There are certain writers, certain thinkers, certain theorists whose work is not only of their time that somehow it finds a way to echo across time and finds usefulness for so many people long after they're gone.

One of those writers, thinkers, to me is Audrey Lord,

who even if you haven't read a lot of Audrey Lord, which I recommend you do,

you are still surrounded in many ways by the way she thought, the question she asked, her practice.

Even as we try to meme or reduce Audrey Lord's offerings

to bite-sized chunks, there's still something pulsating and powerful at the core of her words that we still have to confront.

Adjalord is of course not on today's podcast directly, but we still get to commune with her through the work of another writer and poet who I think we will be revisiting in generations to come also and that's Alexis Pauline Gums.

Alexis is a dear friend of mine, a writer, she has written several books that you should check out, Spill, M Archive, Dub, and she's recently

written a book about Audrey Lord called Survival is a Promise, the Eternal Life of Audrey Lord.

And in true form of Alexis Pauling Gums, this is an unorthodox and exciting visitation of on Audrey Lord's life.

We are drawn into moments, stories, questions, Audrey's experiences, but we're also asked to understand

Audrey Lord's practice as something that we might take on, a way of being in the world of relating to the world that is also of us.

It's an incredible work.

It's an incredible book that I highly recommend that you get.

And we are really lucky to have Alexis Pauling Gums on the episode today to talk about survival,

to talk about courage, to talk about love through the life and the practice of

Audrey Lord.

Please, please, please, go get this book, go get it for somebody else too.

And I really hope you enjoy today's episode.

Alexis, it's really a joy and an honor to be back in conversation with you.

So first, thank you for doing this, for coming back to talk to us.

Absolutely. Oh, thank you so much. I, yeah, I've been looking forward to this.

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