putting it together

–the vol 3 of outlaw midwives is shaping up.  yay!  i am getting excited about the prospect of sitting on the floor and putting it together.

–we had a first installation show at water studio.  i still have to get up the pics from the show on the tumblr blog.  but the show was beautiful.  deconstruction, chaos, rough, lyrical visually.

–the bridge called my baby: lex and china and i have been working hard core on this book especially in the past month.  you guys!  it is going to be an amazing anthology!  working with lex and china is a dream.  i am so blessed, each of us have come to this place on a very different journey, but here we are.  sharing what we have learned along the way with each other.  also the good thing about working with three people, is someone can be out for one stage of the project, and the work continues with the other two.  this is useful since we all have multi faceted lives.

–i, more and more, want to publish a book of poetry.  i feel like i need an editor or mentor or someone who understands poetry books to help me go through my work, edit, select, think through the process…know of anyone like that?  let me know…

–and of course working on the memoir.   going to kick that writing into high gear this week.

–cal and aza are going to the states in late june.  most of my friends are going to europe for the summer.  and soon it will be just me and a few stragglers (ha ha)…i dont want to go to the states.  it just wouldnt be a space in which i could focus on my work/writing.  i would spend that month running around like a chicken with my head cut off, this family, that family, these friends, must see, must see, exhausted.  no one would be satisfied.  everyone would want more.  and i would be unhappy feeling like i was letting myself down in this crucial time when it comes to my writing/my art/my studies.

as much as sometimes i get homesick, i cant tell you what i am homesick for… because i dont really have a home.

but as much as i love cairo, i dont want to hang out here all summer either.  so i am thinking maybe europe for a quick trip….

 

i guess when you get down to it, i just got tired of people ‘critiquing’ (and i put that word in quotes because i hold higher standards for what a critique is than some folks) my analysis without bothering to read it first.

ah well…haters gonna hate.

 

i am not a city

the universe is some where like home

on some star

there will be fire

i have an awesome life

–i have amazing friends.  really.  journalists, writers, filmmakers, artists, hustlers, students, teachers, n americans, europeans, africans, revolutionaries…and we have a great time together, we laugh, we cry, we drink, smoke, stay up too late, laugh some more, dance at 3 am, fall asleep on couches and mattresses and floors, paint walls, ride taxis, motobikes, and microbuses, talk politics, sex, music, history, writing, and bullshit. really, sometimes when we are all together, i just stop and look around at us and think, damn, we win.

–aza blows my mind.  today she was doing cutouts, yesterday was she was making collages.  she tells me wild stories and comes into the office so she can massage my shoulders and bring me drawings.  her birthday was a week ago and she got gifts from her grandparents but also from lewis, the 23 year old auc student (paint and canvas) and malte, the 21 year old german painter (a ‘diamond’ ring).  these are the kids she considers ‘friends’.  she is so confident and self assured.  so determined and attentive to others.  so into explaining everything that is happening around us.

–i have a new studio space.  grey blue walls, multiple rooms, high ceilings, when you speak there is an echo…will be great for recording in.  the studio still needs a name (any suggestions?).  and i still need to move a few things into it.  but i have dreams about artist collectives, showings, movements and revolutions swimming through this studio.  (will post pics soon)

–i am writing this because i forget.  i forget how awesome life is.  i forget how i live a few blocks from the nile river.  and how i hear the call to prayer 5 times a day.  and how i am witnessing the movements of revolution and counter-revolution up close and personal.  and how cal and i have made a good balance together.  and how it is spring in cairo, and how the birds start their day before dawn, and how i get to experience this life that is so good.

just a reminder — outlaw midwives zine submissions due may 15

call for submissions

focusing on pregnancy, birth, post partum, baby and breastfeeding

for and by: mothers, friends and allies of mothers, doulas, midwives, birthworkers, childbirth educators, childbirth advocates,

intention: to create a zine for pregnancy, birth, and the first year of motherhood centering the lives of working class, marginalized mothers and birthworkers.

submit: photos, drawings, visual art
poems, essays, fiction and non-fiction
tips, suggestions, lists of resources

check out the outlaw midwives manifesta and website: http://outlawmidwife.wordpress.com/

outlaw midwives: creating revolutionary communities of love

some suggestions for topics on which you can submit…but these are just suggestions…

suggestions for those trying to conceive.  and for not conceiving.  stories of conception, abortions and miscarriage.

what are the social, economic, legal consequences and limitations for marginalized mothers to make choices about how, when and where they will give birth.

tips for the first, second, third trimester.  relationship with doctors, clinic, midwives, family, friends, etc.

how do our ideas of gender and sexuality influence how we view childbearing, midwifery, and parenting?

Your take on reproductive justice?

how do we resist the high infant and mortality rates?

what are the ways that community could support the childbearing year, mothers and families?

how have you navigated through the systems of welfare, protective child services, hospitals, etc?

reflect on the state of midwifery today.  what do you see as the positives and negatives?  how has legalization and licensing affected mothers and families access to care?

what would you want to tell a soon to be mother about pregnancy, birth, and early motherhood?  or write a letter to your pre-mother or pre-pregnant self about what you should expect.   what didnt you expect to happen/learn/experience in pregnancy, birth, the baby year?  write a letter to you daughter and/or son about what you learned/want to pass on about pregnancy, birth, baby year.

what was your personal experience/story of birth? pregnancy, the baby year?
what did you learn/are you learning from the baby year?

what do you wish someone had told you about early motherhood and/or being a birth worker?
what do you wish you could have said to someone, but didnt?
what is your vision/ideal of how pregnancy, birth, baby year could be?

what family/traditional wisdom did you receive about pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding?  what practical tips do you have for working poor mothers?

breastfeeding vs. bottle.  what are the social, biological and economic influences and consequences of the choice to breastfeed or bottle feed?

what to do with the placenta?  placenta art, consumption, burials?

why did you become a birth worker?  what has been the highlights of the experience? what have been the difficulties?

what does ‘outlaw midwife’  mean to you?

keep it simple

deadline may 15

send submissions to maiamedicine at gmail dot com

oh this tumblr for april poetry month is so beautiful.  the poems. gawd.

crip chick’s poems

across the table

i am as water

mosquitos cling to the walls and nothing can escape their sound

while you write a letter to someone who isnt me but is worth (to you) to write a letter to

i stand up to escape

you reach out your hand to me, saying, stay, because sleeping alone is living the hard way

you and me dont need an organ that pumps blood and time,

but nicotine and cheap red wine

your important words slip away

in other words

the price of your freedom?

its hunger, a scratchy throat, stories, pacing the kitchen at 4 am

in other words, freedom is the only thing you got,

when you got no one left

naivete

this beer, my favorite beer,

tastes like ox sweat–fuck.  i just realized

i dont have a clue what the game is

im just following the rules

for you

i would kill every mosquito in this room

and tattoo my lips with the blood