Happy Spring! So excited for what this season will bring to bloom. Speaking of which, there’s been two sessions of Black Extract (BE writing circle) thus far with writers from North Carolina and beyond, where we commune virtually to the ends of nourishing our (creative) selves and honoring space for our stories. I’d like to offer you one of the freewrite prompts shared within the BE writing circle, gifted to us from M Archive by Alexis Pauline Gumbs – “...who would suggest an origin of life except Blackness?”. I’d consider our present season of Spring, when it’s the northern hemisphere’s time to slowly wake the world and warm the earth. I encourage you to embrace the season, and see how your surroundings allow you to unfold and unbundle.

The next Black Extract writing circle will be held on Thursday, March 30th at 6:30pm ET and will be guest facilitated by multi-dimensional artist, Gia Anansi-Shakur. I’ve held space with Gia (she/her) before as a curator, creative architect, and rest technician at the Black August retreat for NC-based creatives, Revival of the Seers, my collaborative offering as a Lightsower of SaltWater Sojourn. Gia is also the steward of Choir of the Imaginners, a virtual playspace for the multi-disciplinary creatives, and Executive Curator + Founder of Alligators, Hussies and Bibles, a rigorous program designed to nurture literary talents. I’m so excited she will be holding space as part of Black Extract, and have complete faith in holding all those that may attend.

You can register for the next Black Extract and any future BE writing circles at bit.ly/BEcircle.

Will end this post sharing what I’m reading and a playlist I’m excited to write to on many a spring day this season.

Books in rotation and in the tote:

Dance We Do: a poet explores Black Dance by Ntozake Shange

M Archive: After the End of the World by Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Black Women Writers at Work, edited by Claudia Tate

Motherworld: a devotional for the altar-life by Destiny Hemphill

Spring’s Musical Garden, a Spotify playlist

~Mariah M.