Audre Lorde’s “The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power” shapes our reflections on practicing refusal in community with our colleagues. We speak with Natalia Foreman and Pam Segura of the NYC-based Curriculum Kweens collective, who share stories of disobedience to systems of power and oppression, of loving accountability, and of the fullness felt when, in the words of “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet” Audre Lorde, “we know the extent to which we are capable of feeling that sense of satisfaction and completion.” Tiffany Mason, a mother and elementary educator teaching in Brooklyn, shares her Saturday freedom dreams and the obstacles to getting there. We leave with the questions: How do we move beyond the mediocrity expected of us and become accountable to our erotic? What acts of disobedience do we engage in and commit to?

Transcription (Finalized Friday, Jan. 6, 2023)

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Intellectual Inheritance

• Curriculum Kweens: https://www.curriculumkweens.com
• “The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power” | Audre Lorde
• “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” | Audre Lorde
• Emergent Strategy and Pleasure Activism | adrienne maree brown
• We Do This ‘Til We Free Us | Mariame Kaba
• Decade of Fire documentary | Vivian Vásquez Irizarry and Gretchen Hildebran

Music

• “Unnerved”; “Peace Is Hitting”; “Tears of My City” (feat. JonMicol) | The Honorable Krys X
• “Easily” and “Time Flies” | prod. yogic beats
• “Queen” | prod. Timeless Era Beats
• “Sinner” | prod. JustDan x Falak
• “Sweet Love” | prod. Mejah Productions
• Dancing on Desks Theme song | composed and arranged by Mara Johnson and Elliott Wilkes

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