top of page
THE QC WHITE_edited_edited.jpg

The QC,

a journal

We All Have a Part to Play: Turning to Beloved Community Rising for Poetic Tactics

Writer's picture: Jason WymanJason Wyman

On Monday, January 20, 2025, the Culture Tending Collective & Commons held Beloved Community Rising, a virtual gathering of organizers, non-profit workers, entrepreneurs, and artists in circle as a means to ground ourselves and share space to make meaning of the current moment. Our title comes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who frequently spoke the need for Beloved Community as we face change and fight for justice. Now more than ever, we need each other if we want to have a planet for our future generations, one that is filled with liberation, justice, and love.


One of my cultural practices is to take conversations and turn them into poems. I do this mostly through a performance installation I call Chaos Poetry. I’ve been doing it for over a decade, and it is a way for me to reflect back to someone the power of their being.


I applied that same practice to the notes from our Beloved Community Rising gathering. What came from it is is more than just a poem. It is a map that details what is possible and how we get there.


One message rang clear through all our responses: We all have a part to play.


This post is cross-promoted on www.culturetending.com.


A bright pink and orange sky at sunset. In the foreground are electric poles with wires criss-crossing everywhere. In the background is Sutro Tower on Twin Peaks in San Francisco.

We all have a part to play. There is a crisis of meaning for we do not tell the truth of our history. We do not call ourselves savages, though our origins are savage. We are filled with empty calories, never discerning what to swallow or what to spit out. Isolation keeps us disconnected; all flattens into The One Truth. And the Right to Remain Silent also silences. “Everybody can see what is happening.” We all have a part to play. Take a long, deep breath; exhale; repeat. Become aware of the rhythms of your body, the curve of your spine. Articulate. Twist. Curl. Expand. Soften your gaze; blur edges together; erase the borders between all. Let flow thought & memory & dream & be. You are you whenever wherever you are you whenever wherever… We all have a part to play. This is our medicine bag: The mountains & chocolate & watercolors & protest & cooking & learning & screaming & dancing & slowness & strength & ease & sex & an emotional support saw. A community of expansive, inclusive care and belonging, of trustworthy, loving people, of solidarity across differences, of people I don’t necessarily like, of being without judgment, of those who call me on my bullshit. Deep, lasting commitments to reciprocity with land, to passing through and not holding on, to rest and self care, to making beautiful things, to figuring out joy for myself and sharing it with others, to being a source of connection, to bashing assholes over the head with granny’s cast iron skillet. We all have a part to play. A closing in circle A hug to our heart Affirmed and hopeful More calm inside Love for all Do not feel so alone Grounded, supported, authentic foundation “Everybody can see what is happening.” And we all have a part to play.


“Everybody can see what is happening,” is a quote from James and Grace Lee Boggs in Revolution and Evolution in the Twentieth Century, published in 1974 by Monthly Review Press Classics. It can be found on page 258.

Share

Previous

2 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All
  • alt.text.label.Facebook
  • alt.text.label.Instagram
  • alt.text.label.YouTube

©2024 by Queerly Complex

bottom of page