Weavers

Deepa Iyer wrote an amazing workbook that I carry with me almost everywhere called “Social Change Now: A Guide for Reflection and Connection”. This workbook goes into various roles that we play in our social change efforts. One of these roles is the Weaver. “We see the through-lines of connectivity between people, places, organizations, ideas, and movements.”

I am, and I think have always been, a weaver, a connection finder. Maybe it’s the neurodivergence. Maybe it’s the queerness. Maybe it’s the having to unlearn all the bullsh*t that is thrown at you in a femme body in Texas. Maybe it’s all of those and more. Regardless, I can see connections. I can see how the symptoms of pain and suffering around the world are rooted back to colonial, capitalist, oppressive systems. I can see the links between environmental justice, queer justice, Palestinian justice, and abolition. I can see the connections between ideas, peoples, and values. I can bring these connections together in meaning-making for myself and for others.

Collective

I’m not in this work alone. None of us are in this work alone. The only way we will find an imagining of the future that fits our collective wants and needs is to do the imagining together. My work is primarily centered around building queer community. There are not enough queer spaces in Texas, in the world. We need and crave shared space and time to be in connection with others and soul-talk/think about what we deal with in our daily lives – virtually or in person. Queerness by definition challenges norms and assumptions, bucking the assumed “absolutes” and “binaries” of our society. Applying queer lenses to our community building and our imagining helps all people (queer or not) to build relationship. Relationships (with self, others, and with land) may be the only thing that can ultimately sustain us and our worldbuilding.