Earthly Reads: Alexis Pauline Gumbs on Survival Is a Promise S1:5

Feb 25, 2025

Join Alexis Pauline Gumbs, a renowned author and Black feminist thinker, as she delves into the essence of Audre Lorde's work. Gumbs artfully connects Lorde’s teachings to our geological existence and the intricate relationship between identity and the Earth. Discover how interdependence with nature reshapes our understanding of survival, and explore the profound bond between humanity and the cosmos through the metaphor of iron. With wit and insight, Gumbs invites listeners to embrace collective stories and the transformative power of love.

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INSIGHT

A Ceremony of Presence

Gumbs's biography of Audre Lorde prioritizes the poet's eternal life force over strict adherence to traditional biographical form.
Gumbs views her work as a ceremony honoring Lorde's ongoing presence.

INSIGHT

Geological Connection

Audre Lorde's work is deeply geological, connecting Blackness to the earth's layers.
Gumbs follows Lorde's lead, emphasizing our inherent connection to the planet, not as a backdrop, but as our very lives.

INSIGHT

Graphite's Multiple Destinies

Gumbs connects graphite's multiple forms (pencil lead, nuclear reactor cores, diamonds) to the multifaceted nature of Blackness.
This challenges the extractive view of both earth and Black identity, promoting a relational understanding.

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In the fifth episode of our Earthly Reads series, we dive into a conversation with the renowned Alexis Pauline Gumbs, author of Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde. This episode offers a preview of the live Earthly Reads Book Study, now available for purchase at forthewild.world/bookstudy.

Throughout the conversation, Gumbs threads together her thoroughly-researched and deeply-felt knowledge of Audre Lorde with her own personal wit, observation, and openness. She also speaks to her understanding of Lorde’s work as “geological,” following the connection Lorde draws between Blackness and our existence at every layer of Earth’s interior. Reminding us of the value of the collective, Gumbs shares lessons for reciprocity, earthly embodiment, and the poetry of living.

Earthly Reads is a podcast series and online book study featuring conversations with some of our favorite authors including adrienne maree brown, Marcia Bjornerud, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Prentis Hemphill, Tricia Hersey, and Céline Semaan.

This episode is just a small glimpse into some of the incredible live conversations that will take place throughout the book study. For more details about the series and how to purchase access to the full study, visit forthewild.world/bookstudy.

Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a Queer Black Troublemaker and Black Feminist Love Evangelist and an aspirational cousin to all sentient beings. Her work in this lifetime is to facilitate infinite, unstoppable ancestral love in practice. Her poetic work in response to the needs of her cherished communities has held space for multitudes in mourning and movement. Alexis’s co-edited volume Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines (PM Press, 2016) has shifted the conversation on mothering, parenting and queer transformation. Alexis has transformed the scope of intellectual, creative and oracular writing with her triptych of experimental works published by Duke University Press (Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity in 2016, M Archive: After the End of the World in 2018 and Dub: Finding Ceremony, 2020.) Unlike most academic texts, Alexis’s work has inspired artists across form to create dance works, installation work, paintings, processionals, divination practices, operas, quilts and more.

♫ The music featured in this series is by Cool Maritime, Matt Baldwin, and Sharada Shashidhar and Caleb Buchanan from the compilation Staying: Leaving Records Aid to Artists Impacted by the Los Angeles Wildfires courtesy of our partner Leaving Records. Compilation proceeds are directed back into the community of artists and families impacted by the fires. Learn more at staying.bandcamp.com.

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