On black matter
Warrior Poets, Circle Keepers, Et al,
I want to open by thinking slowly, an idea that runs fast: "Black Lives Matter." An anthem of recent (and older) social mobilization, BLM is one of few slogans that has seen the dizzying emotional investment as it has; an investment so widespread, it's hard to imagine any pedestrian without evening a passing familiarity with the discourse. For even this reader, I’m sure the slogan registers as all too familiar and perhaps even exhausted. So for all its accrued cultural pertinence, how do we attend to the unique problem of the reactions that it has come to engender? So normalized and so encrusted with polarized meaning, it seems everyone has an opinion on its thesis ("yes they matter" or "no, all lives matter") but few are able to take its political imperative any further. So, this is what I mean when I say the "problem" of Black Lives Matter, or its discursive formation more rather; the now famous battle cry has been paralyzed by a powerful critical fatigue precisely because of its fame and predictability. As it swirls through the banners of ardent protesters and the speeches of political pundits, its yawning use has had the paradoxical effect of emptying the term of its original critical import. So how do we reinvest the term with its generative and radical potential? That is the task I take up today.
To do this, I turn to the terminal marker of the phrase: "Matter." What if we were to rethink the meaning of this word, away from its familiar verbal sense (to be of importance), and instead read it at the atomic level? What happens when we unlock “matter's” potential by reinterpreting it as matter, as in, the literal constituent building blocks of our physical and physic worlds? Matter as matter, the smallest units of our built environment and cultural cosmologies. Matter as matter, the incandescent stardust of taken sisters and brothers that now circulate freely through the cosmos and our souls; may they finally rest easy. And Black lives matter as matter that furnishes the very formal-stuff of American modernity.
It is with this idea of matter and black lives that Collective Climb has been able to see the growth we have thus far. Our team has been the immense beneficiaries of generous black leaders and advisors who have provided the material and intellectual matter for us to build from the earliest stages of our project. Our sincerest gratitude goes out to individuals such as Glenn Bryan (Chief Mentor to Collective Climb), James, Kendra, and their radiant youth constituency (YEAH! Philly), ED Bacon and Barb (Restorative Response Baltimore), Rev Jones (Restorative Cities Initiative), Leeya (Noisemakers), Dionne Long (Mantra Consulting), Erica Atwood (COS at the Office of Councilmember Gauttier), Wakumi, E, and Tye (SOUL Sister's Leadership Collective), Lt. Williams (Penn Police), Sia Henry (Impact Justice), and Howard Sanders (Auldbrass Partners).
And ofcourse, matter knows no particular race nor time. So, I want to spend the remainder of this letter recounting three recent developments within the story of Collective Climb that will, no doubt, have rippling effects for our imminent futures.
Incorporation: We’re incorporated and 501(c)3 status is on the way.
Accreditation: Training from Restorative Response Baltimore? Check.
Advocacy: Collective Climb is already shaping public safety policy at the local and state level.
Door-To-Door Canvassing We spoke to 174 West Philadelphians (social distanced of course) on their views of Penn campus safety.
Collective Kickback: “I’m so grateful for you guys. We need more programs like this!” In November, we piloted out Collective Kickback series, a 5 session restorative primer for young people in West Philadelphia and it was a massive success!
Matter in this way is a curious thing. It at once completes and invites more. Our incorporation, accreditation, and advocacy certainly represent a landmark of accomplishments, but they just as powerfully unleash a series of radical futures as well. In turn, they become a symbol of more work to be done. But the universality of this matter and that also suggests another equally important insight: the confederacy of sameness through difference that assembles and organizes this thing that we call life. The divine condensation of accidents and molecules that Dr. King mapped when he spoke of the “inescapable network of mutuality” that tethers all of life’s matters. So in the spirit of atoms and chance, of us not me, we thank you for making the matters of Collective Climb, one important to you as well. We look forward to all that we will build together.
Yours,
Mckayla, Kwaku, Hyungtae