Tuesday, September 16, 2014

The Shape of My Impact: A Virtual Conversation on Survival and the Academic Industrial Complex

zp_audre-lorde-in-berlin_1984_photograph-c2a9-dagmar-schultz“I love the word survival, it always sounds to me like a promise.  It makes me wonder sometimes though, how do I define the shape of my impact upon this earth?” –
reflection cut from an early draft of “Eye to Eye: Black Women, Hatred and Anger” by Audre Lorde (Audre Lorde Papers, Spelman College Archive)
Shape of My Impact Conversation 
Wednesday Sept, 17th 7pm-9pm EDT
This Back to School Brilliance Remastered Webinar is an opportunity for community accountable scholars to support each other and access resources designed to helps us all activate our brilliance in collaboration with the communities we love. This discussion will center on Brilliance Remastered founder Alexis Pauline Gumbs's article on survival and the academic industrial complex entitled "The Shape of My Impact" and published at The Feminist Wire in October 2012.  "The Shape of My Impact" has circulated over the past two years and has resonated with many community accountable scholars.   Recently, several community accountable scholars have reached out about a space to discuss the issues that the article raises.    This is that space! The article is available here:  http://thefeministwire.com/2012/10/the-shape-of-my-impact/ Come join online or via phone to talk about how draw on the insights of earlier generations of community accountable scholars to navigate the academic industrial complex and how to support each other as we deal with the realities of the neoliberalization of the university.   This dialogue will be facilitated by Alexis Pauline Gumbs and is the perfect place for anyone who is interested in building subversive intellectual community and talking about strategies for living the dream.  Register for free or with a donation at eventbrite here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/brilliance-remastered-broadcast-the-shape-of-my-impact-tickets-13111269159

Monday, May 06, 2013

Brilliance Remastered: New Opportunities to Get Involved!

Greetings Bright Thunder!

This is the season of transition that every species participates in!  Everything around us is growing pollinating and responding with unbelievably bright enthusiasm to grey skies and rain.  And what about us? This life-changing May Brilliance Remastered has a number of ways to honor transition and to prepare for the best summer ever! Scroll down or click on the links below to learn more about:
Locally Grown Garden Walks Continue
Special Online Office Hours in May
Community is Not A Luxury Summer Cohort Sign Up
Summer Lovin' Custom Organizational Retreats in NC
Remastered Tools 101 Downloadable Course

Garden Walks Continue!!!

historic-terraces-at-duke-gardens-6
I enjoyed April's Garden Walks so much that I am continuing to  celebrate my favorite season in Durham, focusing my energy on the community I love!!!!!  Are you or someone you know someone who could benefit from a personalized Brilliance Remastered Conversation this Spring?
Maybe you are about to graduate from something or about to embark on your own social justice minded project.  Maybe you are ready to have a breakthrough around making your creative or intellectual work more community accountable.  Maybe you are hoping to launch an art project that will make our world a better place.  Maybe you need to quit your job and are looking for a way to transition out.  Maybe you want to make your side project the center of your life.  Maybe you just know a walk and conversation with Sista Docta Lex about your passionate work would increase its value for our whole community.  If that is you or someone you love you should sign up for a garden walk!  (Also if your accessibility or allergy needs call for it we can certainly sit in a garden or walk near a river or do something else.)
So here is how it works!
1.  Sign up for one of only 6 available one hour walks (Monday and Wednesday afternoons from May 8-27)
2.  Send an email to Lex at brillianceremastered@gmail.com about what you are up to right now and your hopes and dreams for our conversation.
3.  Recirculate the love!  Donate $50 to Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind (the same donation that folks not lucky enough to live in or near Durham pay for a phone consultation) OR donate $25 and a delicious healthy vegetarian meal that can feed Lex and Julia!

Talk with Lex During Transition Time: Special May Office Hours

Since May is a time of major transition for many intellectuals, during May 2013 I will be conducting special online office hours on Wednesdays 10am-2pm EST free for existing participants and at the regular hourly ($50) rate for new folks!
The theme for May's office hours is transition.  Has Spring outside shown you how much you have grown inside this season?  Have you outgrown a previous intellectual/activist role and into something new?   Are you starting a new organization? Are you graduating from a program and thinking about how to prepare for what is next?  Are you simply determined for next semester to be significantly more sustainable and community accountable than this semester has been.   Holler at your girl :)
Email brillianceremastered@gmail.com with the subject heading "office hours" to sign up.
Community is Not a Luxury Summer Cohort:
It is about time to sign up for the Community is Not A Luxury Summer Cohort!!!!

"Look how you print yourself on my heart." -Audre Lorde
This intermediate stage of the coaching curriculum trains you to implement and build a community of accountability outside of the limits of your university setting.  Community accountability is what distinguishes meaningful intellectual labor from elitist word games.  This coaching module is for scholars who are committed to making a difference in the lives of the communities that inspire them and also activates community as a superpower to sustain your wholeness and to support and celebrate you in your degree process.
The cohort model allows a set of aligned visionaries to experience the life-changing curricula and to benefit from one-on-one attention from Sista Docta Lex while building community with each other.   Doing it together also allows Brilliance Remastered to provide this service at a lower rate.  (However the one-on-one version of this curriculum is still available for those of you who want me all to yourself! :)
Cohort Participants Commit to a 3-Month Experience with:
  • weekly transformative assignments
  • bi-weekly google-hangout discussion sessions with fellow cohort members facilitated by Lex
  • weekly email check-ins with Lex
  • access to Lex's online office hours
  • song dedications and motivation
all for $750 per participant.  Payment plans are available.  I am committed to making this accessible to you!
Participants join the cohort through a phone assessment conversation where we will determine the best way to engage the curriculum.  Email brillianceremastered@gmail.com to schedule a phone assessment for $25.  More on phone assessments here.
Summer Lovin' Organizational Retreats in NC
Another part of the Brilliance Remastered Durham Advantage!  Summer 2012 is all about the brilliance of deepening and strengthening relationships.   As part of my long-term investment in the important and experimental community institutions in and around Durham, NC  I am offering custom organizational retreats focused on relationship building for shared leadership and long-term victory.
DSC_0277Drawing on a unique curriculum based on Audre Lorde's body of work these retreats will be customized to the emergent breakthroughs of your organization or group and will use embodied, creative techniques that will allow your group to access many dimensions and generations of wisdom.  These retreats are an especially timely opportunity for organizations transferring leadership, working through conflict, changing structures or just getting started.
To see if your organization is a good match for some Summer Lovin' and to start a conversation about designing a retreat set up a phone consultation.
Remastered Tools 101 Available for Do It Yourself Download!!!!
After the major success of the Remastered Tools Webinar Series,  I am offering them as downloadable courses that you can do anytime with my love and support at about half the rate of actually taking the webinar.  Get started now with Remastered Tools 101 with special audio support, brilliant poems and mantras by the Remastered Tools 101 graduates and full access to my online office hours included!
Remastered Tools 101 is an opportunity to examine our relationship to knowledge and our theories of change as they relate to the work we do as scholars and the work we empower with our scholarship.   We will investigate how dependence on systems that are NOT community accountable are cultivated even in the most seemingly radical fields and support each other in creating visions for our own community accountability.
Click below to preview the course:
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I also have a couple coaching slots so if you want to set up one on one coaching set up a phone consultation so we can see if we are a perfect match and as always if you want specialized feedback on your thesis, dissertation, statement of purpose or syllabus hit me up for a PhDoula belly blessing!
Love,
 Lex