Audre Lorde--The Berlin Years 1984-1992

"One of the aims of poetry is to change emotion."-- Audre Lorde

As I was  walking out of my school today for a little air, I saw a parent ahead of me. He was checking out his bike, as though something was wrong, and I paused a minute. Should I say hello? Or remain quiet...gifting us both with silence. I chose to say hello. And I am happy I did.
"They are showing an Audre Lorde documentary tonight at Copenhagen University." He tells me.
"Really?" I ask, not believing my luck, "I'll be there."

So at around 4:30 I bike, literally, around the corner to the Copenhagen University. I find the auditorium and take a good seat. I get my yarn out and start knitting. Just as I recognize this parent entering, I see Dubie.

I used to hang out with Dubie's ex-partner back in the day. Sara is a half-Persian, half Canadian woman who I met back in 2000 (?) when we were both being "activated", that is, going to Danish Language school. That is another story, and one I will gladly share another time.

Sara was my first door into truly understanding the Iranian-American political relationship.  She gave me my first copy of Persepolis to read...and that was the first time I began to untangle what my understanding of the Iranian Revolution was all about. I was, of course, far from understanding it, at that time, but I now know that it sometimes feels as though one is walking through a wilderness right before reaching the peace of comprehension.

Although Sara was younger than I by a few years, she was ahead in  many ways. She had a much better understanding than I did about what was going on in the world. Although I went to the most prestigious left-wing institutions of that time, it was still an institution and it was during the Bush years. Need I say more?

The first time I met Sara, she was reading the Autobiography of Assata Shakur.  (Watch Assata Shakur's documentary Eyes off the Rainbow) We immediately started talking and realized we had the same interests, among them politics and womens' studies.  Sara and I were both going through depressions. Her constant attire of black clothing attested to that, my slow de-politicizing of  myself showed mine.

Sara introduced me to writers such as Mary Daly and Haunani Kay Trask, author of From a Native Daughter:Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai'i.  She was a vegan, I a vegetarian. She gave me photocopied pamphlets about herbs and their many uses, particularly to women.  When I moved to Hawai'i with my little family, Sara and I wrote each other and kept each other warm in the comfort of our friendship.

Anyway, time has a way of wedging physical distances between unions, but that does not muddy the connection. I have really been thinking about Sara lately. When I moved back into my apartment, one of the first items I installed in my kitchen was a framed letter she had written to me while I was in Hawai'i.  In typical Sara style, she managed to convey the complete, utter darkness that is only what a Danish winter can be and make me smile at the same time. In one line, she writes, "I'm thinking about going to Estonia--you won't know where that is..." a tribute to what was my then very poor geographical skills...I know where it is now ;-)

So anyway, I've really been thinking about her...and so it was great that I bumped into Dubie, and at the Audre Lorde film, no less...

The film is amazing. I felt like I was home, for a minute. The images of women of color, all different shades, sizes, communing over poetry, stories...oh, how I miss that! Oh how I must create that!

I miss women who don't care about their looks who care more about books and even more about the earth... 

I really recommend this film. It is necessary. The voices of progress need to be heard. Given space. The time is now. The world is need of it. We must be able to respond to the times: that is our responsibility.
Here is a link to the film's website: Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years 1984-1992.

This film impresses upon me even more the necessity of getting out there, out in the world, and truly educating people, reminding people, of our past patterns and what is necessary in order to break them.

We must live life beyond survival mode.

farvel,
the lab