finding and pambana

after reading “to hell with your good intentions” by ivan illich (probably the most radical piece of writing offered in the super problematicness that is almost all study abroad programs (especiall “service-learning” ones) i want to talk about how travel can be an incredibly revolutionary act. i am a super believer in the MAGIC and trans-spacial trans-temporal (space and time are just western thangs) cultural abilities of oppressed peoples. i mean enVISIONing a better world through the current damaging realities, spreading Truth and putting spells on folk by song that moves through waves (thinking Black working class Blues women some of whom were/are queer), creating safe spaces. magic. “the people could fly”. afrofuturistic back to africa through the stars stuff. traveling as a queer Black woman actively challenging the imperialist discourse about amerikkka and Black women, and also the environmental and capitalist ramifications and sources of some travel. sitting on a plane, as the only Black woman (even to a currently/formerly majority Black and Brown country) illuminates my privileging from the system and also a revolt against the system. actively [re]connecting with other oppressed peoples of the world, understand that at different times in different places our relationship to power varies, sharing our knowlege systems and beliefs. is super radical. ways to travel with few economic resources and a reliance on the connections between people and place. hitchhiking, sharing rides, cyberspacetravel, in our dreams. how do we stay safe and create safety. things thoreau antimexicanwar never thought about. and June Jordan doesn’t stop. in her skin there is Palestine there is Lumumba there is Zimbabwe. how we have travelled. we weren’t meant to survive we weren’t meant to move. and i imagine Audre Lorde on a whiteplane BlackandBrownbuilt whitemaleonlypiloted and think about how a new discourse is created in her smile in Grenada. where everyone knows what ZAMI means. and the sounds and the smells and the faces are part of us.