Hi,

I'm LJ, a queer Black & Jewish writer, theologian, politics and culture nerd, and this is Kumi.

For years, I have found myself returning to the same questions.

Questions about power and belonging.

Questions about history and memory.

Questions about what makes a life sacred.

My training in multi-religious theologies and biblical studies gave me tools for examing texts. My journey toward progressive Judaisms that are LGBTQIA+ beyond inclusion, reject the idea of a miltarized enthostate colonialism, sexism, racism and all other isms, has given me new ways of thinking about peoplehood, time, devotion, and communitity responsibility*. My queer African diasporic position in the United States has rooted me in material and spiritual realities, and called me to remember resistance and the joy of life. Poetry has given me language for experiences that arguments alone cannot hold.

I find that I cannot let go of thinking about empire and imperialism, the global system that hangs over most of the planet, with the United States as its (slowly) dying heart.

It’s not only political empires, but the habits of domination that shape our imaginations. The belief that worth is measured by productivity. The assumption that more power is always better. The temptation to treat ourselves and others as resources rather than mysteries.

This newsletter is an attempt to read differently.

Each month, you'll get biweekly emails where I'll explore a theme through poetry, history, faith, reflection. My hope is not to provide definitive answers. It is to create a place where we can learn to pay attention together.

I want this to be a place of nourishment.

A place to encounter poems and ideas that help us become more attentive, more rooted, and more capable of belonging to each other.

Kumi means wake/rise up in Hebrew. A place to think about what kinds of people we must become if we hope to live beyond the logic of imperialism.

This month's theme is Empire.

• This post is free! If you’d like to support my work and see more Kumi and comment, subscriptions are pay what-you-want (one time or monthly), or free if you know me, (Discord, Signal, etc) reach out to me!

• For more on practicing/emboding Judaism outside the confines of a genocidial ethnostate, Jewish Disapora Movement.