Where Are We Now?
In the middle of things, of course
Apologies for the delay.
I find myself writing that more and more these days. Or in cases where my work has been delayed by others, I simply write true statements rather than ratting out my comrades, “Here we are now.” It’s no small indication that everyone is pushing hard wherever they are under the American brand of fascism.
In Minneapolis, we have people being disappeared and communities being resilient in the face of intimidation, supporting Latine businesses and training to be witnesses during ICE raids.
Everyone I know has eight irons in the fire. Homeless encampments are being cleared with so much regularity that it feels like no one cares anymore. The city council and mayoral races are heating up and then my first-choice candidate’s mother died. And to say nothing of blessed Melissa and Mark Hortman’s assassination. It is a world of hurt for so many of my beloveds during this time.
But I remain grateful for every morning I draw breath, sober, housed, clothed, (well) fed, and employed.
The weekend before last, I had the opportunity to attend the 22nd Century Initiative Conference in Atlanta. The St. Paul and Minnesota Foundation invited a cohort of Minnesota leaders, organizers, and movement workers to attend to connect, learn more, and ground ourselves in the framework we’re living through and to plan ahead beyond the immediate crises we all find ourselves bogged down under.
It was revelatory.
Long ago, I learned how to right-size how I think of my work in movement spaces but the conference helped me to contextualize a national movement effort and how where I live both fits into it and still leads the way. It gave me hope in a real way and helped me to get clear about my own place in things, beyond the titles, beyond organizational or party affiliations, beyond what authorizing powers recognize. It gave me the reminder that sovereignty is a mindset.
In that spirit, this space is where I want to share it all.
If you know me by now, you will know I love a good platform, a good tool, or a good gadget. But in spreading myself across different blogs, and social media accounts with different foci, I realized that I was compartmentalizing myself. I was complying with white supremacy in advance.
No, but seriously, I like analytics, and I like to see what I can see across different places; it’s the old journalist and communications professional in me.
In the interests of putting myself in the middle of things—in media res, or in media rez as we write where I’m from—I’m going to dedicate most of my energy to sharing all my insights here. The only other place I’ll be sharing something more structured will be story.walkingbull.com (which, of course, you’re invited to visit, comment, share, etc.). Originally, I had envisioned this newsletter as a breakdown of Indigenous (and Queer) portrayals in media or how media impacts Indigenous (and Queer) folks, as a pseudo archive of written references to communities that are important to me.
But liberation reminds us that we get to be as complex as we want to be whenever and wherever we want to be complex.
Beginning this week, I’ll be resharing some content I posted on other platforms, but for the in-depth stuff, it will be paid subscriptions that can access it. Mostly because I also want to honor the voracity of you as my beloved readers who might be wanting a lot more in the coming weeks, months, or years.
I’m excited to start sharing as much as I can as we go forward into the world every day. Speaking truth is a powerful act and I’m proud to have been raised by parents, a tiospaye, and a people who never stopped speaking our revelations to the world.
Thank you for listening to us.
