Episode 7 | Queerness, Selfhood, and the Blessings of Creativity

We invite you to our conversation with queer Chicanx educator Ale, who teaches English to 9th graders in LA. She shares about the pandemic as a portal to creativity, letting go of perfectionism, co-creating space with her LGBTQ+ students, and what it means to explore her queer identity from a place of joy and ease. We also reflect with J, a college senior on the cusp of graduation, about her exploration of selfhood and sexuality in school. Brooklyn high school teacher and poet Meghan Dunn shares a poem about girlhood and the body from Curriculum, her beautiful book of poems. Finally, we ask: What are the ties to heteronormativity that you must break in order to do your self-work? What do you have to relinquish as a return to loving yourself and to loving? How will you move into deeper connection with yourself?

Intellectual Inheritance

“Seven Stages of Conocimiento,” Gloria E. Anzaldúa
How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community, Mia Birdsong
All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks
Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, bell hooks 
Yearning, bell hooks
We Are the Ants, Shaun David Hutchinson
“The Summer Day,” Mary Oliver
“The Known Unknown: Persona, Empathy, and the Limits of Imagination,” The Poetry Foundation,  Camille Rankine

Music

“Floating” Smith The Mister | https://smiththemister.bandcamp.com 
“Fluffy” Smith The Mister
“Joy Ride” YT SoundZ
“CenterPeace” Deyuel IG: @Deyuel
“Cumbia” Kevin MacLeod incompetech.com
Giveon | Miguel | Lucky Daye Type Beat "Restore" Jay 808 Beats
Dancing on Desks theme music produced by Mara Johnson, Elliott Wilkes, and monét cooper