• ELIXHER
• On May 27, 2013

From the radically transgressive queer minds that brought you Mobile Homecoming and The Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind spawns the Combahee Pilgrimage, a 4-day creative, spiritual, and affirming rendezvous for self-identified queer, LGBTQ or queer-affirming Black people in commemoration of Harriet Tubman and 750 enslaved Africans’ successful self-liberation at Combahee River. June 2, 2013 marks the 150th anniversary of this uprising; an uprising that was also the inspiration for the Combahee River Collective, a Black lesbian feminist socialist collective founded in Boston in 1977 who created an analysis of interconnected liberation centered on the lived experiences of Black women and designed to free us all.

In the spirit of the Combahee River Collective, Harriet Tubman and all the people who stood for their freedom that day, The Mobile Homecoming Project and Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind have joined forces to coordinate a pilgrimage to the Harriet Tubman Bridge on the Combahee River in South Carolina for a weekend of celebration, clarification, community building and ritual. Special invited guests include Combahee River Collective Statement co-authors Barbara Smith, Beverly Smith and Demita Frazier, and Black Feminist Retreat Attendee and Mobile Homecoming Interviewee Cessie Alfonso.

The festivities for the gathering will include community dance, liberation workshops, and equally connecting expressions of celebration. There is limited housing available, therefore reservations are running on a first come, first serve basis. Registration options are available that include transportation (from Durham), housing, food and all events; just housing, food and participation; or day passes for folks local to South Carolina or who can provide their own housing. Visit the Combahee Pilgrimage site for payment listings, itinerary specifics, and information on sponsoring opportunities.

Mobile Homecoming, is an incitive, transformative and experiential archive of trans and cis-gendered women, trans men and genderqueer Black people’s herstories, enacted by Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs (founder of BrokenBeautiful Press) and Julia Wallace (founder of Queer Resistance). The young queer black duo has spent the greater part of February and March 2011 traveling the south in their enviromentally sustainable RV, immersing themselves in the lives of queer visionaries whose tales laid the foundation upon which the collective queer community continues to build. By collecting and amplifying the experiences of these chosen elders/mentors/ancestors, the Mobile Homecoming project seeks to produce a conscious teaching model for intergenerational knowledge and affirm a kindred network for multi-sensory wellness and care. The project has gained complimentary media coverage, with features in the popular LGBTQI publications, GLQ, bitch, and make/shift.

Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind is an educational project, spreading the good news that Black Feminism Lives by every means necessary. They offer educational podcasts, videos and in-person educational sessions for everyone who values the brilliance of Black feminists and wants to participate in the transformation of the universe into alignment with our love. Past projects have include School of the Lorde and Lucille Clifton ShapeShifter Survival School.

- Tie’sha Sadie

Tie’sha Sadie is a Brooklyn-bred femme-sin-sation with a pension for radical expression and queer youth empowerment. She is a multi-disciplinary creative simultaneously questing to redefine the parameters of conscious sexuality, facilitate the evolution of brown community, and drop kick all -ism based ignorance. Tie’sha is a contributing editor at ELIXHER. Oh, she can also be found ranting and raving a little over at Sugarfree:ology.