Mai’a is a birth worker, poet, journalist, visual artist, performer, vocalist,dancer, and organizer. She lived and worked in Chiapas, Mexico, Palestine and traveled to the Congo,Uganda, Burundi, and Ethiopia on a research delegation about the effects of war on women. She also worked as the Regional Training Coordinator for a human rights NGO. She founded and directed Cosmic Sun Theatre, an experimental community theatre, art gallery and workshop and has organized and accompanied communities and persons within the domestic urban landscape, engaging in issues including: race, working poor, sex work, prisons, drug addiction, police brutality, and queer rights; she has also organized domestically and internationally around global issues. Born and raised in the Washington, DC area, Mai’a currently resides in Cairo, Egypt with her partner Cal Williams Carpenter and her daughter, Aza Theresa.
I found your site through Rebecca Walker’s and I am glad I stumbled and found
Very sweet and real and totally organic…like someone living in Cairo should be. Your blog post about your daughter wanting attention is reaffirming that I am ready to have kids of my own. Will visit. Take care. Bless
@quilin
ahhh…thank you!
Peace! I came across your blog months ago, but was recently referred to your Revolution of the Lilies page by Alexis Gumbs. I am currently working on my thesis, using Black feminist theory to examine how Black women can use home birth as a form of resistance. I have been reading this site (for months actually), and also the outlaw midwives site. I would love to connect with you about my thesis, but also more generally about mothering as a woman of color trying to create a better world. And I’m a doula also
.
I look forward to connecting.
Peace and love,
Tamika Middleton
Hello Mai’a….My name is Ziibi Qwa….Mohawk woman…Canada, and I’m writing to ask your permission to post some of your writings on anti-racism to my Facebook page. In particular…I read your piece, ‘We don’t need another anti-racism 101′, and found it stunning in its clarity; and more to the point…right on point. I’m mindful of the fact that your material belongs to you…and I fully recognize the importance to your, both legally…and personally, of the need to protect your ownership rights. Whch is why I’m writing to ask your permission to post it. I don’t think extrapolating from your writing(s) would do justice to the quality of the analysis seen in your writing. I understand that Facebook is not exactly a hotbed of political discussion…but in my own writings/rants I do try and stir the pot….as well as make (militant/challenging) observations from outside the white self-absorbed perspective.
I note that you do not provide any links for ’sharing’ on your pages. If part of the reason for this is that you do not wish to ’share’ I will respect that. If there are other reasons (technical?) I think I could figure out how to post your writings using ‘cut and paste’, perhaps.
I look forward to your reply to my request.
Ziibi Qwa
dear ziibi
please feel free to use it. and i should write a small piece about sharing. i am pretty much open to you using whatever you can. all that i ask is that you attribute it to me or this blog or something. that is just for me cuz i like to see sometimes what happens to these words once i set them free into the world.
Mai’a….thank you much for your reply and permission. I intend to post your column in full….and your other piece on the same issue. Since I consider your permission a gift, full attribution, including your blog, is a given. And please…please…write something about sharing. And more importantly, any technical knowledge you have on how to share your blog with others. As an elder, and a writer (two strikes not in my favor) the gidgets and gadgets of this infernal machine try my patience. It it ain’t got a built in link things get problematic….
Meegwetch…Ziibi Qwa
Wow, I just found your blog and from your bio, you seem like an amazing person! Keep up the great work, and the great blog.
ha ha ha… thanks for the suggestion. i will definitely put something up about sharing and attribution.
as for sharing it. im betting if you put the copy and paste the url in most social networking sites. the url becomes a link automatically. like this.
guerrillamamamedicine.wordpress.com