I mostly want to talk about pleasure these days. Later in the evening many conference attendees gathered around dream’s table overlooking the city, and the pleasure principle was the center of our conversation. We went out and got “sun all over” our skins, as richard pryor taught us. slowly, laughter, sweetness, hugs and pleasure helped us to acknowledge that a constant truth of our lives right now is grief, but we are complex, we have so much resilience. to see it with others, with a sacred sound around all of us, was deeply moving.Īfterwards a group of us sat, immobilized with grief. i have chosen not to watch most of the footage that comes out, i know we are under attack. i must say it was a shocking transition – the work, her voice, were so powerful. i was whooping and hollering with joy!Ībby dobson came up and sang while a video of women assaulted and killed by the state played, uplifting the #sayhername campaign to make clear that black women, cis and trans, are being targeted and killed by the state. To close out the session, both women spoke about the role that masturbation has in their self-care, creative and work processes. I, of course, was the loudest member of the amen chorus in the audience. dream spoke about the patterns of mass incarceration and drug sales, advocating for the right of black people to use and sell weed without being criminalized. the speakers were dream hampton and favianna rodriguez, talking about this moment for Detroit, for Oakland, for artists and activists.įavi showed some of her more recent work, which is focused on challenging the phobias that make us feel shame around our desires and bodies, pussy power, claiming the human right of pleasure. In another room folks were writing poetry with tawana, another group was foraging in the wilds of Detroit with shane and mama myrtle, and another group was processing grief with sounds and song with rebecca and ron.Īfter the workshops we all gathered together for a call and response. i offered a workshop called Writing the Future where i had folks do future memoir entries about art they had been a part of that shifted the course of human history. The day started off with six workshops to immerse people in innovative artistic practices for social justice. the effort of this work is to address the changing demographics of the US and understand the role art has in shifting narrative and opening justice-based futures. Yesterday i got to be a part of Arts in a Changing America – ReMap: Detroit.

Pleasure activism adrienne maree brown