman's Combahee River Raid. Dr. Edda L. Fields-Black teaches history at Carnegie Mellon University and has written extensively about the history of West African rice farmers, including in such works as Deep Roots: Rice Farmers in West Africa and the African Diaspora. She was a co-editor of Rice: Global Networks and New Histories, which was selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title. Fields-Black has served as a consultant for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture's permanent exhibit, "Rice Fields in the Low Country of South Carolina." She is the executive producer and librettist of "Unburied, Unmourned, Unmarked: Requiem for Rice," a widely performed original contemporary classical work by celebrated composer John Wineglass.Fields-Black is a descendent of Africans enslaved on rice plantations in Colleton County, South Carolina; her great great-great grandfather fought in the Combahee River Raid in June 1863. Her determination to illuminate the riches of the Gullah dialect, and to reclaim Gullah Geechee history and culture, has taken her to the rice fields of South Carolina and Georgia to those of Sierra Leone and Republic of Guinea in West Africa.
Meet Me There: Featuring Joy Ladin and Oliver Baez Bendorf Charis Circle 2024-09-16 | "Meet Me There" is a monthly intergenerational poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction experience curated by trans/genderqueer poet and sound artist Samuel Ace. Writers exploring genre and gender boundaries will be a special focus of this series. This event takes place on the second Thursday of each month at 7:30pm ET. Some months our readings will take place at Charis Books with an option to watch virtually, and some months the event will be fully virtual, so be sure to check the listing! September's featured poets are Joy Ladin and Oliver Baez Bendorf in celebration of their books, Family: Poems, Once Out of Nature: Selected Essays on the Transformation of Gender, and Consider the Rooster. Featured Poet Joy Ladin is the author of eleven poetry collections, including the brand-new Family from Persea; Shekhinah Speaks; National Jewish Book Award winner The Book of Anna, and Lambda Literary Award finalists Impersonation (revised and reissued by Double Back) and Transmigration. Persea is simultaneously publishing her third book of creative non-fiction, Once Out of Nature: Selected Essays About the Transformation of Gender, which follows her memoir of gender transition, Through the Door of Life, and groundbreaking work of trans theology, The Soul of the Stranger. Her work has been recognized with a National Endowment of the Arts fellowship and a Fulbright Scholarship, among other honors. Her work is available at www.joyladin.com. Joy Ladin's most autobiographical and socially engaged collection to date, Family is an intimate exploration of private and public loss, resilience and love. This compassionate, constructive volume, Once Out of Nature: Selected Essays on the Transformation of Gender, by renowned author Joy Ladin collects eleven essays written between 2008, on the cusp of what Time called America's “transgender tipping point,” and 2021, as anti-trans laws began metastasizing around America. Featured PoetOliver Baez Bendorf is the author of Consider the Rooster, forthcoming October 1, 2024, and two previous collections of poems: Advantages of Being Evergreen and The Spectral Wilderness. His chapbook, The Gospel According to X, was selected for the Rane Arroyo Chapbook Series. His poems have circulated in publications like American Poetry Review, BOMB, The Nation, and Yale Review, and anthologies including Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics and Latino Poetry: A New Anthology. His work has been recognized with a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and a Publishing Triangle Award. Born and raised in Iowa and now living along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, he is a CantoMundo fellow and teaches in the MFA program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Consider the Rooster serves as an ode to a rooster's crow, a catalyst for awakening, both literally and figuratively.Amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic, the aftermath of George Floyd's murder by police, and the resulting upsurge in reactionary right-wing militia violence, a neighbor in Kalamazoo, Michigan threatens to call the police after discovering the author's pet rooster. The rooster sounds the alarm and our author wakes to revolutionary transformation. An ecological consciousness embedded in these verses invites readers to acknowledge their place in a web of relations. Oliver Baez Bendorf's voice resounds through liminal spaces, at dusk and dawn, across personal meditations and wider cultural awakenings to form a collection overflowing with freedom, rebellion, mischief, and song. Host PoetSamuel Ace is a trans/genderqueer poet and sound artist. His most recent books are Our Weather Our Sea (Black Radish), Meet MeThere: Normal Sex & Home in three days. Don’t wash. (Belladonna* Germinal Texts), and the chapbook What started / this mess (above/ground press). Ace is the recipient of the Astraea Lesbian Writer Award and the Firecracker Alternative Book Award in Poetry, as well as a repeat finalist for both the Lambda Literary Award and the National Poetry Series. Recent work can be found in ex-Puritan, POETRY, We Want it All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetry, PEN America, Best American Experimental Poetry, and many other journals and anthologies. A book-length poetic essay, I Want to Start by Saying, is forthcoming from the Cleveland State University Poetry Center (2024).
Adventurous Adeline and the Back to School Party Mary Fashik in conversation with Anna Cechony Charis Circle 2024-09-16 | Charis welcomes Mary Fashik in conversation with Anna Cechony for a celebration of Adventurous Adeline and the Back to School Party. In this first installment of the Adventurous Adeline series, readers will have fun following STEM-enthusiast Adeline and her best friend, Maya, as they seek out solutions for accessibility issues, while also teaching young readers about the importance of making spaces enjoyable for all community members. This event is co-sponsored by New Disabled South, whose mission is to improve the lives of disabled people and build strong disability justice and rights movements in the South.When Adeline and her best friend, Maya, are invited to a back-to-school party, the two girls put their heads together in an inspiring fusion of Adeline's robotics skills and Maya's creativity.Together, they set out to design a chair that could solve any accessibility issues, a chair that would not only make Adeline's life easier but also help her feel included at the party.The question looms: Will Adeline’s invention solve the issue of accessibility, or is it up to others to find a solution so she isn’t left on the sidelines?In this heartwarming early reader chapter book, children will discover the power of friendship, innovation, and the joy of tackling obstacles together.Mary Fashik (she/her) is a transnational, transracial adoptee, born in Lebanon and a retired teacher who emphasized the importance of inclusion to her students. She is the founder of the Disability Justice movement, Upgrade Accessibility, and her activism centers around the principle of intersectionality. Mary is also a Susan M. Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame Inductee and a three-time award-winning podcaster.In her personal life, Mary enjoys experimenting in the kitchen and has loved baking since childhood. She’s also a big fan of karaoke, bringing joy to her life through singing.Anna Cechony is a disability doula, transition coach and access consultant based in Edmonds, WA. She works to make becoming and being disabled to feel like coming home to a loving, creative community rather than something that is scary, isolating or shameful. She has her Master’s in Learning and Organizational Change and Certificate in Organizational and Leadership Coaching from Northwestern University and is a Board Certified Coach. She's also an avid sewist, quilter, knitter and general maker working towards a lifelong goal of being able to build a home and make everything in it with the help of her community.
Desecrated Poppies: An Evening with Palestinian Poet Mx. Yaffa Charis Circle 2024-09-10 | Charis welcomes Mx. Yaffa, an acclaimed disabled, autistic, trans, queer, Muslim, and indigenous Palestinian poet for a reading of their recent collection of poems, Desecrated Poppies. "Desecrated Poppies," written during the eclipse in April 2024 and in anticipation of the November 2024 elections, delves into the intersections of anti-trans and anti-Palestine politics, illustrating how they intertwine with fascism. Through essays and poetry, Yaffa navigates their experiences of these seemingly conflicting identities, both of which are weaponized to advance fascism. "Desecrated Poppies" also explores antidotes to fascism, with a particular focus on cultural work and the imperative to prioritize the most marginalized among us. A world beyond fascism exists, and we hold the pathway forward.Mx. Yaffa is an acclaimed disabled, autistic, trans, queer, Muslim, and indigenous Palestinian individual who has received multiple awards for their transformative work around displacement, decolonization, equity, and centering the lived experiences of individuals most impacted by injustice. Mx. Yaffa is the Executive Director of Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity (MASGD), as well as the founder of several non-profits and community projects. Mx. Yaffa is an engineer, death and birthing doula, peer support specialist, consultant, and artist. Mx. Yaffa is a storyteller and an equity and transformation consultant, having shared their story with over 150,000 audience members at speaking events globally.
Welcome, Wonder: A Season of Practices to Curate an Awe-Filled Life Nya Jacobs Abernathy Charis Circle 2024-09-10 | Charis welcomes Nya Jacobs Abernathy in conversation with Tamice Spencer-Helms for a discussion of Welcome, Wonder: A Season of Practices to Curate an Awe-Filled Life. Welcome, Wonder is Nya Jacobs Abernathy's debut book where she journeys with us - slowly - in the intention of noticing the wonder that is already present. A book of 84 reflections, Abernathy helps us mark wonder over the course of a season in the cadence of three lunar cycles. Invitations to consider belonging, wholeness, story, and connection are offered throughout these pages. Founder of The Dignity Effect, a boutique education firm specializing in adult social emotional learning, Abernathy weaves in the concept of dignity as she helps us pay attention to the awe within and around us.Abernathy's creative non-fiction writing plays in the influence of speculative fiction and theoretical science - a way of imagining that dances so close to reality that the embrace feels impossible to break. Within the energy of this specific magic, we are given a collection of reflections, questions, and affirmations to be revisited again and again. Welcome, Wonder is a book for each of us that, in the midst of the modern world, will aid us in pausing to capture the wonder meeting us right where we are.Nya Jacobs Abernathy is an educator, writer, and alchemist who co-creates worlds with you. With a steady focus on wonder and awe, Nya's creative non-fiction writing plays in the influence of speculative fiction and theoretical science—a way of imagining which dances so close to reality that the embrace feels impossible to break. Within the energy of this specific magic, her first book Welcome, Wonder offers a collection of reflections, questions, and affirmations to be revisited again and again. You can find Nya writing regularly about wonder, awe, and connection at her online publication Of Earth & Of Stars.Tamice Spencer-Helms (they/she) is the visionary founder of Sub:Culture Inc., established in 2018 with the mission of supporting Black students both holistically and during crises. They hold Master’s degrees in contextual leadership and theology and are currently pursuing doctoral studies in social transformation. They are the author of Faith Unleavened and host the “Life After Leaven” podcast, where they delve into faith, activism, and social change, captivating audiences with their approachable style and profound insights.The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate
The Enneagram Map to Your Deeper Self: Living Beyond Your Type Charis Circle 2024-09-07 | Charis welcomes editor Sandra C. Smith for a panel discussion of The Enneagram Map to Your Deeper Self: Living Beyond Your Type with local contributors Beth Waltemath, Dorrie Toney, and Iyabo Onipede. We are much more than our personality type. The Enneagram Map to Your Deeper Self is an invitation to see ourselves as more than we believe we are, to learn and engage practices that liberate us from automatic patterns. The Enneagram Map to Your Deeper Self is an invitation to see yourself as more than your personality type and engage in practices that liberate you from automatic patterns. Certified Narrative Enneagram teacher Sandra Smith, MDiv, has taught the Enneagram internationally as a tool for personal, professional, and spiritual development for over twenty-two years. She shows readers how to deepen their use of the Enneagram in support of their spiritual lives as well as psychological health. With clarity and consistency, this book shows how to understand your Enneagram type without reinforcing the patterns of your type. The gift of the Enneagram is its accuracy to show us the motivations beneath behaviors and egoic patterns that limit us and keep us from growing. The Enneagram Map to Your Deeper Self discusses the makeup of these patterns and gives us a greater capacity to unhook from them. Free from these habits, we are able to live more mindfully and grow into our full dimensionality, becoming more of ourselves. Smith provides a detailed teaching of the components of the Enneagram type structures along with type-specific practices to counter automatic patterns. Also included are contributions from a diverse range of Enneagram practitioners. With their help, Smith dives into the components of the Enneagram types to tease out the patterns and pitfalls preventing us from living our radiance. Prayers, poems, and practices beckon us out of our confining comfort zones and into witnessing and honoring our lives.About the Panelists Sandra C. Smith co-created and co-hosts the podcast, Heart of the Enneagram, that explores dimensions of the nine unique Enneagram perspectives through interviewing guests of all nine types and co-authored its companion book, Heart of the Enneagram: A Companion for Deepening Personal and Spiritual Growth.Beth Waltemath is a writer, editor, and writing coach. She writes book reviews and author interviews for chapter16.org. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post. She works full-time as a journalist for the Presbyterian News Service.Dorrie Toney is a writer, backyard birder, and pickleball enthusiast. Her passion is helping people live more authentic and connected lives through the Enneagram and spiritual awareness. Dorrie received an MDiv from Candler School of Theology at Emory University.Iyabo Onipede is a facilitator, speaker, and consultant who curates deep dives into the heart of inclusion, equity, and racial justice. She is an effective community builder and seasoned equity consultant committed to dismantling supremacy culture and building capacity for equity and inclusion. The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate or in person the night of the event.
Colored Television: Danzy Senna in conversation with Tayari Jones Charis Circle 2024-09-07 | Charis and Auburn Avenue Research Library welcome Danzy Senna in conversation with Tayari Jones for a celebration of Colored Television, a brilliant dark comedy about love and ambition, failure and reinvention, and the racial- identity-industrial complex from the bestselling author of Caucasia. Jane has high hopes that her life is about to turn around. After a long, precarious stretch bouncing among sketchy rentals and sublets, she and her family are living in luxury for a year, house-sitting in the hills above Los Angeles. The gig magically coincides with Jane’s sabbatical, giving her the time and space she needs to finish her second novel—a centuries-spanning epic her artist husband, Lenny, dubs her “mulatto War and Peace.” Finally, some semblance of stability and success seems to be within her grasp.But things don’t work out quite as hoped. Desperate for a plan B, like countless writers before her Jane turns her gaze to Hollywood. When she finagles a meeting with Hampton Ford, a hot producer with a major development deal at a streaming network, he seems excited to work with a “real writer,” and together they begin to develop “the Jackie Robinson of biracial comedies.” Things finally seem to be going right for Jane—until they go terribly wrong.Funny, piercing, and page turning, Colored Television is Senna’s most on-the-pulse, ambitious, and rewarding novel yet.Danzy Senna is the author of four previous works of fiction, including the bestselling Caucasia and, most recently, New People, as well as a memoir. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, she teaches writing at the University of Southern California.New York Times best-selling author Tayari Jones is the author of four novels, most recently An American Marriage. Published in 2018, An American Marriage is an Oprah’s Book Club Selection and also appeared on Barack Obama’s summer reading list as well as his year-end roundup. The novel was awarded the Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly known as the Orange Prize), Aspen Words Prize, and an NAACP Image Award. It has been published in two dozen countries. Jones, a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow, has also been a recipient of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, United States Artist Fellowship, NEA Fellowship, and Radcliffe Institute Bunting Fellowship. Her third novel, Silver Sparrow, was added to the NEA Big Read Library of classics in 2016. Jones is a graduate of Spelman College, University of Iowa, and Arizona State University. She is an Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University and the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Creative Writing at Emory University.
Sass: Black Womens Humor and Humanity J. Finley in conversation with Ra Malika Imhotep Charis Circle 2024-08-30 | Charis welcomes J Finley in conversation with Ra Malika Imhotep for a discussion of Sass: Black Women's Humor and Humanity. Black women comedians are more visible than ever, performing around the world in physical venues like comedy clubs and festivals, along with appearing in films, streaming specials, and online videos. Across these mediums, humor--and particularly sass--functions as a tool for Black women to articulate and redress cultural, social, and political marginalization. J Finley theorizes sass as a new critical lens to better understand the power of Black women's humor and humanity and explores how sass functions as a powerful resource in Black women's expressive repertoire. Challenging mainstream assumptions about "sassiness" as an identity or personality trait to which Black women humorists may be reduced, Finley deploys sass to create a new genre of discourse for understanding the ways in which Black women use language, style, gesture, and intent to produce meaning--often humorous--in speaking back to authority. Grounded in an ethnographic approach to Black women's experiences, Finley conducted extensive interviews as well as participant-observation as a critic, audience member, and comic herself to collect and honor the stories that Black women comics tell about themselves. Interdisciplinary and conceptually rigorous, Finley's work shows us how we can and should read Black women's expressions of sass in humor as attempts at social transformation that involve a fundamental critique of power and authority, and a gesture at collective liberation.J Finley is an interdisciplinary scholar who studies Black women’s history, performance, and cultural expression. In addition to teaching courses on the history, theoretical, and critical aspects of humor and comedy at Pomona College in Africana Studies, she also teaches her students the practice of stand-up comedy based on her own experience as an amateur performer and the knowledge she’s collected from working with professional comedians and comedy educators. She is a co-founder of the Critical Humor Studies Collective, which is an organization dedicated to the study of humor and power. Her first book, Sass: Black Women’s Humor and Humanity, presents the first ethnographic study of Black women’s humor, offering a comprehensive reading of its personal, poetic, and political dimensions from slavery to today. Ra Malika Imhotep, ph.d (Ra/They/Them/doll) is a Black feminist writer and cultural worker from Atlanta, GA. They received their Ph.D in African Diaspora Studies and New Media Studies from the University of California Berkeley and are currently an Assistant Professor of Global African Diaspora Studies at Spelman College. Their work looks at the ways Black feminine figures across the African diaspora subvert preconceived notions about black womanhood and labor through aesthetic practice. Their theoretical and epistemological investments lie in transnational Black feminisms, undisciplined methodologies, Black queer theory, disability justice, and performance studies.The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate or in person the night of the event.
Loving Corrections: adrienne maree brown in conversation with Mary Hooks and Charlene Carruthers Charis Circle 2024-08-25 | n celebration of Charis' 50th birthday year, we proudly welcome adrienne maree brown in conversation with Mary Hooks and Charlene Carruthers to The Friends School of Atlanta for a discussion of Loving Corrections. New York Times-bestselling author adrienne maree brown knows we need each other more than ever, and offers "loving corrections" a roadmap towards collective power, righting wrongs, and true belonging.This selection of prescient, compassionate essays explores patterns we engage in that are rooted in limited thinking. Through a lens of "loving correction" rather than mere critique, author adrienne maree brown helps us reimagine how to hold ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities accountable by setting clear boundaries, engaging in reflection, and nurturing honest relationships.Loving Corrections is divided into two sections, with the first portion featuring new essays including "A Word for White People" and "Relinquishing the Patriarchy" and writing on topics like moving from fragility to fortitude, disability, and navigating critique within activist communities. The second section expands and updates pieces from brown's popular monthly column "Murmurations" in YES Magazine that explore accountability--within oneself and community--with depth, inventiveness, and empathy.Along with allowing us more authentic access to ourselves and to each other, the "corrections" in the book's title are intended to explore and break identity-based patterns including white supremacy, fragility, patriarchy, and ableism. brown also offers practical guidance on how to apologize and be accountable from our nuanced positions of power, history, and resources.Building on her previous work, which is grounded in the lineage of Octavia Butler, brown reminds us how much we need each other: "It is only through relationship that we learn how to be, understand our impact on others and explore small shifts that may yield remarkable collective change."Charis Books and More turns 50 this year with celebrations from November 2nd-9th. Our theme, "Take Root Among the Stars," is a Parable of the Sower inspired invocation of the last 50 years of Charis history and dreams of the feminist future. adrienne maree brown grows healing ideas in public through her multi-genre writing, her collaborations and her podcasts. Informed by 25 years of movement facilitation, somatics, Octavia E Butler scholarship and her work as a doula, adrienne has nurtured Emergent Strategy, Pleasure Activism, Radical Imagination and Transformative Justice as ideas and practices for transformation. She is the author/editor of several published texts, cogenerator of a tarot deck and a developing musical ritual.Mary Hooks is a 42yr old Black, lesbian, feminist, abolitionist, pan-Africanist mother and wife. She is a member of Southerners On New Ground and part of the leadership of the Movement 4 Black Lives. Her people are migrants of the Great Migration, factory workers, church folks, Black women, hustlers and addicts, dykes, studs, femmes, queens, and all people fighting for the liberation of oppressed people. Hooks has been at the forefront of fights to abolish money bail, defund police, re-imagine public safety, and develop new organizers.Charlene A. Carruthers (she/her) is a writer, filmmaker, community organizer, and Black Studies PhD Candidate at Northwestern University. A practitioner of telling more complete stories, her work interrogates historical conjunctures of Black freedom-making post-emancipation and decolonial revolution, Black governance, Black/Native/Indigenous relationalities, and Black feminist abolitionist geographies. Her work spans more than 20 years of community organizing across racial, gender, and economic justice movements. She served as the founding national director of BYP100 (Black Youth Project 100), and is author of the bestselling book, Unapologetic: A Black, Queer and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements.The Friends School of Atlanta's mission is to provide challenging academics in a diverse environment, drawing on the values, of simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality and stewardship to empower our students to go out into the world with conscience, conviction and compassion.
Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde Alexis Pauline Gumbs and Carlin Rushing Charis Circle 2024-08-24 | As part of Charis' 50th birthday year celebration, we welcome home Charis beloved, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, to celebrate the launch of her genre-breaking biography of Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet Audre Lorde, Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde. Gumbs, as one of this generation's greatest writers, offers an interdimensional work of witnessing for one of the greatest writers of the last generation, and in doing so, she brings to life an Audre Lorde rarely glimpsed even by devoted fans. Gumbs will be in conversation with Southerners On New Ground (SONG) co-director, Carlin Rushing at the Auburn Avenue Research Library for this celebration, which is co-sponsored by ZAMI NOBLA and SONG. In Survival Is a Promise, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, the first researcher to explore the full depths of Lorde’s manuscript archives, illuminates the eternal life of Lorde. Her life and work become more than a sound bite or a snippet of poetry; they become a cosmic force, teaching us the grand contingency of life together on earth.Lorde’s understanding of survival was not simply about getting through to the other side of oppression or being resilient in the face of cancer. It was about the total stakes of what it means to be in relationship with a planet in transformation. Possibly the focus on Lorde’s quotable essays, to the neglect of her complex poems, has led us to ignore her deep engagement with the natural world, the planetary dynamics of geology, meteorology, and biology. For her, ecological images are not simply metaphors but rather literal guides to how to be of earth on earth, and how to survive—to live the ethics that a Black feminist lesbian warrior poetics demands. We can think of no better duo--Alexis and Audre-- to usher us into our birthday season of imagining how our feminist future may be born from the seeds of our past and present. Join us to take part in this homecoming and celebrate with us again the first week in November, the 2nd and the 9th, as we launch our next 50 years of queer feminist movement building.Alexis Pauline Gumbs is the author of several works of poetry and of Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Animals, which won a Whiting Writers' Award in 2022. In 2023, she won a Windham Campbell Prize for her poetry. She lives in Durham, North Carolina.Carlin Rushing joined Southerners On New Ground (SONG)’s staff as Regional Membership Lead in 2018, after having co-built the Nashville SONG chapter and iterated on our grief and spirit care organizing. Carlin’s work experience involved having one foot in the academy and the other in local organizing and advocacy, including working as a research fellow experimenting with methods for doing racial justice informed by Black queer theology and ethics, and as a project director for an HIV/AIDS intervention program in Nashville. A graduate of Spelman College and Vanderbilt University Divinity School, Carlin has also served as an adjunct professor at American Baptist College and Fisk University. At her core, Carlin values family, faith, and believes that liberation in our lifetime is possible. Unapologetically Black and Southern, Carlin is a lover of the Black women’s literary tradition, all things percussion and rural North Carolina sunsets.About the Organizations: ZAMI NOBLA headquartered in Atlanta, is the leading Advocacy organization dedicated to empowering Black lesbians over the age of 40. With active chapters in Georgia and North Carolina and a robust national membership, we prioritize advocacy alongside community organizing and community-action research. We are committed to forging a strong collective voice and advocating for the rights of Black lesbians in our communities and beyond.Southerners on New Ground (SONG) is a home for LGBTQ liberation across all lines of race, class, abilities, age, culture, gender, and sexuality in the South. SONG builds, sustains, and connects a Southern regional base of LGBTQ people in order to transform the region through strategic projects and campaigns developed in response to the current conditions in our communities. SONG builds this movement through leadership development, intersectional analysis, and organizing.
Cliterati Open Mic Featuring: Cavar in celebration of Failure to Comply Charis Circle 2024-08-24 | Charis and Cliterati pair up to present an inviting and fierce open mic & reading series that celebrates new voices and seasoned veterans alike. Co-hosted by Karen G. and Theresa Davis, all are welcome to come and share their work. If you would like to participate as a reader or performer, all you need to do is arrive by 7:15 pm ET to sign up on the list. If you are a non-acoustic musician and would like to plug your instrument into our sound system, please contact info@chariscircle.org ahead of time to let us know so we can have the right setup for you! There are no genre, style, or form requirements, but please keep your set to under five minutes to allow everyone to have a turn! This month's featured poet is Cavar in celebration of Failure to Comply. How far would you go to have real freedom? To have true autonomy of both mind and body? The narrator of Failure to Comply wants self-determination at all costs, and they want you to know what it did, in fact, cost them. Their story is just a little hard to convey, as they're not entirely sure where, or even when, they are.Set in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic future, this literary sci-fi novel presents a world where humans have been unshackled from disease and their basest desires thanks to the genetic engineering and societal supervision of RSCH--an inscrutable entity with unimaginable power (including the ability to literally shape reality). In RSCH's march toward perfecting the species, however, there are "deviants" (including LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities) who are fighting for a different vision of humanity. But where can they find hope when horror abounds, projected into their own bodies and minds by RSCH?[sarah] Cavar is an anti-genre writer, PhD candidate, and instructor of undergraduates on both u.s. coasts. They are the author of Failure to Comply (featherproof books, 2024). Cavar edits manywor(l)ds.place, and has had work published in The Offing, Split Lip Magazine, Nat. Brut, Electric Lit, and elsewhere. More at www.cavar.club, librarycard.substack.com, and @cavarsarah on twitter.This is a Charis Circle From Margin to Center Literary Event. The suggested donation is $5, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Beyond Policing: Philip V. McHarris in conversation with Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson Charis Circle 2024-08-23 | Charis welcomes Philip V. McHarris in conversation with Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson for a discussion of Beyond Policing. What would happen if policing disappeared? Would we be safe? This book imagines a world without police.It's evident that policing is a problem. But what is the best way forward? In Beyond Policing, distinguished scholar and writer Philip V. McHarris reimagines the world without police to find answers and reveal how we can make police departments obsolete.Beyond Policing tackles thorny issues with evidence, including data and personal stories, to uncover the weight of policing on people and communities and the patterns that prove police reform only leads to more policing.McHarris challenges us to envision a future where safety is not synonymous with policing but is built on the foundation of community support and preventive measures. He explores innovative community-based safety models (like community mediators and violence interrupters), the decriminalization of driving offenses, and the creation of nonpolice crisis response teams. McHarris also outlines strategies for responding to conflict and harm in ways that transform the conditions that give rise to the issues. He asks us to imagine a world where people thrive without the shadow of inequality, where our approach to safety is a collective achievement.McHarris writes, "What if our response to crisis wasn't about control but about care? How can we create conditions where safety is a shared responsibility? How can we design justice so that no community is routinely oppressed? Envisioning such a world isn't just a daydream; it's the first step toward building a society where violence and fear no longer dictate our lives."Transformative and forward thinking, Beyond Policing provides a blueprint for a brighter, safer world. McHarris's vision is clear: we must dare to move beyond policing and foster a society where everyone has the resources to thrive and feel safe.Philip V. McHarris is an assistant professor in the Frederick Douglass Institute and Department of Black Studies at the University of Rochester. McHarris was a presidential postdoctoral research fellow at Princeton University in the Department of African American Studies and the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab. He earned his PhD in sociology and African American studies at Yale University. He was named one of the Root 100s Most Influential African Americans in 2020. McHarris has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, and PBS and in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, and more.Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson is an Affrilachian (Black Appalachian) woman from the working class, born and raised in Southeast Tennessee. She is the first Black woman to serve as Co-Executive Director of the Highlander Research & Education Center in New Market, TN. As a member of multiple leadership teams in the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), Ash-Lee has thrown down on the Vision for Black Lives and the BREATHE Act. Ash-Lee has served on the governance council of the Southern Movement Assembly, the advisory committee of the National Bailout Collective, and is an active leader of The Frontline. She is a long-time activist who has done work in movements fighting for workers, for reproductive justice, for LGBTQUIA+ folks, for environmental justice, and more.The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate or in person at the event.
The Pairing: Casey McQuiston in conversation with Julian Winters Charis Circle 2024-08-22 | Charis and the Georgia Center for the Book welcome Casey McQuiston in conversation with Julian Winters for a celebration of The Pairing. In Person at the First Baptist Church of Decatur.About the Book: In #1 New York Times bestselling author Casey McQuiston's latest romantic comedy, two bisexual exes accidentally book the same European food and wine tour and challenge each other to a hookup competition to prove they're over each other—except they're definitely not.Theo and Kit have been a lot of things: childhood best friends, crushes, in love, and now estranged exes. After a brutal breakup on the transatlantic flight to their dream European food and wine tour, they exited each other's lives once and for all.Time apart has done them good. Theo has found confidence as a hustling bartender by night and aspiring sommelier by day, with a long roster of casual lovers. Kit, who never returned to America, graduated as the reigning sex god of his pastry school class and now bakes at one of the finest restaurants in Paris. Sure, nothing really compares to what they had, and life stretches out long and lonely ahead of them, but—yeah. It's in the past.All that remains is the unused voucher for the European tour that never happened, good for 48 months after its original date and about to expire. Four years later, it seems like a great idea to finally take the trip. Solo. Separately.It's not until they board the tour bus that they discover they've both accidentally had the exact same idea, and now they're trapped with each other for three weeks of stunning views, luscious flavors, and the most romantic cities of France, Spain, and Italy. It's fine. There's nothing left between them. So much nothing that, when Theo suggests a friendly wager to see who can sleep with their hot Italian tour guide first, Kit is totally game. And why stop there? Why not a full-on European hookup competition?But sometimes a taste of everything only makes you crave what you can't have.CASEY MCQUISTON is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of romantic comedies, including One Last Stop, I Kissed Shara Wheeler, and Red, White & Royal Blue, whose writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Bon Appetit. Born and raised in southern Louisiana, Casey now lives in New York City with a poodle mix named Pepper.Julian Winters is the author of the award-winning Young Adult novels Running With Lions, Right Where I Left You, How to Be Remy Cameron, The Summer of Everything, and As You Walk On By, as well as the upcoming Prince of the Palisades and his Adult romance debut, I Think They Love You. A self-proclaimed comic book geek, Julian currently lives outside of Atlanta where he can be found swooning over rom-coms or watching the only two sports he can follow—volleyball and soccer.
Practicing Liberation: Transformative Strategies for Collective Healing & Systems Change Charis Circle 2024-08-01 | Buy the books from Charis: Practicing Liberation: charisbooksandmore.com/book/9798889840664Practicing Liberation Workbook: charisbooksandmore.com/book/9798889840688Visit the book's website: practicingliberationbook.comCharis welcomes editors Tessa Hicks Peterson and Hala Khouri, MA for a panel discussion of Practicing Liberation: Transformative Strategies for Collective Healing & Systems Change: Reflections on Burnout, Trauma & Building Communities of Care in Social Justice Work. The editors will be joined by editor of the accompanying workbook, Keely Nguyen, and contributors Nkem Ndefo, Jacoby Ballard, and Leslie Booker. Practicing Liberation is a trauma-informed anthology with contributions from 13 activists and community organizers—for readers of adrienne maree brown, Staci K. Haines, and Ejeris Dixon. When your work is inextricable from your identity, your community, and your own liberation, you need a unique praxis of care to sustain it—and for mission-driven activists, organizers, and changemakers working under oppressive systems, making space to center vital needs like rest, self-care, and healthy boundaries isn’t as simple as clocking out.Practicing Liberation reorients collective justice work toward a model that transforms the effects of injustice, harm, and oppressive systems into resilience, joy, and community care. Through frameworks like trauma-informed methodology, transformative movement organizing, engaged Buddhism, and healing justice, editors Hala Khouri and Tessa Hicks Peterson show readers how to:Embody healing, wellness, and beloved communityGuard against replicating systems of harmDisrupt racist, classist, anti-queer, and anti-trans behavior and systemsCelebrate creativity and radical imagination in movement workCenter healing from intergenerational trauma, white supremacy culture, and extractive capitalismHonor that self-care is a necessity—not a luxury—that strengthens our collectivesTessa Hicks Peterson (she/her) has spent the past twenty-five years working with civil rights and social justice nonprofits and in higher education. She has directed a number of community centers, facilitated hundreds of workshops, and taught classes at Pitzer College in areas including anti-bias education, movement arts, healing justice, and community-based research collaborations. To learn more, visit tessahickspeterson.com.Hala Khouri, MA, (she/her) has been teaching yoga and movement for over twenty-five years and has been doing clinical work and trainings for fifteen years. She cofounded Off the Mat, Into the World, a training organization to bridge yoga and activism within a social justice framework, and she leads Collective Resilience trauma-informed yoga and somatics trainings nationally. To learn more, visit halakhouri.com.Keely Nguyen (she/her) comes from a legacy of strong-willed women in the rural/coastal provinces of Southern Vietnam. She is passionate about sharing collective memories and cultural stories to resist and build community with folks, specifically directly impacted youth. She is currently a communications manager at Partnership for Safety and Justice, working to disrupt the carceral state through narrative building, advocacy, and digital organizing.Nkem Ndefo is the founder of Lumos Transforms and creator of the Resilience Toolkit, a model that promotes embodied self-awareness and self-regulation in an ecologically sensitive framework and social justice context. Originally licensed as a nurse midwife, Nkem has extensive post-graduate training in complementary health modalities and emotional therapies and has worked in settings ranging from large-volume hospitals to mobile community clinics. She brings an abundance of experience as a clinician, educator, researcher, and community strategist; learn more about her at www.lumostransforms.com /team/nkem-ndefo.Jacoby Ballard is a trans social justice educator and yoga teacher who leads workshops and trainings around the country on diversity, equity, and inclusion, with a focus at the nexus of healing and social justice. More of his teachings can be found on his website, jacobyballard.net, and his book, A Queer Dharma: Yoga and Meditations for Liberation.Leslie Booker brings her heart and wisdom to the intersection of Dharma, Embodied Wisdom, and liberation. Using this framework, through her teaching and writing on changing the paradigm of self and community care, she supports folks in creating a culture of belonging. She shares her offerings widely as a university lecturer, public speaker, and Buddhist philosophy and meditation teacher. Leslie is passionate about supporting frontline communities to thrive in their work. She currently lives in Philadelphia with her partner and pup and serves as the Guiding Teacher of New York Insight. More of her teachings can be found on her website, lesliebooker.com.
CLITERATI OPEN MIC FEATURING: BILLIE SAINWOOD IN CELEBRATION OF WHAT WAS EATEN WAS GIVEN Charis Circle 2024-07-26 | Charis and Cliterati pair up to present an inviting and fierce open mic & reading series that celebrates new voices and seasoned veterans alike. Co-hosted by Karen G. and Theresa Davis, all are welcome to come and share their work. If you would like to participate as a reader or performer, all you need to do is arrive by 7:15 pm ET to sign up on the list. If you are a non-acoustic musician and would like to plug your instrument into our sound system, please contact info@chariscircle.org ahead of time to let us know so we can have the right setup for you! There are no genre, style, or form requirements, but please keep your set to under five minutes to allow everyone to have a turn! This month's featured poet is Billie Sainwood in celebration of What was eaten was given. “The body is never the end,” Sainwood tells us in her poem “Hour of Need,” and every line of this book explores what it means to see beyond the body. ‘What is eaten was given’ cradles the past and prays into the future as context for a queer, trans life being lived to its fullest right now. Sainwood’s naked discussions of sex, mental illness, fear, hope, and longing beg the reader into their own self reflection. Cis, trans, queer, straight, we are all praying to something with our bodies every day. How do you worship? What lies deep inside you? What must you let out?Billie Sainwood is a queer, trans poet and writer from Atlanta. Her first poetry collection, WHAT WAS EATEN WAS GIVEN, is available now from Kith Books. She keeps a diary of her inspirations and neuroses online at her website.This is a Charis Circle From Margin to Center Literary Event. The suggested donation is $5, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Donate: chariscircle.networkforgood.com/projects/229298-fund-the-feminist-future
WOMANSPIRIT A CELEBRATORY CONVERSATION BETWEEN ANNE OLSON AND ISA WILLIAMS ON ANNES 90TH BIRTHDAY! Charis Circle 2024-07-26 | Charis welcomes long-time friend and founding Charis Circle board co-chair, Anne Olson, on the occasion of her 90th birthday and her publication in the anthology, WomanSpirit: The Rise of Feminism and the Empowerment of Women in Liberal Religion. Anne is joined in conversation by Dr. Isa Williams. Together, these dynamic activists and scholars will discuss the possibilities of progressive faith-based organizing in today's crises, as well as their shared inspirations in literature.WomanSpirit is a collection of twenty essays by extraordinary Unitarian Universalists who illuminate their journey of empowerment and feminist evolution. Through poignant reflection and vivid storytelling, this compelling anthology captures the struggles and triumphs that reshaped an entire denomination. It speaks of a shared journey of resilience, solidarity, and the power of collective action while celebrating the courage of brave women who dared to challenge the status quo, redefine possibilities, and transform their denomination from within.Anne Olson joined the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta in the late 60s, as a single mother to two children. She was fortunate to be mentored by the senior minister Rev. Gene Pickett. She served on many commit-tees, including the Board of Directors. Later she became the first Women and Religion Chair for the Mid-South District, served on the Board of UUWF, serving as program chair for three biennials. She then chaired the Feminist Theology Awards for several years. After leaving UUCA, she was a charter member of the Thurman Hamer Ellington Congregation, UU. She retired in 1999 and moved to the East Lake Commons CoHousing Community in Decatur, GA where she continues to live.Isa D. Williams, PhD was the Director of Community-Based Learning and Partnerships, and Associate Professor of Women's Studies at Agnes Scott College from 1995-2011.The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate or in person at the event.
CORPSES, FOOLS AND MONSTERS: THE HISTORY AND FUTURE OF TRANSNESS IN CINEMA Charis Circle 2024-07-26 | Charis welcomes Caden Mark Gardner and Willow Catelyn Maclay in conversation with Millie De Chirico for a discussion of Corpses, Fools and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema, a radical history of transness in cinema, and an exploration of the political possibilities of its future.In the history of cinema, trans people are usually murdered, made into a joke, or viewed as threats to the normal order — relegated to a lost highway of corpses, fools, and monsters.In this book, trans film critics Caden Mark Gardner and Willow Catelyn Maclay take the reader on a drive down this lost highway, exploring the way that trans people and transness have evolved on-screen.Starting from the very earliest representations of transness in silent film, through to the multiplex-conquering Matrix franchise and on to the emergence of a true trans-authored cinema, Corpses, Fools and Monsters spans everything from musicals to body horror to avant garde experimental film to tell the story of the trans film image. In doing so, the authors investigate the wider history of trans representation — an exhilarating journey of compromise, recuperation, and potential liberation that they argue is only just the beginning.Caden Mark Gardner (he/him/his) is a film critic and researcher from Upstate New York and is the co-author of Corpses, Fools and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema. His work has been published in Film Comment, MUBI, Los Angeles Review of books, Reverse Shot, and the Criterion Collection. Willow Catelyn Maclay is co-author of Corpses, Fools and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema. She has written for numerous publications including The Village Voice, Film Comment, MUBI Notebook, Roger Ebert.com and Polygon.Millie De Chirico is a film programmer, writer, and teacher currently based in Atlanta, Georgia. Her book, TCM Underground: 50 Must-See Films from the World of Classic Cult and Late-Night Cinema, was released in October 2022 by Running Press. She is also the co-host of the weekly film podcast, I Saw What You Did, on the Exactly Right Network.The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on crowdcast or via our website: http://www.chariscircle.org/donate.
PRETTY: A MEMOIR KB BROOKINS IN CONVERSATION WITH NEESHA POWELL-INGABIRE Charis Circle 2024-07-15 | Charis welcomes KB Brookins in conversation with Neesha Powell-Ingabire for a discussion of Pretty: A Memoir by a prize-winning, young Black trans writer of outsized talent, a fierce and disciplined memoir about queerness, masculinity, and race.Even as it shines light on the beauty and toxicity of Black masculinity from a transgender perspective—the tropes, the presumptions—Pretty is as much a powerful and tender love letter as it is a call for change. “I should be able to define myself, but I am not. Not by any governmental or cultural body,” Brookins writes. “Every day, I negotiate the space between who I am, how I’m perceived, and what I need to unlearn. People have assumed things about me, and I can’t change that. Every day, I am assumed to be a Black American man, though my ID says ‘female,’ and my heart says neither of the sort. What does it mean—to be a girl-turned-man when you’re something else entirely?” Informed by KB Brookins’s personal experiences growing up in Texas, those of other Black transgender masculine people, Black queer studies, and cultural criticism, Pretty is concerned with the marginalization suffered by a unique American constituency—whose condition is a world apart from that of cisgender, non-Black, and non-masculine people. Here is a memoir (a bildungsroman of sorts) about coming to terms with instantly and always being perceived as “other”KB BROOKINS is a Black, queer, and trans writer and cultural worker from Texas. They are the author of Freedom House and How to Identify Yourself with a Wound. Brookins has poems, essays, and installation art published in Academy of American Poets, Teen Vogue, Poetry Magazine, Prizer Arts & Letters, Okayplayer, Poetry Society of America, Autostraddle, and other venues. They have earned fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, PEN America, Equality Texas, and others.Neesha Powell-Ingabire is a coastal Georgia-born-and-raised movement journalist, essayist, community & cultural organizer, cat parent, spouse, and auntie living in Atlanta/occupied Muscogee territory. She reports on the justice movements of the Black, trans, queer, and Southern communities to which she belongs and writes essays to recover her own history and the histories of her ancestors and their ancestral homes.Neesha’s writings have been published in various online and print publications, including Harper’s Bazaar, Oxford American, Scalawag, and VICE. Her forthcoming debut book, COME BY HERE: A Memoir in Essays from Georgia’s Geechee Coast (out on September 24 from Hub City Press), chips away at coastal Georgia’s facade of beaches and golden marshes to recover undertold Black history alongside personal and family stories. The book traces a genealogy of systemic racial violence while paying homage to the area’s long history of Black resistance and culture keeping. Neesha recently graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Georgia College & State University. Learn more about Neesha's work at neeshawrites.com.The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate or in person the night of the event.
ROOTED: THE AMERICAN LEGACY OF LAND THEFT & THE MODERN MOVEMENT FOR BLACK LAND OWNERSHIP-BREA BAKER Charis Circle 2024-07-12 | Charis welcomes Brea Baker in conversation with Nic Stone for a discussion of Rooted: The American Legacy of Land Theft and the Modern Movement for Black Land Ownership. Why is less than 1% of rural land in the U.S. owned by Black people? An acclaimed writer and activist explores the impact of land theft and violent displacement on racial wealth gaps, arguing that justice stems from the literal roots of the earth.To understand the contemporary racial wealth gap, we must first unpack the historic attacks on Indigenous and Black land ownership. From the moment that colonizers set foot on Virginian soil, a centuries-long war was waged, resulting in an existential dilemma: Who owns what on stolen land? Who owns what with stolen labor? To answer these questions, we must confront one of this nation’s first sins: stealing, hoarding, and commodifying the land.Research suggests that between 1910 and 1997, Black Americans lost about 90% of their farmland. Land theft widened the racial wealth gap, privatized natural resources, and created a permanent barrier to access that should be a birthright for Black and Indigenous communities. Rooted traces the experiences of Brea Baker’s family history of devastating land loss in Kentucky and North Carolina, identifying such violence as the root of persistent inequality in this country. Ultimately, her grandparents’ commitment to Black land ownership resulted in the Bakers Acres—a haven for the family where they are sustained by the land, surrounded by love, and wholly free.A testament to the Black farmers who dreamed of feeding, housing, and tending to their communities, Rooted bears witness to their commitment to freedom and reciprocal care for the land. By returning equity to a dispossessed people, we can heal both the land and our nation’s soul.Brea Baker has been working on the front lines for more than a decade. She believes deeply in nuanced storytelling and Black culture to drive change, and she has commented on race, gender, and sexuality for Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Refinery29, Them, and more. Her writing has been featured in the anthologies Our History Has Always Been Contraband and No Justice, No Peace. A Yale alumna, Baker has been recognized as a 2017 GlamourWoman of the Year, a 2019 i-D Up + Rising, and a 2023 Creative Capital awardee. She has spoken at the United Nations’ Girl Up Initiative, Yale Law School, the Youth to Youth Summit in Hong Kong, the Museum of the City of New York, and elsewhere. Nic Stone is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin, the novel that launched her career in 2017 and encourages readers of all ages to examine the biases in their own lives and to have honest discussions about race in today’s world. Nic’s mission is to create books and stories that speak to kids underrepresented in YA literature today—and her aim is to not only create windows in which young people are introduced to new perspectives but also mirrors in which children see their experiences and identities fully represented. Born and raised in a suburb of Atlanta, GA, Nic grew up with a wide range of cultures, religions, and backgrounds, and constantly strives to bring diverse voices and stories to her work. All her novels have been widely embraced by teens and adults and have been the recipients of numerous accolades, awards, and starred reviews. In addition to Dear Martin, her books include Dear Justyce, Blackout, Whiteout, and middle-grade novels, Clean Getaway and How to Be a (Young) Antiracist, all New York Times bestsellers,Odd One Out, Jackpot, the Shuri (Black Panther) novels as well as Fast Pitch. Her most recent novel, Chaos Theory, was published in February 2023. A Spelman College graduate, Nic lives in Atlanta with her family. Find her online at nicstone.info or @nicstone.
THE SPELLSHOP BY SARAH BETH DURST AND THAT TIME I GOT DRUNK AND SAVED A DEMON BY KIMBERLY LEMMING Charis Circle 2024-07-12 | Charis welcomes Sarah Beth Durst and Kimberly Lemming for a celebration of their books The Spellshop and That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon. About The Spellshop: The Spellshop, a gorgeous hardcover edition featuring lavender sprayed edges! The Spellshopis Sarah Beth Durst’s romantasy debut–a lush cottagecore tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love.SARAH BETH DURST is the author of over twenty-five fantasy books for adults, teens, and kids, including The Queens of Renthia series, Drink Slay Love, and Spark. She has won an American Library Association Alex Award and a Mythopoeic Fantasy Award and has been a finalist for the Andre Norton Nebula Award three times. She lives in Stony Brook, New York, with her husband, her children, and her ill-mannered cat.About That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon: Spice trader Cinnamon’s quiet life is turned upside down when she ends up on a quest with a fiery demon, in this irreverently quirky rom-com fantasy that is sweet, steamy, and funny as hell.Kimberly Lemming is on an eternal quest to avoid her calling as a main character. She can be found giving the slip to that new werewolf that just blew into town and refusing to make eye contact with a prince of a far-off land. Dodging aliens looking for Earth booty can really take up a girl's time. But when she’s not running from fate, she can be found writing diverse fantasy romance. Or just shoveling chocolate in her maw until she passes out on the couch.The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate or in person the night of the event.
A BLACK WOMANS GUIDE TO GETTING FREE: TAMARA WINFREY-HARRIS IN CONVERSATION WITH DR. JENN JACKSON Charis Circle 2024-07-12 | Charis welcomes Tamara Winfrey-Harris in conversation with Dr. Jenn Jackson for a discussion of A Black Woman's Guide to Getting Free, an empowering, feminist guidance for Black women on living unapologetically and authentically—from the bestselling author of The Sisters Are Alright. Unshackle your authentic self from the expectations and stereotypes of American culture through the 6 pillars of living free as a Black woman.Tamara Winfrey Harris harnesses her knowledge as a two-time author and storyteller of the Black femme experience and nationally known expert on the intersections of race and gender to deliver a sharp feminist analysis that is illustrated by real-life stories and examples plucked from popular culture and intimate Black woman-to-Black woman truth-telling.This book is separated into two parts. First, the meaning of liberation is explored and Black women will be guided in creating sustaining practice to mature their well-being along the freedom journey. In part two, readers are introduced to the 6 pillars of living free as a Black woman:Spot the distortionsKnow your truthCelebrate the real youUnderstand the cost of liberationPractice freedomSEE free Black women everywhereWith the bold, astute writing that you have come to expect from Winfrey-Harris, A Black Woman’s Guide to Getting Free urges Black women everywhere to choose themselves, and choose freedom, in a world that would have you chained.Tamara Winfrey-Harris is a writer, speaker and dedicated champion for all women and girls. She serves as president of Women’s Fund of Central Indiana, a special interest fund of Central Indiana Community Foundation that convenes, invests and advocates so all who identify as women or girls in Central Indiana have an equitable opportunity to reach their full potential no matter their place, race or identity. As a writer, Tamara specializes in the ever-evolving space where current events, politics and pop culture intersect with race and gender. She says, “I tell the stories of Black women and girls to deliver the truth to all those folks who got us twisted—tangled up in racist and sexist lies. My sisters are better than alright. We are amazing.”Tamara is the author of the award-winning The Sisters Are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America (Berrett-Koehler Publishers 2015); Dear Black Girl: Letters From Your Sisters On Stepping Into Your Power (Berrett-Koehler Publishers 2021); and A Black Woman’s Guide to Getting Free (Berrett-Koehler Publishers 2024). Her commentary, articles and essays have been published in media outlets, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Cosmopolitan, New York Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, Ms. Magazine, NPR’s “Weekend Edition,” and books, including The Lemonade Reader: Beyonce, Black Feminism and Spirituality (Routledge, 2019); The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery (Wayne State University Press, 2018); and Black in the Middle: An Anthology of the Black Midwest (Black Belt Publishing, 2020).Jenn M. Jackson, PhD, is an award-winning professor of political science at Syracuse University and a columnist for Teen Vogue, where they write the popular “Speak On It” column that “explores how today’s social and political life is influenced by generations of racial and gender (dis)order.” A queer genderflux androgynous Black woman, Jackson primary research is in Black Politics with a focus on Black Feminism, racial trauma and threat, gender and sexuality, and social movements. Black Women Taught Us is their first book.
DEAR BI MEN BY J.R. YUSSUF AND BISEXUAL MEN EXIST BY VANEET MEHTA Charis Circle 2024-06-24 | Charis welcomes J.R. Yussuf and Vaneet Mehta for a discussion of their books Dear Bi Men: A Black Man's Perspective on Power, Consent, Breaking Down Binaries, and Combatting Erasure and Bisexual Men Exist: A Handbook for Bisexual, Pansexual and M-Spec Men. About Dear Bi Men: Dear Bi Men is an unapologetic guide for readers who are Black, masc, and bi—unlearning biphobia, coming out, combatting erasure, and embodying your whole self. Rich with personal narratives, insightful analysis, and practical advice, this book is a powerful resource for Black bi+ men to reclaim their identity, counter biphobia, and get empowered—and an offering to all readers looking to fight back against the erasure and dehumanization wrought by patriarchy.About J.R. Yussuf: J.R. Yussuf is an award-winning author and podcaster focused on themes of mental wellness, self-improvement, and emotional literacy. Yussuf secured a peer support certification from the Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective (B.E.A.M.) and has used his training to support countless Black bisexual/pansexual men. His writing has appeared in Men’s Health, Thrive Global, Black Youth Project, Queerty, and more.About Bisexual Men Exist: Being a bisexual man isn't easy - something Vaneet Mehta knows all too well. After spending more than a decade figuring out his identity, Vaneet's coming out was met with questioning, ridicule and erasure. This experience inspired Vaneet to create the viral #BisexualMenExist campaign, combatting the hate and scepticism m-spec (multi-gender attracted spectrum) men encounter, and helping others who felt similarly alone and trapped. This powerful book is an extension of that fight. Navigating a range of topics, including coming out, dating, relationships and health, Vaneet shares his own lived experience as well as personal stories from others in the community to help validate and uplift other bisexual men. Discussing the treatment of m-spec men in LGBTQ+ places, breaking down stereotypes and highlighting the importance of representation and education, this empowering book is a rallying call for m-spec men everywhere.About Vaneet Mehta: Vaneet Mehta (He/Him) is an Indian bisexual man born and raised in Southall, West London. He is a software engineer, writer and public speaker and the founder of #BisexualMenExist, which went viral in 2020. He has written for Men's Health, Stonewall and Metro UK and his work has been published in The Bi-ble: New Testimonials. He is the author of the Lammy nominated book Bisexual Men Exist and the co-editor of the anthology It Ain't Over Til The Bisexual Speaks. This event is free and open to all people, especially to those who have no income or low income right now, but we encourage and appreciate a solidarity donation in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Charis Circle's mission is to foster sustainable feminist communities, work for social justice, and encourage the expression of diverse and marginalized voices. donatenow.networkforgood.org/CharisCircle?code=chariscirclepage
MEET ME THERE: TRANS POETRY SHOWCASE Charis Circle 2024-06-18 | This Pride Month we bring to you the Meet Me There: Trans Poetry Showcase featuring a stellar group of multigenre trans writers! These writers represent only a fraction of the new work recently published by trans poets and writers. Featured Writers: JD Pluecker works with language, that is, a material thing, a thing of life and history. Their undisciplinary work inhabits the intersections of writing, history, translation, art, interpreting, bookmaking, queer/trans aesthetics, non-normative poetics, language justice, and cross-border cultural production. She has translated numerous books from the Spanish, including the prize-winning Trash by Sylvia Aguilar Zéleny (Deep Vellum Press, 2023). JD’s book of poetry and image, Ford Over, was released from Noemi Press, and Lawndale Art Center supported the publication of the artist book, The Unsettlements: Dad. From 2010-2020, she worked as part of the transdisciplinary collaborative Antena Aire and from 2015-2020 with the local social justice interpreting collective Antena Houston. JD edits chapbooks with Ugly Duckling Presse’s Señal series, is a recipient of the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writing Grant, and has exhibited work at Blaffer Art Museum, the Hammer Museum, Project Row Houses, and more. More info at www.jdpluecker.com and www.antenaantena.org.Julian Carter’s new multigenre book, Dances of Time and Tenderness (Nightboat 2024), is a cycle of stories linking queer memory, activism, death, and art in a transpoetic history of desire and touch. Other publications include The Heart of Whiteness: Normal Sexuality and Race in America, 1890-1940 (Duke 2007) and shorter pieces in many journals and anthologies including GLQ, TSQ: Trans Studies Quarterly,TDR: The Drama Review; The Journal of the History of Sexuality; The Transgender Studies Reader vol. 2; The Transgender Studies Remix; Queer Dance: Makings and Meanings; About Face: Stonewall, Revolt, and the New Queer Art; and the Routledge Companion to Queer Art History, as well as in various blogs and zines.K. Iver is a nonbinary trans poet born in Mississippi. Their debut collection Short Film Starring My Beloved’s Red Bronco won the 2022 Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry from Milkweed Editions, selected by Tyehimba Jess. Short Film is a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Award, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and the Lambda Literary Awards and has been named a Best Book of 2023 by the New York Public Library. Iver’s poems have appeared in Boston Review, Kenyon Review, LA Review of Books, and elsewhere. Iver has received fellowships from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, the Sewanee Writers Conference, and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. They have a Ph.D. in Poetry from Florida State University. They are the Roger F. Murray Chair in Creative Writing at Phillips Academy in Andover, MA. Syd Staiti is author of Seldom Approaches (The Elephants, 2023), and The Undying Present (Krupskaya, 2015). Newer work, First Study, was published in the Belladonna* chaplet series in 2023.Violet Spurlock is the author of In Lieu of Solutions (Futurepoem, 2023), which was the recipient of the Other Futures Award, as well as Alloyed Bliss (Eyelet, 2021) and VS VS VS (GaussPDF, 2021). She lives in the Bay Area, where she is a PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley.Zefyr Lisowski is the author of two poetry collections, Blood Box (Black Lawrence Press, 2019) and Girl Work (Noemi Press, 2024). Her essay collection about horror movies, exes, and love is forthcoming from Harper Perennial in Fall 2025. A 2023 NYFA/NYSCA Fellow in Nonfiction, and 2023 Queer|Art Fellow, she lives online at zeflisowski.com. She's seen grave robbers twice.Zoe Tuck was born in Texas, became a person in California, and now lives in Western Massachusetts, where she co-hosts the But Also reading series with her partner, Britt Billmeyer-Finn. She is the author of Bedroom Vowel (BUNNY Presse, 2023) and Terror Matrix (Timeless, Infinite Light, 2014), in addition to the chapbooks The Book of Bella (Doublecross Press), bound in a dos-a-dos edition with Emily Hunerwadel's Peach Woman, and Vape Cloud of Unknowing (Belladonna* Collaborative). A member of Belladonna* Collaborative and Futurepoem, she also co-edits Hot Pink Magazine with Emily Bark Brown. She teaches creative writing and literature classes through Threshold Academy and elsewhere. Find out more about her reading and people-weaving at zoetuck.substack.com.The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate or in person the night of the event.
THE Z WORD: LINDSAY KING-MILLER IN CONVERSATION WITH BILLIE SAINWOOD Charis Circle 2024-06-18 | Charis welcomes Lindsay King-Miller in conversation with Billie Sainwood for a celebration of The Z Word. Packed with action, humor, sex, and big gay feelings, The Z Word is the queer zombie romp you didn’t know you needed.Chaotic bisexual Wendy is trying to find her place in the queer community of San Lazaro, Arizona, after a bad breakup—which is particularly difficult because her ex is hooking up with some of her friends. And when the people around them start turning into violent, terrifying mindless husks, well, that makes things harder. Especially since the infection seems to be spreading.Now, Wendy and her friends and frenemies—drag queen Logan, silver fox Beau, sword lesbian Aurelia and her wife Sam, mysterious pizza delivery stoner Sunshine, and, oh yeah, Wendy’s ex-girlfriend Leah—have to team up to stay alive, save Pride, and track the zombie outbreak to its shocking source. Hopefully without killing each other first.The Z Word is a propulsive, funny, emotional horror debut about a found family coming together to fight corporate greed, political corruption, gay drama, and zombies.Lindsay King-Miller is the author of Ask a Queer Chick: A Guide to Sex, Love, and Life for Girls who Dig Girls (Plume, 2016) and The Z Word (Quirk, 2024). Her fiction has appeared in Fireside Fiction, Baffling Magazine,and numerous other publications. Her second novel This Is My Body is forthcoming from Quirk Books in 2025. She lives in Denver, CO with her partner and their two children. Billie Sainwood is a queer, trans poet and writer from Atlanta. Her work has been featured in the The Passionfruit Review, Don't Submit Magazine, and en*gendered magazine. Her first poetry collection, WHAT WAS EATEN WAS GIVEN, is forthcoming in July from Kith Books. She keeps a diary of her inspirations and neuroses online at billiewritespoems.com/.This event is free and open to all people, especially to those who have no income or low income right now, but we encourage and appreciate a solidarity donation in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Charis Circle's mission is to foster sustainable feminist communities, work for social justice, and encourage the expression of diverse and marginalized voices. donatenow.networkforgood.org/CharisCircle?code=chariscirclepage
WHAT IT TAKES TO HEAL: HOW TRANSFORMING OURSELVES CAN CHANGE THE WORLD-PRENTIS HEMPHILL ALICIA GARZA Charis Circle 2024-06-12 | Charis and Auburn Avenue Research Library welcome Prentis Hemphill in conversation with Alicia Garza for a discussion of What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World. From one of the most prominent voices in the trauma conversation comes a groundbreaking new way to heal on a personal and a collective level.As we emerge from the past few years of collective upheaval, are we ready to face the complexities of our time with joy, authenticity, and connection? Now more than ever, we must learn to heal ourselves, connect with one another, and embody our values. In this revolutionary book, Prentis Hemphill shows us how.What It Takes to Heal asserts that the principles of embodiment—the recognition of our body’s sensations and habits, and the beliefs that inform them—are critical to lasting healing and change. Hemphill, an expert embodiment practitioner, therapist, and activist who has partnered with Brené Brown, Tarana Burke, and Esther Perel, among others, shows us that we don't have to carry our emotional burdens alone. Hemphill demonstrates a future in which healing is done in community, weaving together stories from their own experience as a trauma survivor with clinical accounts and lessons learned from their time as a social movement architect. They ask, “What would it do to movements, to our society and culture, to have the principles of healing at the very center? And what does it do to have healing at the center of every structure and everything we create?”In this life-affirming framework for the way forward, Hemphill shows us how to heal our bodies, minds, and souls—to develop the interpersonal skills necessary to break down the doors of disconnection and take the necessary risks to reshape our world toward justice.Prentis Hemphill is a writer, embodiment facilitator, political organizer, and therapist. They are the founder and director of the Embodiment Institute and the Black Embodiment Initiative, and the host of the acclaimed podcast Finding Our Way. Their work and writing have appeared in The New York Times, HuffPost, You Are Your Best Thing (edited by Tarana Burke and Brené Brown), and Holding Change (by adrienne maree brown).Alicia Garza: Alicia believes that Black communities deserve what all communities deserve -- to be powerful in every aspect of their lives. An author, political strategist, organizer, and cheeseburger enthusiast, Alicia founded the Black Futures Lab in 2018 to make Black communities powerful in politics. In 2023, the Black Futures Lab conducted the Black Census Project -- the largest survey of Black communities in US history. Alicia is the co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter and the Black Lives Matter Global Network, an international organizing project to end state violence and oppression against Black people. The Black Lives Matter Global Network now has 40 chapters in four countries. She currently serves as the Senior Vice President for Movement Infrastructure and Explorations at the JPB Foundation. Alicia is the co-founder of Supermajority, a new home for women’s activism, and a Senior Advisor to the President at the National Domestic Workers Alliance.Alicia has become a powerful voice in the media, contributing expert commentary on politics, race, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity. Her work has been featured in Time, MSNBC, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Guardian. She has received numerous accolades and recognitions, including being on the cover of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World issue (September 2020), named to TIME’s 100 Women of the Year list (March 2020), and is a 3x recipient of The Root’s list of 100 African American achievers and influencers. Alicia has received the Sydney Peace Prize, Adweek Beacon Award, Glamour’s Women of the Year Award, Marie Claire’s New Guard Award, and was honored as a Community Change Agent at BET’s Black Girls Rock Awards.Alicia’s first book, The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart, was released October 20, 2020, with One World (Penguin Random House.) She shares her thoughts on politics and pop culture on her podcast, Lady Don't Take No. Alicia warns you -- hashtags don’t start movements. People do.
HOUSEMATES: EMMA COPLEY EISENBERG IN CONVERSATION WITH CARMEN MARIA MACHADO Charis Circle 2024-06-12 | Charis welcomes Emma Copley Eisenberg in conversation with Carmen Maria Machado for a celebration of Housemates: A Novel. Two young housemates embark on a road trip to discover themselves in this sparkling novel of love, friendship, and chosen family in a fractured America, by the award-winning author of The Third Rainbow Girl.When Bernie replies to Leah’s ad for a new housemate in Philadelphia, the two begin an intense and defiantly uncategorizable friendship based on a mutual belief in their art, and one another. Both aspire to capture the world around them: Leah through her writing; Bernie through her photography.After Bernie’s former photography professor, the renowned yet tarnished Daniel Dunn, dies and leaves her a complicated inheritance, Leah volunteers to accompany Bernie to his home in rural Pennsylvania, turning the jaunt into a road trip with an ambitious mission: to document America through words and photographs.What ensues is a journey into the heart of the nation, bringing the housemates into conversation with people from all walks of life—“the absurd dreamers and failures of this wide, wide country”— as they try to make sense of the times they are living in. Along the way, Leah and Bernie discover what it means to chase their own ideas and dreams, and to embrace what they are capable of both romantically and artistically.Warm and insightful, Housemates is a story of youth and freedom—a glorious celebration of queer life, and how art and love might save us all.Emma Copley Eisenberg is a queer writer of fiction and nonfiction. Her first book, The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia, was named a New York Times Notable Book and was nominated for an Edgar Award, a Lambda Literary Award, and an Anthony Award, among other honors. Her fiction has appeared in Granta, McSweeney’s, VQR, American Short Fiction, and other publications. Raised in New York City, she lives in Philadelphia, where she co-founded Blue Stoop, a community hub for the literary arts.Carmen Maria Machado is the author of the bestselling memoir In the Dream House, the graphic novel The Low, Low Woods, and the award-winning short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the winner of the Bard Fiction Prize, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Nonfiction, the Brooklyn Public Library Literature Prize, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize. In 2018, the New York Times listed Her Body and Other Parties as a member of "The New Vanguard," one of "15 remarkable books by women that are shaping the way we read and write fiction in the 21st century."Her essays, fiction, poetry, and criticism have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Granta, Vogue, This American Life, Harper’s Bazaar, Tin House, McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, The Believer, Guernica, Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, Best American Nonrequired Reading, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Guggenheim Foundation, The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. She is the former Abrams Artist-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania.This event is free and open to all people, especially to those who have no income or low income right now, but we encourage and appreciate a solidarity donation in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Charis Circle's mission is to foster sustainable feminist communities, work for social justice, and encourage the expression of diverse and marginalized voices. donatenow.networkforgood.org/CharisCircle?code=chariscirclepage
FOR TIMES SUCH AS THESE: A RADICALS GUIDE TO THE JEWISH YEAR Charis Circle 2024-06-03 | Charis welcomes Rabbis Ariana Katz and Jessica Rosenberg in conversation with Amy Jaret for a discussion of For Times Such as These: A Radical's Guide to the Jewish Year, a revolutionary guide to Jewish practice rooted in social justice, feminism, and queer liberation. This event is co-hosted with the Jewish Voices for Peace Atlanta (JVP). JVP Atlanta envisions a world where all people - from the US to Palestine - live in freedom, justice, equality, and dignity. They believe that through organizing, we can and will dismantle the institutions and structures that sustain injustice and grow something new, joyful, beautiful, and life-sustaining in their place. This contemporary companion to the Jewish year cycle is not only a bellwether for radical Jews who want their lives and practice to be rooted in their political commitments but also an educational resource in Jewish tradition, holidays, and ritual. With a chapter for each month of the Hebrew calendar, For Times Such as These offers spiritual practices and holiday rituals rooted in movements for racial justice, decolonization, feminism, and queer and trans liberation. Each chapter opens with an invocation by liturgist and healer Dori Midnight and illuminated by artist Sol Weiss. Highlighting each month's spiritual and cultural qualities, Rabbi Ariana Katz and Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg summarize and provide commentary on Torah readings; examine the texts, histories, and contemporary customs of Jewish holidays; and offer questions to reflect on and engage spiritually with the month. This work provides a guide for creative action and ritual making throughout the seasons, an exploration of anti-Zionist Judaism, and spiritual-cultural invitation to embody and expand decolonial, anti-racist, queer, and feminist Jewish practice.Rabbi Ariana Katz is the founding rabbi of Hinenu: The Baltimore Justice Shtiebl, a warm and joyful congregation in Baltimore, Maryland. Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg is an organizer, activist, and writer based in South Minneapolis. They are members of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council and core organizers of the Radical Jewish Calendar project. Amy Jaret is a daughter, mother, teacher, and Jewish organizer raised on Muskogee Land in Atlanta, GA. Her Judaism is a mash-up of Orthodox and Conserv-odox early education, lessons learned as a rare observant Jew in public school, the Quaker values she immersed herself in during college, and an anti-Zionist politic that invites us to question assumptions we make about safety, security, fear, and “the other,” and centers the Jewish experience in Diaspora as one that is personally meaningful and deeply connects us with history and with the land. Amy (jokingly) identifies as an interfaith rebbetzin, as she is about to celebrate ten years with her spouse, Darci, a pastor at Atlanta’s Park Avenue Baptist Church. Currently, Amy organizes with Jewish Voice for Peace Atlanta, as a convenor of the JVP Havurah, which holds space for Jewish cultural and ritual experiences beyond Zionism.
QUEERING CONTEMPLATION: FINDING QUEERNESS IN THE ROOTS AND FUTURE OF CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY Charis Circle 2024-06-03 | Charis welcomes Cassidy Hall in conversation with Dr. Lerita Coleman Brown for a discussion of Queering Contemplation: Finding Queerness in the Roots and Future of Contemplative Spirituality. What would it mean to queer contemplation? To disentangle contemplative spirituality from heteronormativity, patriarchy, and Eurocentricity, and instead engage with openness, curiosity, and a little weirdness?The world of contemplative Christianity has yielded to the same voices for far too long, many of whom are from centuries before our time, with lives unlike our own, and often from experiences disconnected from marginalization, oppression, and what it feels like to be an outsider.Cassidy Hall, an LGBTQIA+ Christian contemplative scholar and podcast host, takes us on a journey to queer the contemplative tradition. For Hall, queering is not solely about identifying as queer or applying queer theory; it is about what is gained by seeing things differently. "Queer," she says, " is the way I tilt my head to look at the world."As queerness reawakened her own contemplative life, Hall discovered that queering and questioning the tradition allowed her to listen more closely to voices that are queer, marginalized, and oppressed--voices that have long existed but have often been overlooked or silenced. For Hall, that also meant moving differently into contemplation, into silence, into liminality and ritual. In showing us the way, she helps us envision what contemplative faith can look like, what spiritual spaces we can reclaim for welcome--and how queering contemplation, and lifting up queer contemplative voices, frees us to seek the infinite possibility of our own identity and engage our spiritual lives with open hearts and open hands. Whether you're queer or want to queer your own perspectives, or whether you want to uncover the queerness and queer voices in the contemplative tradition--Hall throws open the doors of contemplative spirituality for all, bringing us to contemplation in very new, sometimes old, but always queer ways.Cassidy Hall (she/her/hers) (MA, MDiv, MTS) is an author, award-winning filmmaker, podcaster, ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, and leading voice in contemplative spirituality. She is the cohost of the Encountering Silence podcast and the creator of the Contemplating Now and Queering Contemplation podcasts. Her films include In Pursuit of Silence and Day of a Stranger. Her forthcoming book, Queering Contemplation, Finding Queerness in the Roots and Future of Contemplative Spirituality is set for release in May of 2024. Cassidy is widely published and currently resides in Indianapolis, where she is studying for her DMin degree.Lerita Coleman Brown, PhD, Professor Emerita of Psychology, Agnes Scott College, is a spiritual director/companion, writer, retreat leader, and speaker. She earned her BA from UC Santa Cruz and PhD from Harvard University. Lerita completed the Spiritual Guidance Program at the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation and promotes contemplative spirituality, the living wisdom of Howard Thurman, and uncovering the peace and joy in one’s heart on her website, leritacolemanbrown.com and other social media platforms. She appears in the documentaries, Back Against the Wall: The Howard Thurman Story, and The Black Church: This is Our Story, This is Our Song. Her book, When the Heart Speaks, Listen—Discovering Inner Wisdom was published in 2019. Her newest book, What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Howard Thurman was published in 2023.. Lerita is a most grateful heart (28 years) and kidney (17 years) transplant recipient and survivor of several other medical ordeals.
MY CHILD IS TRANS, NOW WHAT?: A JOY-CENTERED APPROACH TO SUPPORT BEN V. GREENE WITH BEN ACKERLEY Charis Circle 2024-06-03 | Charis welcomes Ben V. Greene in conversation with Ben Ackerley for a discussion of My Child Is Trans, Now What?: A Joy-Centered Approach to Support, a powerful book for readers aiming to support trans youth that Booklist calls a "warm and generous book that] will help a wide range of readers" and Publishers Weekly says is "a pragmatic program for parenting beyond the gender binary." This event is co-sponsored by PFLAG, TransParent, and Pride Atlanta. As a full-time public speaker specializing in spreading awareness and understanding of the transgender community, what Ben Greene hears most from parents and loved ones is the phrase "I'm sorry." They're sorry for using the wrong word, sorry for asking an offensive question, sorry for not knowing this already, sorry for asking a question at all. The combination of exhaustion from trans people who have become their community's designated educator and the growing trend of "canceling" anyone who says anything wrong has created a culture where people who have good hearts and minimal access to information are so afraid to make a mistake they don't even try.In My Child is Trans, Now What? A Joy-Centered Approach to Support, Greene breaks the mold by offering a judgement-free guide to people across generations, from millennial parents to members of older generations who may not have had previous positive exposure to the trans community. Greene focuses on providing two key resources in this book: information and emotional support. He explains what to expect, what systems exist to support trans youth, and what loved ones can do to help. Using a combination of personal stories and experiences, definitions, and additional resources, My Child is Trans, Now What? is an essential guide for anyone looking to help trans youth thrive.Ben Greene is a trans man, transgender advocate, and educator who has spoken internationally on topics surrounding transgender inclusion. After coming out at 15 in small-town Connecticut and giving a popular TEDx talk at Brandeis University, Ben has devoted his career to spreading empathy, education, and storytelling around the trans experience. He has spoken for companies, hospitals, schools, religious organizations, and government entities sharing what it means to be transgender and how to show up as an ally.He is a fierce advocate for transgender youth, regularly speaking in their defense at the Missouri State Capitol, and when he is not speaking during working hours, he is delivering free presentations to parent support groups around the country and spending hours one-on-one with families of newly out transgender loved ones. He is passionate about educating others from a place of compassion—no matter where they’re starting from, and lives by the catchphrase “the only question I won’t answer is the question you don’t ask”. Ben Ackerley is a non-binary activist and parent of a transgender child, fighting for LGBTQ+ Equality in Georgia. They are building strong queer communities through the Georgia Chapter of TransParent, Georgia Rainbow Families, and as a Committee Chair with Atlanta Pride. TransParent is a national organization dedicated to supporting the parents and caregivers of transgender and gender-expansive kids. Ben serves as Co-leader of the Georgia Chapter of TransParent and the Coordinator for the TransParent National Support Groups.
GENDER STUDIES: THE CONFESSIONS OF AN ACCIDENTAL OUTLAW AJUAN MANCE WITH ASHBY COMBAHEE Charis Circle 2024-06-03 | Charis welcomes Ajuan Mance in conversation with Ashby Combahee for a discussion of Gender Studies: The Confessions of an Accidental Outlaw. In Gender Studies: True Confessions of an Accidental Outlaw, Ajuan Mance gives comic treatment to the challenges, complexities, and occasional absurdity of life at the crossroads of race, gender, and geekiness. This graphic memoir answers important questions like: How many preschoolers have to mistake you for your dad before you actually start to forget your own name; if a Black girl is awful at double-dutch jump rope is it a reflection on her gender identity, racial identity, or both; and is viola player a gender or just a sexual orientation? Ajuan Mance’s comic confessions take up each of these questions and more, as it invites to share in those moments that mark the path of a gender explorer.Ajuan Mance is a Professor of African American literature at Mills College in Oakland, California. A prolific artist and writer, Ajuan's books include LIVING WHILE BLACK (Chronicle Books) and 1001 BLACK MEN (Stacked Deck Press). Ajuan's new book, WHAT DO BROTHAS DO ALL DAY? (Chronicle Books), is her first picture book.Ajuan’s illustrations and comics have also appeared in several anthologies, including, DRAWING POWER (Abrams Press), winner of the 2020 Eisner Award for Best Anthology. Her academic collections include INVENTING BLACK WOMEN and BEFORE HARLEM, both with the University of Tennessee Press. You can learn more about Ajuan at AjuanMance.com.Ashby Combahee (s/he/they) is a Black queer memory worker from the South. She is a full-time librarian and archivist at the Highlander Research and Education Center. Ashby has worked on numerous community oral history projects, including Georgia Dusk: a southern liberation oral history, the New York Public Library Community Oral History Project, Black Women’s Blueprint Truth and Reconciliation Commission partnership with Threshold Collaborative, the Womanist Working Collective, and the Georgia Transgender Oral History Project. For Ashby, preserving and engaging collective memory is vital to sustaining impactful political movements. Using oral history as a catalyst for reflection and dialogue, Ashby believes that the most impactful learning opportunities develop by interrogating our lived experiences.
CONSTELLATIONS OF CARE: ANARCHA-FEMINISM IN PRACTICE A DISCUSSION WITH CINDY BARUKH MILSTEIN Charis Circle 2024-05-22 | What do we do when the state has abandoned us? From failing health systems to housing crises to cascading ecological collapse, it's increasingly evident that state-centered politics do not protect us from the violence of colonialism and capitalism, fascism, and patriarchy. In fact, they actively work to harm us. Charis welcomes editor Cindy Barukh Milstein for a community discussion of Constellations of Care: Anarcha-Feminism in Practice.Anarchist feminism—or anarcha-feminism—shows us how we tend to our social relations can build a new world inside the old one. We can care for each other when nothing else will, supplying communal well-being and liberatory horizons. From communitarian kitchens to medic collectives, squatted social centers to queer theater troupes, Ljubljana to Mexico City, Constellations of Care powerfully underscores that we already have everything we need and desire in one another to carve out lives worth living.Cindy Barukh Milstein is a diasporic queer Jewish anarchist and longtime organizer. They've been writing on anarchism for over two decades, and are the author of Anarchism and Its Aspirations and Try Anarchism for Life: The Beauty of Our Circle. They edited the anthologies Rebellious Mourning: The Collective Work of Grief and Deciding for Ourselves: The Promise of Direct Democracy, among others.This event is free and open to all people, especially to those who have no income or low income right now, but we encourage and appreciate a solidarity donation in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Charis Circle's mission is to foster sustainable feminist communities, work for social justice, and encourage the expression of diverse and marginalized voices. donatenow.networkforgood.org/CharisCircle?code=chariscirclepage
CLITERATI OPEN MIC FEATURING: HANNAH V. WARREN IN CELEBRATION OF SLAUGHTERHOUSE FOR OLD WIVES TALES Charis Circle 2024-05-22 | Charis and Cliterati pair up to present an inviting and fierce open mic & reading series that celebrates new voices and seasoned veterans alike. Co-hosted by Karen G. and Theresa Davis, all are welcome to come and share their work. If you would like to participate as a reader or performer, all you need to do is arrive by 7:15 pm ET to sign up on the list. If you are a non-acoustic musician and would like to plug your instrument into our sound system, please contact info@chariscircle.org ahead of time to let us know so we can have the right setup for you! There are no genre, style, or form requirements, but please keep your set to under five minutes to allow everyone to have a turn! This month's featured poet is Hannah V. Warren in celebration of Slaughterhouse for Old Wives' Tales. Slaughterhouse for Old Wives' Tales, Hannah V Warren's full-length debut, is a visceral collection that is not only read but also felt in the body. These fertile poems trace the lineage of hunger from mother to daughter to sister. Beginning with an excavation of dinosaurs, Warren's writing explores evolution-where we come from, what we offer, and what is left behind "when we plant our tree bodies." This is a collection of bones and organs. The line between flesh and earth, human and animal, blurs in its gorgeous, gruesome descriptions. Warren weaves language in ways that birth new meaning- "tender gash," "rotmouth," "skindamp," "lung-wide." Slaughterhouse for Old Wives' Tales will leave you breathless, haunted, and ravenous for more.Hannah V Warren is the author of Slaughterhouse for Old Wives’ Tales (Sundress 2024) and two chapbooks. Her poetry and translations appear in Gulf Coast, Passages North, Crazyhorse, and Denver Quarterly, among others. A poet, translator, and Fulbright Scholar, Hannah has an MFA and a PhD in creative writing and literature; her research and writing interests often center on monstrous aesthetics, post/apocalypse literature, and representations of alterity. Originally from Mississippi, Hannah now lives in Athens, GA.
DO YOU EVEN KNOW ME?: STORYTIME AND CONVERSATION WITH REEM FARUQI Charis Circle 2024-05-22 | Charis welcomes author Reem Faruqi in conversation with illustrator Ani Bushry for a storytime reading of Do You Even Know Me? an empowering picture book about a girl who stands up for her Muslim culture and identity and counters bullying with love, peace, and kindness.My name is Salma, which means peace. Islam also means peace. I wish more people knew that.Salma is Muslim, an identity she takes pride in. But not everyone understands Salma’s religion the way she does, including news reporters, and even a boy in her class, who bullies Salma for belonging to the culture and faith she loves. However, when things go too far, Salma says, “Enough is enough!” and finds the courage to defend herself while also spreading a message of peace. Reem Faruqi is the award-winning children’s book author of “Lailah’s Lunchbox,” a book based on her own experiences as a young Muslim girl immigrating to the United States. She’s also the author of “Amira’s Picture Day,” “I Can Help,” “Milloo’s Mind,” “Anisa’s International Day,” and three middle grade novels in verse, “Unsettled,” “Golden Girl,” and “Call Me Adnan,” many of which received starred reviews. After surviving Atlanta traffic and the school drop off, Reem spends her days trying to write, but instead gets distracted easily by her camera and buttery sunlight. Reem Faruqi lives in Atlanta with her husband and daughters. You can find her at www.ReemFaruqi.com or on Instagram or Twitter.
MEET ME THERE: FEATURING ESSENTIAL QUEER VOICES OF U.S. POETRY Charis Circle 2024-05-15 | "Meet Me There" is a monthly intergenerational poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction experience curated by trans/genderqueer poet and sound artist Samuel Ace. Writers exploring genre and gender boundaries will be a special focus of this series. This event takes place on the second Thursday of each month at 7:30pm ET. Some months our readings will take place at Charis Books with an option to watch virtually, and some months the event will be fully virtual, so be sure to check the listing!May's featured poets are Christopher Nelson (editor), Jos Charles, Rajiv Mohabir, and Magdalena Zurawski from the anthology, Essential Queer Voices of U.S. Poetry. Featured PoetsChristopher Nelson is the author of Blood Aria (University of Wisconsin Press, 2021) and four chapbooks, including Blue House, winner of a Poetry Society of America Fellowship. The recipient of the 2023–24 Amy Lowell Traveling Scholarship, he is the founding editor of Under a Warm Green Linden and Green Linden Press, a nonprofit publisher dedicated to poetic excellence and reforestation. His anthology Essential Voices: Poetry of Iran and Its Diaspora received a Midwest Book Award and was named one of the best poetry books of the year by Entropy Magazine. Jos Charles is author of the poetry collections a Year & other poems (Milkweed Editions, 2022), feeld, a Pulitzer-finalist and winner of the 2017 National Poetry Series selected by Fady Joudah (Milkweed Editions, 2018), and Safe Space (Ahsahta Press, 2016). She teaches as a part of Randolph College's low-residency MFA program and resides in Long Beach, CA.Poet, memoirist, and translator, Rajiv Mohabir is the author of four books of poetry including Whale Aria (Four Way Books 2023), Cutlish (Four Way Books 2021) which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and recipient of the Eric Hoffer Medal Provocateur. His poetry and nonfiction have been finalists for the 2022 PEN/America Open Book Award, the Lambda Literary Award in Poetry and in Nonfiction, the Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction, and both second place and finalist for the Guyana Prize for Literature in 2022 (poetry and memoir respectively). His translations have won the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the American Academy of Poets in 2020. He is an assistant professor of poetry at the University of Colorado Boulder.Magdalena Zurawski's novel The Bruise was published in 2008 by FC2/University of Alabama Press. It received both a 2008 Lambda Award and the 2007 Ronald Sukenick- American Book Review Innovative Fiction Prize. Litmus Press published her poetry collection Companion Animal in 2015, which won the Norma Faber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. Her most recent collection, The Tiniest Muzzle Sings Songs of Freedom, came out from Wave Books in the spring of 2019. The Operating System released Zurawski’s poem/essay Don’t Be Scared as a chapbook in Summer 2019 and her essay Being Human is an Occult Practice was published by Ugly Duckling Presse in Fall 2020.Zurawski was a 2022-23 Fulbright Scholar in Poland, where she traced family war histories for her current book project and began translating poet Miron Bialoszewski's prose work, Heart Attack.
BUT WHAT WILL PEOPLE SAY?: NAVIGATING MENTAL HEALTH, IDENTITY, LOVE, AND FAMILY BETWEEN CULTURES Charis Circle 2024-05-14 | Charis welcomes Sahaj Kaur Kohli in conversation with Dr. Mariel Buqué for a discussion of But What Will People Say?: Navigating Mental Health, Identity, Love, and Family Between Cultures, a deeply personal, paradigm-shifting book rethinking traditional therapy and self-care, creating much-needed space for those left out of the narrative. This event is co-sponsored by Raksha, Inc. Raksha's mission is to promote a stronger and healthier South Asian community through confidential support services, education, and advocacy. Raksha works towards healing, empowerment, and justice for survivors of violence.Writer and therapist Sahaj Kaur Kohli grew up knowing exactly what it means to straddle multiple cultures at once. Like many children of immigrants, she has often found herself plagued by questions: Can I establish my own values and embrace where I come from? Is prioritizing my mental health really rejecting my culture? How do I set boundaries and care for myself when family and community mean everything? Even after becoming a therapist herself, she saw those same gaps in the mental health world, leading her to wonder, like so many children of immigrants: what about us?While conversations around mental health are becoming increasingly open, our models remain largely Eurocentric and focused on individuality. Sahaj has sought to challenge these long-held models, using deep personal reflection, therapy, community building, and a whole lot of trial and error, eventually navigating her own way to understanding and acceptance. Here, she shows us how to get there, all the while reminding us that personal healing is inextricably connected to collective healing.But What Will People Say? elegantly weaves together personal narrative, anecdotal analysis, and comprehensive research. Sahaj offers advice and tools for everything from navigating generational trauma, guilt, and boundaries, to breaking down stigmas around therapy and celebrating cultural duality. Democratizing and decolonizing the way we think about mental health and self-help, Sahaj’s incredible work is nothing short of a revolution.Sahaj Kaur Kohli is the founder of Brown Girl Therapy (@browngirltherapy), the first and largest mental health and wellness community organization for adult children of immigrants, a licensed therapist, and a columnist for the Washington Post’s advice column Ask Sahaj. Sahaj’s words and work have been featured in Today, Good Morning America, CNN, The New York Times, HuffPost, and others. Sahaj also serves as a consultant, educator and international speaker. She has sat on panels and delivered workshops and keynotes for The White House, Amazon, Google, Athenahealth, Merck, JPMorgan Chase, LinkedIn, UNICEF, among others.Dr. Mariel Buqué is an Afro-Latina psychologist and CEO of Break the Cycle of Trauma, where her mission is to help reduce the recurrence of Intergenerational ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences). She earned her doctoral degree in psychology at Columbia University, where she also trained as a holistic mental health fellow within Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC). In this role, she helped to build and implement an integrated system of care in specialty clinics across Columbia Medical, with a focus on helping Black and Latine community members overcome trauma and build better overall health. She continues to carry this mission into her consultation with health organizations and Fortune 500 companies. Dr. Buqué is the author of the bestselling book Break the Cycle: A Guide to Healing Intergenerational Trauma.Dr. Buqué is widely sought out for her clinical expertise and trauma approach and her work, newsletter, and can be found at www.drmarielbuque.com.
SURVIVAL TAKES A WILD IMAGINATION: FARIHA ROISIN IN CONVERSATION WITH DR. BANAH GHADBIAN Charis Circle 2024-05-13 | Charis welcomes Fariha Róisín in conversation with Dr. Banah Ghadbian for a discussion of Survival Takes a Wild Imagination: Poems. In the powerful follow up to her critically acclaimed debut collection, poet and activist Fariha Róisín is writing, praying, clawing, and scratching her way out of the grips of generational trauma on the search for the freedom her mother never received and the kindness she couldn’t give.This collection of poetry asks a kaleidoscope of questions: Who is my family? My father? How do I love a mother no longer here? Can I see myself? What does it mean to be Bangladeshi? What is a border? Innately hopeful and resolutely strong, Fariha's voice turns to the optimism and beauty inherent in rebuilding the self, and in turn, the world that the self moves through. Ubiquitous to the human experience, Survival Takes a Wild Imagination is an illuminating breath of fresh air from a powerful poetic voice.Fariha Róisín is a multidisciplinary artist, born in Ontario, Canada. She was raised in Sydney, Australia, and is based in Los Angeles, California. As a Muslim queer Bangladeshi, she is interested in the margins, liminality, otherness, and the mercurial nature of being. Her work has pioneered a refreshing and renewed conversation about wellness, contemporary Islam, and queer identities. Róisín is the author of How To Cure A Ghost, Like A Bird, Who Is Wellness For? An Examination of Wellness Culture and Who it Leaves Behind, and her second book of poetry, Survival Takes A Wild Imagination. Dr. Banah Ghadbian (they/them) is a Syrian poet and professor of Comparative Women’s Studies at Spelman College. They hold a PhD in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, San Diego, a Masters in Ethnic Studies, and a BA in Comparative Women’s Studies and Sociology from Spelman College. As an undergrad they founded the Students for Justice in Palestine at Spelman. Dr. Ghadbian has worked around the world with Syrian and Palestinian refugee youth including as a translator with Palestinian Youth Movement in refugee camps in Greece and as a teacher at the Syrian Women’s Association in Amman, Jordan. Dr. Ghadbian co-founded an arts-based healing space for Syrian and Palestinian refugee youth called Arab Youth Collective (now the Majdal Center) in El Cajon, California. Dr. Ghadbian is the recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award from Faculty Women of Color in the Academy (FWCA). They won the Diverse Voices Prize from Dzanc Books for their first collection of poetry, La Syrena: Visions of a Syrian Mermaid From Space. Dr. Ghadbian is a member of Palestinian Feminist Collective and Demilitarize Atlanta to Palestine. You can read their work in Mizna, Poetry Northwest, Bahr Mag, the Journal of Middle Eastern Women’s Studies, the Women’s Review of Books, and more. Their research is on the creative work Syrian and Palestinian women conjure during revolution and war. The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate or in person the night of the event.
