seeking exhale
volume I
“i only wanted one time to see you laughing” -Prince
one september afternoon i was running up flatbush avenue by prospect park and i saw that someone had left some windows on the grass. i paused. i wondered. who left them there? where did they come from? were there empty holes in the walls where they used to be? would someone come back for them? i became transfixed. i went down a window rabbit hole. i learned that a root meaning of the word window is ‘breath door.’ breath door! breath door.....what a phrase... windows let air in and let air out.... through the window, light and music streaming in, the scent of dinner and laughter wafting out. windows make it easier to breathe. i clung to this.
we live in unbreathable and unbelievable times. we are facing down the 6th great extinction of species on earth, multiple genocides, fascism, white supremacy and militarism, patriarchal and transphobic violence. these are suffocating times. and through this we are somehow supposed to “go to work” and “pay rent” and look each other in the eye.
in this atmosphere, within the regime of capitalism, how might we welcome breath?
could we build our own breath doors? could we conjure, nurture, sustain thresholds to breathing easier?
could we protect what it is in our lives that affords breath as we also imagine alternatives to the abysmal status quo?
for me, comedy + the solidarity economy are breath doors.
laughter helps us breath easier. that sigh after someone cracks you up? it’s of relief.
humor might teach us to refuse suffocation; it just might guide us toward the political and spiritual transformation of ourselves, our relationships, and our ways of moving resources that are needed now.
“The solidarity economy is a global movement to build a just and sustainable economy where we prioritize people and the planet over endless profit and growth. Growing out of social movements in Latin America and the Global South, the solidarity economy provides real alternatives to capitalism, where communities govern themselves through participatory democracy, cooperative and public ownership, and a culture of solidarity and respect for the earth.”
- the New Economy Coalition
the solidarity economy includes cooperatively run businesses, land trusts, time banks, credit unions, community gardens, and more. there are countless examples across space and time! the solidarity economy is alive and growing and can make capitalsim obsolete.
what is the solidarity economy? Cooperative Economic Alliance of NYC’s map of solidarity economy organizations
“The East New York Community Land Trust (ENY CLT) is a grassroots, people of color-led non-profit organization founded by community residents dedicated to preserving affordability for future generations and providing a vehicle to create generational wealth. We aim to protect, stabilize, and expand the stock of affordable homes, locallyowned small businesses, and green spaces in East New York and Brownsville to benefit low to moderate-income
New York City rent is notoriously, prohibitively expensive. Land trusts take land out of the speculative market to create permanently affordable housing.
The Arc of Justice Film
howdolandtrustswork?
about New Communities Inc, recognized as the blueprint for CLTs in the U.S. started by Black Civil Rights activists in Georgia in the late1960s
what could breath, the letting go and the receiving, teach us about how we distribute resources, time, money? what if we understood that hoarding material wealth is also destructive, futile, lethal? it is impossible to hoard breath — to hold it in is to perish.
Ashon Crawley writes, “But we let things go only in order to receive. We exhale in order to inhale, we dispense with that which is within us so that we may constantly receive more. If we do not engage in the constant relinquishment of seizure and ownership, we will never have anything, we will cease to be. If I try holding my breath, it won’t work. Gotta give up that shit that I want and need the most. But giving it up, relinquishing, allows for renewal, for refreshment.”
(The Lonely Letters, p. 235)
how would you breathe if your housing was permanently affordable? how would you breathe if you could spend what you pay on rent on whatever the hell you wanted instead? how would you breathe if everyone in your community had safe, clean, well-maintained housing, knew sanctuary and refuge? had a place to rest? breath is relational, an ongoing exchange with other beings, an ongoing exchange with atmosphere and place. could we put our trust in breath’s metabolism? in each other’s breath?
Ramsay Taum shares“The first word—ha—refers to life-giving breath, air. It is the first thing you receive when you come to the planet, and the last thing you give back. Something you always share and can never own. Giving and receiving is foundational to the principle of aloha, which is Hawai’i. It’s a reciprocity agreement, it’s a relationship with others as well as with this place. It’s breathing in and breathing out. Ha is also the space, the atmosphere between you and I. It’s the air that connects us. Isn’t if funny how, anytime we damage that space, we use expressions lie, “let’s clear the air between us, ” because we recognize the importance of that space. ” from “Reverence Over Reference”interview by Isabel Flower in Deem: A Sense of Place
“Community Land Trusts from Boston to Honduras, Puerto Rico to Hawaii, Go Beyond Housing to Address Climate Change and Resilience”
“This launch of A People’s Orientation to a Regenerative Economy: Protect, Repair, Invest and Transform guides us collectively into a sustainable future, wherein Indigenous sovereignty and values are front and center”
thank you to the organizers at the ENY CLT and to organizers everywhere who by acting like their visions are possible bring them to life and inspire and change us in the process
thank you to the Maker’s Ensemble for the room where it happens
thank you to everyone who said yes to the invitation
thank you to all the workers who build, steward, cook, drive, clean, care, maintain, organize, and create the infrastructures that makes our lives possible
thank you to the 2024 Economics Arts
Transformation learning cohort & Nati Linares, Francisco Perez, and Reem
Drėėėmy Abdou for guiding us
thank you to Social Practice CUNY for funding that made this series possible
thank you @ _ cocinafeliz for the delectable snacks
thank you to everyone who’s ever made me laugh
