SUSU book of days
2025 year in review
in so many moments when the world felt uncertain or isolating, SUSU came into existence as a homeplace and sanctuary where community could breathe again. with you by our sides, we nourished hundreds, inspired thousands, and cultivated trust, shoulder-to-shoulder and hand-to-hand.
dear farmily,
travel back with me into 2025 and move through the land and practices that SUSU channeled. i want to share with you what this year required, and what held us together.
maybe you can relate to this: there were many moments when the world felt uncertain or isolating. In those moments, SUSU continued to come through because it has been intentionally created as a living homeplace. in 2025, SUSU served as place where our community could breathe again, where the land could hold us, and where we could remember that sanctuary is something we practice under any circumstances - and especially when circumstances are challenging us the most.
so, we chose to go deep, not wide.
that choice was not small. it meant centering the relationships, values, and care practices that make SUSU what it is. tending what is already here. strengthening and replanting our roots. and building a strong foundation in ways we cannot always measure quickly, but we can feel over time.
because of your partnership, we were able to do real things with and for real people. i’m proud to share the highlights below. i see them as evidence of something deeper, that SUSU is meeting a real need, drawing on real strength, and that our community is building something durable and generational. our ancestors have been walking with us, and our descendants are getting ready to receive the gifts we are creating.
i keep thinking about how sanctuary is made. i’m thinking of sanctuary as presence. shared meals. fingers and toes in the soil. sanctuary that makes learning more possible. making ritual and rest more possible. making the impossible possible. it feels most important to name sanctuary as the quiet labor and joy of returning to each other again and again.
the land teaches us about seasons for expansion and seasons for preparation. even seasons that are fallow and resting. in this winter season, i feel the land inviting us to honor the fullness of every act of care offered and received. i also feel the land inviting us, so strongly, into radical imagination so that our dreams can become futures we can actually live inside. sanctuary is our birthright, for our safety more than as some kind of escape.
as i look toward what comes next, i see SUSU holding a few clear directions, taught to us by our community and by the land:
to expand free and low-cost access to retreats, healing programs, and medicinal and ritual herbs for BIPOC and queer community members locally and beyond, while building the partnerships and infrastructure that make that access sustainable. we are committed to creating space that is rooted in place, for ready practice and building belonging.
nothing happens without community. this will happen with the support of people (like you) who believe in the work enough to help carry it.
with gratitude, i honor what we have built together, and i thank you for being part of this growing and evolving sanctuary and homeplace.
with love and deep appreciation,
amber arnold
SUSU commUNITY farm
2025 year in review
in 2025, SUSU oriented the year toward deepening over expansion, making space to strengthen practices, relationships, and values without overextending ourselves or our community. in so many moments when the world felt uncertain or isolating, SUSU came into existence as a homeplace and sanctuary where community could breathe again. with you by our sides, we nourished hundreds, inspired thousands, and cultivated trust, shoulder-to-shoulder and hand-to-hand.
people
volunteer-powered stewardship: operated a volunteer-driven growing, harvesting, and packaging model, including a full community land opening in the spring and collective stewardship throughout the summer, deepening shared tending of the land while reducing operational strain.
youth learners: hosted youth learners in the spring, introducing young people to land stewardship, food systems, and healing-centered education.
box of resilience csa: provided 18 weeks of csa support to 35 families, strengthening food sovereignty, nourishment, and consistency for households navigating economic and systemic instability.
sustainability
earned-revenue pathways: piloted earned-revenue pathways that support long-term sustainability while sharing the abundance of the land with the broader community.
susu botanica, soft launch: initiated a soft launch of the botanica store, sharing plant medicine and story as part of SUSU’s public offerings.
gatherings
out in the open gatherings: hosted Out in the Open, creating space for healing, dialogue, and cultural expression rooted in black and land-based traditions.
unbodying intensive: facilitated an unbodying in-person intensive, advancing SUSU’s healing justice work and reinforcing the farm as a sanctuary for embodied practice and restoration.
fire circle, soft launch: offered an initial, soft launch of the fire circle, testing a community-rooted giving structure and shared stewardship.
partnerships
African American Society connection: welcomed the African American Society, strengthening intergenerational and cultural connections to the land.
ARC partnership: began building a partnership with ARC (African Refugee Community Connection) through a retreat/relationship-building engagement.
school-based herbal learning: led an herbal workshop series with brattleboro union high school students, extending land-based learning and care practices into youth settings.
thank you for being with us through 2025!
honoring and informing our community during transition
over the past several months, we have been engaging in careful work behind the scenes, including process, planning, and decisions intended to strengthen SUSU’s governance, capacity to move forward in the most sustainable ways possible. SUSU is preparing to shift staffing, leadership, and programming in 2026 as we enter a 2026 pilot year focused on building homeplace, healing retreats, and botanical offerings rooted in the land, ritual, and restoration.
to our SUSU commUNITY, partners, and friends,
the SUSU Board of Directors is writing with care and gratitude as we move through a period of transition.
first, we want to express gratitude. SUSU has been built through the work, love, and commitment of many people. we honor everyone who made SUSU what it has become, including leaders, staff, volunteers, csa participants, community partners, donors, and neighbors. we are grateful for the relationships that have sustained this work along the way.
over the past several months, we have been engaging in careful work behind the scenes, including process, planning, and decisions intended to strengthen SUSU’s governance, capacity to move forward in the most sustainable ways possible. SUSU is preparing to shift staffing, leadership, and programming in 2026 as we enter a 2026 pilot year focused on building homeplace, healing retreats, and botanical offerings rooted in the land, ritual, and restoration.
naomi doe moody, co-founder and collaborative director of SUSU commUNITY Farm, has concluded their role with the organization. naomi helped shape the vision, land stewardship, and community relationships that define SUSU’s foundation. we recognize their many contributions to the organization’s growth and thank them for their years of leadership.
there will be a thoughtful close and transition of the CSA program this Spring, with appreciation for everyone who has participated and helped build it, especially nate moody and amy frost, who are ending their tenure with SUSU this month.
with the guidance of director, amber arnold; khalif williams, chief of staff, and jarmal, facilities and lands manager, SUSU is taking deliberate steps to deepen alignment with its mission. strengthened systems and practices to support staff, partners, and long-term sustainability are underway. the Board has full confidence in this team’s leadership as they steer the organization through this transition and into a new phase of healing, reflection, and growth.
new programming will center Homeplace, healing retreats, immersive land-based experiences, and botanical care offerings.
these decisions were made with care and reflection, aiming to honor the contributions of every person affected. we will be focused on continued relationship with our community and funders as we refine the new program model and communications in the months ahead
we know any change can bring questions alongside possibility. our doors are open to you - for visits, questions, participation, and relationship building. we hope each person that has joined us so far will continue with us in new ways that the team will unveil in the season ahead.
with gratitude,
SUSU Board of Directors
learning the living Black archive
during Black stories month, we want to name SUSU and places like us as something called a “living Black archive.” this means we hold memories, rituals, and stories close in our minds and bodies and we document, repeat, and practice them.
during Black stories month, we want to name SUSU and places like us as something called a “living Black archive.” this means we hold memories, rituals, and stories close in our minds and bodies and we document, repeat, and practice them.
at SUSU, we are creating a living, land based Black archival sanctuary, not housed in institutions that have historically erased or distorted our histories, but rooted in land, ritual, home, and embodied practice. our work preserves Black cultural memory through lived experience: through healing spaces, installation sites, medicine, foodways, somatics, and community gathering. these are the ways Black people have always carried knowledge when documentation was dangerous or denied.
in this portal into the living Black archive, we’ll share some resources, quotes, and open portals to the different ways to think about archive in relation to land, sanctuary, and practice.
Collier and Sutherland name core themes that shape Black archival practice, including care, embodiment, home, refusal, legibility, and repair. SUSU is built at the intersection of these themes. every offering we create is an intentional archival act, a method of cultural transmission that honors Black life as complex, relational, and alive.
archives are structured by power. Black archival practice begins by naming how historical recordkeeping has been shaped by inequality. the living Black archive becomes a necessary site of memory when historic records intentionally omit us.
Black archival practice reaches far beyond institutional collections. it includes the ways Black people have always preserved memory under conditions of violence and dispossession, through land tending, foodways, ritual, prayer, relationship, story, song, and the creation of sanctuary spaces where we could be human together.
“The production of historical narratives involves the uneven contribution of competing groups and individuals who have unequal access to the means for such production.”
— Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History
“Memory is the way in which we keep the past alive.”
the living Black archive includes storytelling. our elders and knowledge keepers teach us that imagination and memory are also methods of repair. when records omit interior Black life, imagination is a method tethered to memory that lives in our bodies and life experience and helps us restore what has been systematically excluded from the record. at SUSU, we are participating in this method intentionally by adding stories and media into archival gaps as a rigorous practice and refusal of silence.
“I have attempted to tell an impossible story and to amplify the impossibility of its telling.”
— Saidiya Hartman, Venus in Two Acts
“The act of imagination is bound up with memory.”
— Toni Morrison, “The Site of Memory,” in Inventing the Truth
"Therefore the crucial distinction for me is not the difference between fact and fiction, but the distinction between fact and truth.”
— Toni Morrison
the living Black archive is not only about past. Christina Sharpe teaches us that wake work situates Black life within ongoing afterlives of our ancestors. at SUSU we insist on practices that interrupt and survive those conditions. we use care, ritual, and land practice as ways of living in the wake without surrendering to it - and our story is ongoing.
“In the wake, the past that is not past reappears, always, to rupture the present.”
“How do we memorialize an event that is still ongoing?”
“Wake work is a mode of inhabiting and rupturing this episteme with our known lived and un/imaginable lives.”
— Christina Sharpe, In the Wake: On Blackness and Being
homeplace and sanctuary are forms of resistance where the farm, the kitchen, the porch are counter-institutions. the living Black archive doesn’t need to be located in a single place, and it can move between places and times.
“Historically, African-American people believed that the construction of a homeplace, however fragile and tenuous, had a radical political dimension.”
— bell hooks, “Homeplace (a site of resistance),” in Yearning
our embodied repertoire conserves knowledge: seed saving, prayer, cultivation techniques, and rituals are archival systems. the living Black archive is experiential and it trains us to become ancestors.
“The repertoire enacts embodied memory: performances, gestures, orality, movement, dance, singing.”
— Diana Taylor, The Archive and the Repertoire
“We are practicing being ancestors.”
— Alexis Pauline Gumbs
land itself holds narrative in field lines, migration routes, and settlement patterns. we encode both struggle and creativity as spatial memory and forms of Black knowledge. the land SUSU is on is a living archive.
“Black matters are spatial matters.”
— Katherine McKittrick, Demonic Grounds
the living Black archive is a relational process. our impossible, possible futures are reciprocal, and stewarding land changes the steward. we dream and our dreams dream back at us.
“All that you touch You Change. All that you Change Changes you.”
— Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower (1993)
“I dream a dream that dreams back at me”
— Toni Morrison, A Mercy
Black freedom farms like SUSU are cooperative land that bring political education, liberation, and collective survival as archival practice. SUSU offers healing retreats as a core archival transmission. retreats are spaces where people can slow down enough to listen to their bodies, their ancestors, and the land. our healing retreats are spaces where we bring our archival stories and memories to life.
“Black farmers have long used agriculture as a form of resistance.”
— Monica M. White, Freedom Farmers
“We are the ones we have been waiting for.”
— June Jordan
as a living Black archive, SUSU brings cultural survival, repair, and future making. we support Black-led infrastructure that restores dignity, belonging, and embodied memory, while offering practical, accessible pathways for healing, education, and economic sustainability. in a time of fragmentation, SUSU offers grounding. in a time of extraction, SUSU practices sovereignty. In a time of forgetting, SUSU ensures that Black histories, wisdom, and love remain alive and transmissible for generations to come.
archiving Black life is also future making. everything we do is in service of keeping our people, our stories, and our wisdom alive.
set an intention for how you will
make
reflect
support
become
the living Black archive
please consider selecting “show my support by making this a recurring donation.”
a new limited SUSU collection coming march 1...
in times like these, we need a fierce and undying love to guide us and show us the way. and who better to guide us than the Black women and femmes who have carried, protected, and constructed the very memories of love that shape us all? love will carry us home is our newest collection, and it is an offering to that lineage.
love will carry us home
in times like these, we need a fierce and undying love to guide us and show us the way.
and who better to guide us than the Black women and femmes who have carried, protected, and constructed the very memories of love that shape us all?
love will carry us home is our newest collection, and it is an offering to that lineage.
it is an ode to ancestral memory.
to guidance passed hand to hand, heart to heart, generation to generation by the Black women and femmes who shape SUSU and shape our world collectively.
this collection invites you into a living inheritance.
a remembering of the love our ancestors practiced as survival.
as resistance.
as devotion.
their wisdom lives in the body.
in ritual.
in plant medicine.
in sweetness.
in tenderness.
in joy.
each medicine in this collection is a poem.
a memory.
a breadcrumb left on the path to help us find our way back to one another.
they remind us that there is an undying thread of love moving between us, a love that carries us through grief and celebration. a love that teaches us how to tend, how to soften, how to stay. a love that carries us home.
our medicines tell the stories of our people’s survival and thrival.
of tenderness held in the midst of struggle.
of sweetness insisted upon.
of joy practiced as a radical act.
they turn us toward the wisdom traditions and ancestral memories we need, not only to find our way, but to make a way out of no way.
this is more than a collection.
it is a remembering.
it is a return.
the love will carry us home limited collection drops march 1st.
we cannot wait to share it with you.
join us in bringing this wisdom to life.
may we make good use of the medicine our ancestors left for us.
may love carry us home.
follow our SUSU botanica insta @susubotanica to learn more about the collection.
please consider selecting “show my support by making this a recurring donation.”
opening sanctuary portals
throughout Black stories month, we are opening sanctuary portals. these will be presented (mainly on instagram) as invitations to move through ancestral lineage, collective imagining, and mundane magic, food, ritual, land, and care practices that have sustained Black life when the world was organized against our survival.
throughout Black stories month, we are opening sanctuary portals. these will be presented (mainly on instagram) as invitations to move through ancestral lineage, collective imagining, and mundane magic, food, ritual, land, and care practices that have sustained Black life when the world was organized against our survival.
Black stories shows us that sanctuary is a practical necessity for freedom.
it happens in kitchens, gardens, porches, praise houses, and fields.
it is built through land tended collectively, food shared deliberately,
and care organized as infrastructure.
we make sanctuary by hand, by farming as a strategy of refusal
of hunger, of displacement, and of futures designed without us (and even against us).
because when society is hostile,
we make our homeplace with each other.
this has always been true.
at SUSU, we name this practice sanctuary.
and we understand sanctuary as something we practice
our birthright, inherited, and made by hand
sanctuary is collective resistance.
sanctuary is presence with the land.
sanctuary is nourishment for ourselves and our descendents.
sanctuary is the quiet labor and joy of returning to each other.
during this month, we will be sharing:
ritual practices and recipes that are part of Black traditions of care
reflections on food as communal technology
stories of homeplace and farms as freedom-making spaces
lineages of Black womanist elders and thinkers who teach us sanctuary
partner farms and healing collaborators who are living this work now
these sanctuary holders have shaped us: bell hooks, June Jordan, Fannie Lou Hamer, Octavia Butler, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, and many more. they remind us that freedom is a place, that homeplace is political, that liberation must be embodied and ecological, and that adaptation, mutual aid, and respect for the earth are spiritual practice.
we feel it strongly right now, how forcefully survival,
including the survival of our queer, Brown, and Indigenous kin,
is being thrown into question.
places like SUSU exist to re-make pathways and sanctuaries
for liberation, to re-teach what we know from our ancestors,
and to preserve knowledge for our descendants.
you are welcome to move with us through these portals with us during Black stories month.
and we’d love to hear from you along the way. follow along and comment on instagram.
tell us:
what is sanctuary to you?
please consider selecting “show my support by making this a recurring donation.”
winter belief meditation
as we close this year, we pause to honor everything we have created together. every story shared. every circle held. every act of care offered and received. with gratitude, we offer you this meditation on belief, inspired by Octavia Butler and by the land we are on as it rests this winter season.
“Belief
Initiates and guides action—
Or it does nothing.”
— Octavia Butler
as the year comes to a close and we move toward the winter solstice and the quiet turning inward of the sun, we at SUSU commUNITY farm are reflecting on an extraordinary five-year journey.
together, we planted and nurtured a farm. and we built a homeplace. a sanctuary of connection, reciprocity, ritual, and care.
in so many moments when the world felt uncertain or isolating, SUSU came into existence as a homeplace and sanctuary where community could breathe again. through your partnership, we nourished hundreds, inspired thousands, and cultivated trust, root-by-root and hand-by-hand. to name just a few specifics, we:
provided 18 weeks of the box of resilience CSA to 35 families, supporting food sovereignty, nourishment, and consistency for households navigating economic and systemic instability.
operated a volunteer-driven growing, harvesting, and packaging model, including a full community land opening in the spring and collective stewardship throughout the summer which has deepened shared ownership of the land while reducing operational strain.
hosted out in the open, creating space for healing, dialogue, and cultural expression rooted in Black and land-based traditions and welcomed the african american society, strengthening intergenerational and cultural connections to the land.
facilitated an unbodying in-person intensive, advancing SUSU’s healing justice work and reinforcing the farm as a sanctuary for embodied practice and restoration.
piloted earned-revenue pathways that support long-term sustainability while sharing the abundance of the land with the broader community.
hosted youth learners in the spring, introducing young people to land stewardship, food systems, and healing-centered education.
as we close this year, we pause to honor everything we have created together. every story shared.
every circle held. every act of care offered and received. with gratitude, we offer you this meditation on belief, inspired by Octavia Butler and by the land we are on as it rests this winter season.
winter belief meditation
in this season when the colors start to fade
and the darkness sets in
we are gifted an opportunity to devote our attention
to the present moment
the land teaches us so much
about how to slow down, how to turn inward
how to move thoughtfully enough to take in
their teachings
this season invites us to acknowledge the fullness of what has been
the sounds of the crunching snow
the melting ice dripping off the barn glimmering in the sunlight
the flow of the rivers
the singing of the birds
the challenges we met with courage
the growth we witnessed
and the collective strength we built
we enter a time of radical imagination
remembering the wisdom in our bones
remembering to come home to our bodies
and reclaiming our hope and belief.
belief that moves into action reshapes what is possible
so we can dream impossible possible futures together.
your year-end gift is an asé and an amen.
a blessing placed upon the work already done. you say, “i see what we did together, and i honor it.” you are affirming the power of belief that moves into action, and you are dreaming impossible possible futures with us.
with deep gratitude for your belief in this work,
the SUSU commUNITY farm team
please consider selecting “show my support by making this a recurring donation.”
praise house
we are excited to announce that we have begun construction on the SUSU praise house!
historically, praise houses were small, secret spaces where our ancestors gathered for worship, community, and strategizing toward freedom. these covert gatherings were crucial for planning escapes and revolts, embodying the resilience and determination of our ancestors to self-emancipate
at susu, we are inspired by this legacy and are dreaming into how a modern-day praise house can serve as a sacred space for our community to gather, reflect, and envision a future grounded in justice and liberation.
ndakinna (so called vermont) has a significant history of being part of the underground railroad. though there is little physical evidence of this, our praise house—a reclaimed glass window greenhouse—is a nod to these histories
it serves as a powerful reminder of our past as we center ourselves in the present and orient towards the worlds we deserve
to learn more about the historical and present significance of praise houses visit:
praise houses in the low country
2024 summer & early fall calendar
summer is here, and SUSU has some beautiful offerings planned for the season.
check out our commUNITY calendars below. click the image to access a printable version so you never miss a chance to hang out with us!
árokó, spring equinox & the African new year
as we continue to bask in the gentle embrace of spring, we find ourselves reflecting on the potent ritual we shared during the opening of our greenhouse on the vernal equinox. in the dance of the equinox, we tapped into rhythms of the cosmos, weaving together the wisdom of our ancestors with the boundless possibilities of afrofuturisms
at the heart of our gathering was árokó, a sacred Yoruban non-verbal communication system that bridges worlds, connecting us with our communities, ancestors, spirit guides, and the very essence of the earth itself. with each gesture, each symbol, we wove intentions, blessings, and messages, crafting a tapestry of reverence for the earth, for one another, and for the auspicious moment of our greenhouse's unveiling.
in honoring the changing seasons, we honored the eternal cycles of life and renewal. we stood at the threshold of possibility, inviting the newness of spring to infuse our growing season with vitality.
for those who are inspired to embark on their own journey, we offer some resources to get you started. even though the spring equinox has already passed, the lessons of the vernal season continue to offer us deep insight:
equinox videos
videos taught by Zanemvula
together, we are weaving a tapestry of connection, honoring the past, embracing the present, and dreaming boldly into the future. our greenhouse stands as a site of growth, nourishing both body and soul, where we will continue to co-create the worlds we long to see.
herbal allies for grief support
herbal medicines hold the unique capacity to support us as we navigate grief. allying ourselves with the power of herbal remedies can offer a holistic approach to grief support by bolstering system regulation, healing, and physical comfort.
oat straw
nourishing, calming, supportive to acute grief and shock
nettles
nourishing, building, supportive to navigating stress and managing grief
rose
a soothing and heart-centered ally for moving through sadness, depression and heartache
tulsi
calming and restorative, this ally soothes the nerves and helps settle the mind
lemon balm
mildly sedating and gentle digestive support for anxious bellies
linden
gentle, nourishing and heart-healing nervous system support
free the land: resources for global solidarity
SUSU is a commitment to global solidarity. in the spirit of global kinship, we encourage you to explore the resources below to support your political education, organizing, and action. join us in weaving a tapestry of collective resilience and liberation.
southern vermont 4 palestine resources
actions
us campaign for palestinian rights action toolkit: read, act, and share!
political education and organizing
Follow @bsonblast on Instagram for updates and ways to support Sudan
Follow @decolonialfeministcollective on Instagram for decolonial theory/practice/learning
the black and palestinian solidarity organizing toolkit from dream defenders in partnership with black for palestine, movement for black lives, blackOUT collective, and dissenters
all out for palestine digital action toolkit from palestinian feminist collective
no tax dollars for war crimes toolkit for organizing actions at congressional district offices, from american friends service committee
legal resources for activists from palestine legal
decolonize palestine website
al jazeera for news
activist resources & joint struggles from USCPR
workplace organizing for palestine: a call with speakers representing many parts of the labor movement including teachers, electrical workers, nurses, midwives, dockworkers, writers, academic workers, and artists. Organized by labor notes. event video linked here.
building a solidarity economy against war & occupation: a discussion with organizers in Palestine - the union of agricultural work committees and the battir food production cooperative جمعية بتير التعاونية للتصنيع والانتاج الغذائي and organizers in nyc. organized by the cooperative economics alliance of nyc and the new york city network of worker cooperatives. event recap linked here.
reflections from the earth circle: an interview with jarmal arnold
can you tell us about yourself and your roles at SUSU?
i am a soul that is on a mission to fulfill my purpose. this has been the fundamental mission of my entire life. what is my purpose? what I’m I here to do? that’s what led me here to what we now call vermont, which eventually led me to SUSU. my intention is to be purpose-driven and ancestrally driven every day. the work i do at SUSU is very layered: where there is a need, i look to support. my commUNITY work at SUSU is integral to my growth and development at this point in my life. i listen to the elements as I am working. i am in constant conversation with the ancestors and this land, and this connects to my land work and any maintenance that needs to get done. i am also holding the role of youth and belonging director. i’ve been called to that work since I was young.
what brought you to earth stewardship and land protector work?
i realize now that, for me, there has always been a knowing in connection with the earth. even when I was in the city, i would always look up at the sky, the clouds. in the city, there aren’t a lot of trees or a lot of spaces where Mama Earth is really in her fullness. so the opportunity to move to vermont was really rare for a kid raised on the west side of baltimore. that opportunity opened up a greater sense of remembering what I’ve always known. i have always connected to the earth: i was never afraid to journey into the woods or jump in the river or explore. so what brought me to this work was a knowing that I’ve always had. and it took being brought to a place like SUSU to turn up the volume of that connection - that knowing.
what’s been one of the most prominent messages from the land that you’ve received at SUSU?
one of the biggest messages my ancestors are telling me to speak to is that the land, the elements, nature, and the earth will always send you guidance, or we could say warning, or messages. and one of the biggest lessons is that we are the land. every part of our bodies is made up of the earth: our bones are mineral, our blood is water, our breath is air. the land will always speak to you and give you a heads-up or guidance if you listen - if you are willing to listen. when I’m on the land and away from distractions, the land will often give me permission to be open up enough to meditate. and when I’m in the space, the answers to questions that have been in my spirit for years will pop up. so the earth is also a place to receive clarity. fire does that for me too. the ancestors will also speak to us through fire.
is there anything else you want to share?
i want to be a conduit for my ancestors. we live in a society that has been fabricated based on how our bodies and minds work. there have been a lot of studies and tests about how the human body operates. what I want to say about that is this: allow ourselves to sincerely be open to change and transformation. sincerely and authentically. trust yourself, trust your process, trust your journey, trust your knowing. and before you give yourself to the external world, explore your inner self first so that you are aligned with your intuition. don’t do it for social media or for other people. do it for yourself.
“making a way for SUSU” by ishmael ahmed
Place of grounding, of growing, of growling, safety, and saving
The fire of Leo, the pride comes together
The ancestors invoked, and made present
To celebrate life in dance and fire
To live and thrive
The future is not set, the lions arise
To be or not to be is not the question
For we are
In a place of hope, new beginnings, a place apart
What can we do with our time together, what space can we make
Where can we go together, and a part
Coddle not anger, for it is brittle and breaks
Shards piercing the soul, leaving behind scars, bind it to the pride
The community, the people
By our actions we will be known
Transformations, the alchemical process
The revelation of the gold
The return of those things lost, taken, and forgotten
Made present
Time and place are the space
Here we manifest
Adversity not to be avoided
Should not be courted
It arises and need not be forced
Make space for Joy allowed to rise
By our actions we will be known
The night falls
The music thrums
The fire burns
The morning comes
The place is here
Making a way for Susu
“call to community” by ishmael ahmed
The edge of the western Abanaki, just before the water shed changes
In the valley of the Connecticut
Near the falls, the old places of learning
A place is made
In it
An ingathering initiated by the garden created
A space to begin to be
Simple, grounded; seeds planted
Re-emerging of older ways
How do we connect
What can we do with the time together
What will be done
Susu, community, reciprocity
Commitment to the work
Now
For the seven generations to follow
The rainbow
How do we through off the yoke of the colonizer
How do we return to place
To all people come knowledge
The prophetic speech
Do we listen
For Black elk has spoken
Given the ghost dance
The dream of the people returning
The return of sustenance
Arising the people of rainbow
Pounding of the feet to earth, ancestors arise
Resonance, the call, the manifestation
From the rainbow, all colors, shades and hues
Sounds of voices coloring the world
With speech
It with words, providing a since of meaning
Painting it with sound
Illuminating desire
Calling for a reconciliation with peace
On the edges of the western Abenaki
The Connecticut
Before the ridge where water flows north
A place is made
And ingathering occurs
Susu