The Free List

The Free List : Vol. 1, No. 5

GIVE HER HERE

“If love cannot exist without mutuality,

And mutuality cannot be real without freedom

If freedom is

'the ability to Be in truth without retaliation.' ((retaliation))

If love is not possession

Subjugation

Manipulation

Hold hold hold on--

If you have touched me for centuries without asking

because you ‘love’ me

And “love” is out of your control

And I am controlled by your lack of control

Because you control control,

or you’ve said that it is so

So much for so long that it is true

because

Speaking is truth

And writing is truth

And (The Real) Truth lives beyond the access to the pen that would set us free

Then

there is no Love

here!

America

Is still making herself.”

— Jillian Walker, from Songs of Speculation, September-October, 2018.

The RADIO EDIT of Songs of Speculation

Here

See

see.

Bre. Me. We. Be.

Want to Be?

(Okurrrrr!)

Be ok.

— 4:26pm, September 2020

“How do we enact this general entanglement of abolition, exodus and presencing? That means doing shit differently right now, right where we are, right now.
In doing shit differently right where we are right now, we leave the here and now. We exit that fucked-up present in the interest of our own radical presencing. In the interest of the making of a new present that we enact. And that’s the practice of abolition we’re interested in trying to engage in with other folks, too.”
— Fred Moten, “Fred Moten & Stefano Harney — ‘the university: last words,’” streamed live, July 9, 2020.

Begin

See.

See the horizon now?

It’s wet with promise

And promise is always kept,

here.

Hips wind

whips are for binding up consensual partners and

the lies we keep in the cellar

To remember

Where we came from.

It’s impossible to go back, though.

Because back is a mirage

And we finally figured that out.

Shout, hallelujah!

Somebody

give some praise

Somewhere

Give. Her. some. praise.

give

give her

Here.

Somebody turn on the light.

Look out toward the west :

See where the kids are sitting together

to learn their weaving lesson

today? and they’ve also

decided that later, they

‘gon teach us all that new

Dance we saw them—ok, ok,

caught them doing when

they was posed to be sleep,

but we let it go.

And that new lipstick (!!!)

everybody’s wearing because

We have that surplus of that

Plant nobody like to eat —

not even the rats that be

comin around sometimes

when they aren’t happy with the treaty

and we need to

renegotiate.

That lipstick. How it doesn’t

taste bitter when the Plant

so bitter is miraculous,

and it's such a good color on

Everybody because of how it

changes in the light and

seeps into the crease of everybody lip

Just so.

So they gon teach us that dance

Later, and we’re still programming

That sun catcher to make the

Milkshake maker do its thing.

And that vinyl restoration program

is going well.

Did anybody check on Jillian?, Good.

You know,

She’s enjoying that elder training she’s doing with

Toni Morrison and

Ntozake Shange and Octavia and

Lorraine Hansberry and sometimes they let Baldwin sit

In the temple, too, even though he don’t pass all the criteria.

I’m so glad we could help put her in touch.

Where’s Toi? — Good.

The twins? Good.

I love you, too.

See you at the counsel meeting later!

~

All of the work here is brought to you by the gifts of our Ancestors; seen and unseen, known and unknown. May we remember our rising, may we light the shadows. May we all together thrive.