Summer 2022 Edition

“Our society will not be free until the most vulnerable people are able to access the resources and full human rights to live self-determined lives without fear, discrimination, or retaliation. -SisterSong

As we grieve the news of the news surrounding Roe v Wade, it can be easy for us to get lost in despair, to feel hopeless. And yet, we truly believe hope is not lost. Our hope comes from knowing that so many of us have been out here in these streets fighting for reproductive justice for a long time. And as long as we continue to do that work consistently while also prioritizing self-care so that we can run this marathon of social justice, we are in good hands. Our hope comes from the community networks we are tapped into. The midwives, abortion doulas, holistic abortion practitioners, healers, curanderas, brujas/xs, etc. So many of us have always known that to rely on an inherently white supremacist, patriarchal government would never truly serve us. Thus, we create our own systems of care and medicine. We create our own pathways to liberation.

Of course, our fight is not one dimensional. Taking from one of our Chicana feminist foremothers, Chela Sandoval, we must rely on a “differential consciousness.” She equates this concept to that of “the clutch of an automobile, the mechanism that permits the driver to select, engage, and disengage gears in a system for the transmission of power.” We are the drivers in the fight for social justice and liberation. We can “select, engage and disengage” in different modes of activism, depending on out individual skill level, capacity, accessibility, etc. We can fight the government policies, to assure that all who need access to abortion care get it, while we ALSO highlighting all the resources within our communities that continue to offer abortion care. We can stand as resources ourselves, offering a safe place for those who find themselves in need of support. Hope is not lost, because we will always come through for each other! We will always fight for each other!

And at the same time, because this fight has been going on and will continue for the foreseeable future, we must be sure to integrate self-care, love and celebration into our liberating practices. We are allowed to rest, allowed to have fun, allowed to feel joy, even when the world around us feels heavy. 

This summer, we invite the feeling of joyous energy. That feeling you get when you are dying to call your friends to go dancing. That feeling you get when you feel inspired to start a garden, or write a book. That jolt of ecstasy you feel when you accomplish something. 

You see, because at the end of the day, when it comes to social justice and reproductive justice, we don’t need to always be moving from a place of resentment and anger. Those are valid feelings and can be a good motivation. But ultimately, a sustainable movement is born from joy and love.

I fight this fight because of my profound love for my people. I take joy knowing my actions are working toward creating liberation in the here and now. I take joy knowing that my work is creating new community networks that will allow us to divest from oppressive institutions. 

This summer, I continue to fight, but I do so while dancing, while flowing, knowing that experiencing joy is an act of resistance. Let us dance in the moonlight, fall in love at sunset, orgasm at midnight, create new projects, inspire new movements. No hustle culture for us, no grinding our way through battles. May we flow into the revolution. 

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