Toward a Black Queer Feminist Urbanist Kwanzaa

The Black Urbanist Weekly for December 26, 2022

Black feminine-presenting people dancing in an earthy, African-inspired room. Photo by RODNAE Productions

Reclaiming this time of celebration of the emergence of light in the midst of darkness across all peoples, while acknowledging African heritage and community-building requires acknowledging the shortcomings of its founders and declaring the true spirit of community building and honoring the creations and contributions of all genders, and gender presentations and incomes and abilities in the Black community.

This is The Black Urbanist Weekly, an email newsletter that highlights the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist thoughts and commentary of me, Kristen Jeffers, an internationally-known urban planner, fiber designer, and contributing editor. Think of this as an editorial page column, but directly in your email. This year, we are wishing and learning at the same time. This week, making Kwanzaa queer, feminist, and urbanist. Also, we have a special message from the University of California at San Diego. Learn more about how you can advertise in this newsletter. Prices start at just $75 a week with a four-week commitment.  You can also become a Patreon as an individual and support this work for as little as $5 a month.

When I looked back at my connection of the seven Nguzo Saba to principles of urbanism, I was really pleased with how well most of them held up. I also the seeds of what has grown into my own personal and professional embrace of a Black liberation lifted up by all gender expressions and urbanism with all shades and colors of Blackness. Here are those blended principles in full from 2012:

First, Umoja speaks of keeping people together. Although race is arbitrary, the good traditions from different cultural groups should be celebrated and cultivated. Yet, a unity that is unjust should not be tolerated. The re-segregation of schools and continued segregation of neighborhoods by race and class are detrimental to a society that seeks to maintain growth and prosperity.

Kujichagulia speaks of branding oneself, instead of letting others define you. Some of the new city branding projects sound great, but fail to reach out to average community members and leaders of communities that have been excluded. The principle is better manifested when all community leaders and members come together to define themselves, instead of yielding all control to PR and marketing experts.

Ujmaa manifests itself in tactical urbanism, and other forms of grassroots planning and activism. I see this principle in the community gardens, community policing that builds instead of breaks trust, and in faith communities who continue to invest and include the communities they surround instead of walking away when many of their congregants do. I  also see this principle in the Occupy movement, especially around the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Ujamaa  in some respects equals Buy Local. It talks about local commerce, something that’s trended in many circles over the past few years. Yet, to me it speaks to the need to support good, just, honorable businesses.While this is easier said than done in a world of Walmart being the only affordable option in many households, we need to do what we can to force all businesses to do better to serve instead of sell to customers. I  also want to use this point to disparage the belief that there is no need for culturally-based stores. Some of the same people who would laugh at the black bookstore selling incense, gladly support the local, family owned sushi bar or Irish pub. Mind you, all these businesses could be donating money to schools and senior centers. They could employ youth who need something to do besides walk the streets and terrorize others. They could be paying workers a fair wage and also making good, strong products.

Nia is pretty self-explanatory. Everything has a purpose and everything should have a purpose. That purpose should not be self-serving. If I were to choose a planning/urbanist element to pair with this principle, it would be the community plans, maps, and the process of creating such. These documents serve as the basis of our efforts and help us remember our purpose in creating communities.

Kuumba goes beyond its basic principle. It honors the creative arts and the creative mind. It is here where the creative class principle makes sense. The creative class is not the whole of the community, but it is worthy of respect. Eventually, if creativity is not respected, there will be no innovation and adaptation to changing realities, from natural disasters, to obsoletance of technologies.

Finally, Imani goes beyond religious belief. Even if you don’t believe in God, you have to believe in the ability of your fellow man or woman to do whatever has been granted for them to do. Everything is not simultaneous, fast, or easy. In many communities, it’s been faith that has kept them from completely dissolving and giving up their culture and value to outside groups. Faith is what has kept inventors, builders, and other creators doing what their titles entail. Faith is the heart of all the above elements of community.

To close, we should not completely divorce Kwanzaa from its African culture or celebratory elements. Yet, we should honor the community building elements of Nguzo Saba as we continue in our quests for creating great places.

So if this is what Kwanzaa is, then what’s actually missing as a Black queer feminist urbanist, besides me realizing at that point both internally and externally that broader gender identities exist?

I think I worried at first, much like writer Chanté Griffin in 2018, that having the founder of the holiday participate in torturing women in the Black Power Movement so soon after having created this holiday ultimately challenged this holiday’s feminism.

However, I had aunts and uncles who proudly embraced this holiday, and, throughout my 1980s and 1990s youth, brought me candy and books about the celebration. Several of my Black feminist colleagues back home in Greensboro put on one of the best Kwanzaa celebrations on the East Coast (yes, I’m very much biased). And of course, the second best in my opinion were the fall convocations/Kwanzaa celebrations put on by several Black faculty and staff at NC State during my time there in the 2000s, where I was introduced to the concept of pouring libations and ancestor veneration. 

If anything, processing Kwanzaa in the backdrop of this last decade of Black life globally has made me as adamant as I am about practicing the spirit of Christmas and the other December holidays throughout the year. How can we make every day a holiday? How can we live every day with nia? How can we go forward without punishing each other and instead, lifting each other up? How can move to abolition and rehabilitation in our communities?

Next week, I will be sharing my nia for the new year. Yes, I shared wishes, but here are the tactics I intend to take to achieve those wishes and strategies.

By the Way

If you’re new here, I write out my grand thesis of the week above, then I share other articles/videos that were noteworthy for me this week in this section. Apologies in advance for things behind a paywall. Some things I subscribe to and others I grab just before the wall comes down on me. I will start marking these articles and describing them.

So like many of you this holiday season, I’ve been catching up on my entertainment. I forgot to drop in here on Friday, that I helped edit this collection of DC songs that speak to DC’s urbanism, of which I contributed one that might be a surprising addition. I also missed this compilation of videos filmed in the DMV  that was published on the site back in early 2020.

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Meanwhile, I’d been anticipating the last chapters of The Best Man movie/miniseries franchise for a while and I was not disappointed. This series along with so many others that emerged in the 1990s set the standard for Black upwardly mobile progressive urbanism. 

Then of course many of these shows and movies became more suburban, churchy, and conservative, while in real life the while in the gentrification, displacement and stagnating wages were bubbling into more awareness of the cruelty of state violence, intimate partner violence, and queer and transphobia in our community.

Thankfully, the advent of the web series brought queer and millennial stories into this cannon of Black urbanism on the screen. And, this particular series returned just in time for us to see how this particular set of characters, portrayed by some of Black Hollywood’s emerging legends, would handle everything we got going on in the world, while still being entertaining. And if you are needing a solid recap of the series from someone who also experienced this series in a similar way, Refinery29 has you covered.

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And I talked a little bit above about creating new traditions, however, I wanted to highlight how full circle having a Whitney Houston movie, especially one that was honest about how she loved  (and had the full blessing of others involved in her life, which also allowed us to hear her actual voice and songs!) this Christmas. My Dad adored Whitney and while it’s been ten years this year since we lost her, it will be ten years in May since my Dad was taken from us. Meanwhile, I’m happy to have a partner who’s just as obsessed with her, in a different way.

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And I’ve got more to say about the Descendant film, but for now, all I can tell you is to watch it and be ready to apply it to your community, along with supporting the work of this community. It really illustrates how Black urbanism isn’t exclusive to so-called “cities”, and its practice is just as much of a contested civil right as some of our relationship issues, among other critical questions of the African diaspora.

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Finally, the tropes that show up in Black holiday films. Spoiler alert, gentrification is one of them.

Before You Go

The folks at the University of California, San Diego would love for you to know about not just one, but two tenue-track jobs they have available next year. Plus, some housekeeping about our little space. First the two jobs.

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN URBAN STUDIES AND PLANNING

The Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the University of California, San Diego invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor working in the area of urban studies and planning to begin July 1, 2023.

This is a position for a tenure-track assistant professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at UC San Diego, a rapidly-growing department with strategic emphases on social and spatial justice; climate justice; and multinational planning.

The department is interested in candidates who have demonstrated commitment to excellence by strong engagement in teaching, research, and service toward building an equitable and diverse scholarly environment. The successful candidate will be an excellent scholar with an active research program in one or more of the following areas: transportation planning; climate change mitigation and adaptation; environment and land use planning; health and wellness, and/or spatial analytics.

The University of California, San Diego is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer advancing inclusive excellence. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, covered veteran status, or other protected categories covered by the UC nondiscrimination policy.

Department: https://usp.ucsd.edu

Apply link: https://apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF03452

Open date: November 21, 2022

Next review date: Tuesday, Jan 31, 2023 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Apply by this date to ensure full consideration by the committee.

Final date: Friday, Mar 31, 2023 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled.

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And...

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN URBAN STUDIES AND PLANNING WITH A FOCUS ON DESIGNING JUST FUTURES

The Department of Urban Studies and Planning seeks faculty candidates at the level of Assistant Professor whose research, teaching, and service will advance scholarship and institutional solutions for designing more just and equitable systems and structures.

This faculty member will advance UC San Diego’s commitment to the inclusion of Indigenous, Black, and migrant communities, anti-racism, anti-oppression, equity, and social justice. We especially welcome candidates whose professional experience, community engagement, and personal background have facilitated their understanding of and ability to better serve students from Indigenous and other underrepresented populations.

Faculty hired under this Initiative will join the UC San Diego campus, the UC San Diego Design Lab (https://designlab.ucsd.edu/), and the Indigenous Futures Institute (https://ifi.ucsd.edu/) to forge a new paradigm of engagement and collaboration that draws on the geographic, academic, institutional, and cultural strengths of our tri-national region across Southern California, Baja California, and the Kumeyaay region.

This search is part of a UC San Diego-wide cluster hire on Designing Just Futures (https://www.design-just-futures.ucsd.edu/) that aims to recruit scholars who can contribute to the advancement of design, social justice, and Indigenous, Black, and migrant futures and seeks engagement with scholars across disciplines to address issues of territory, access, and equity, and social and political debates pertinent to Indigenous, Black, border, and migrant communities, while also working within their home departments and professional communities.

Department: https://usp.ucsd.edu

Apply link: https://apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF03484

Next review date: Tuesday, Jan 31, 2023 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Apply by this date to ensure full consideration by the committee.

Final date: Friday, Mar 31, 2023 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled.

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I know I’ve been promising that I’ll be live on LinkedIn and YouTube and Instagram and I haven’t forgotten! I’ll be doing my wishes video live this  Wednesday, December 28, and a video about these two holiday-themed newsletters Thursday, December 29. Both of these will go live around the noon hour Eastern.

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I have created a special landing page, www.theblackurbanist.com/books, that’s not only a home for my upcoming volume, A Black Urbanist Journey to a Queer Feminist Future, which I just chatted with my editor about last week,  but I have embedded my Bookshop.org booklists here as well since we were having so many issues with the link. Go here for all things books I’ve read and my book when it comes out!

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Although you’ll see me pop up here and there this week, I am on holiday break from any client projects. I’ll be releasing my Kwanzaa email, making those videos, and doing some 2023 strategic planning and newsletter writing. I’ll release my 2023 Capabilities Deck in the first weeks of January along with a video to pair to explain what my calendar will look like in 2023 and how you can plug into it this year. 

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Thank you for supporting last year’s capital campaign. Thanks to you, this year, I was able to cover my web hosting, enhance this newsletter, and position myself to take on some other client projects. However,  if you want to send me money for quick expenses or like a tip jar, you can Venmo me. I will also be introducing a paid tier for Substack and Medium users to also function like a tip jar.

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Happy holidays and talk soon,

Kristen