Starting off 2023
“When I look at my life, searching…[for] self-recovery, I know that it was learning the truth about how systems of domination operate that helped, learning to look both inward and outward with a critical eye. Awareness is central to the process of love as the practice of freedom.” - bell hooks
Hi y’all. The Georgia Feminist is hitting your inbox for the first time in 2023 by way of me, Uzma, hoping you’re cozy and warm wherever you are reading this right now! We’re taking this chance to think about where we’ve been, thank you for your support, and share a little bit about what’s next for us.
In 2022, we hosted our first love and justice summer series with a discussion series about major themes in some of our favorite movies, books, TV shows. These included building daily love practices, unpacking our relationships with modern systems like family and work and of course, love. It was wonderful to see so many of your sweet faces on Zoom. Later in the fall we sold some more incredible merch (after a deep and major merch ethic conversation) on behalf of incredible organizations like Carolina Abortion Fund, The Cottage, and ARC Southeast as well as for our operating costs. We were able to donate 70% of our total proceeds from our event series and merch sales and give each of the organizations $547! Thank you so much for your support.
Of course, we rallied around these organizations following the devastating Dobbs decision, at a time when many of our community members in the South needed resources the most. Our event series, outside of supporting resources for these organizations, also became a soft place to land for many of us grappling with the impact of the Supreme Court’s decisions, and we remembered the nourishing power of community outside of school and work, rooted in shared values and commitments to each other. We hope to have more of these events in the future to continue supporting the organizations at the front lines of protecting justice in places where it is most compromised, and also to continue to build community, imagine, and practice for the world we want to live in together. Stay tuned for the announcement of our next book series, led by me, as we study love and how to practice it more deeply!
Following the same theme of love, make sure to sign up for Tarot Readings with Sam, our resident tarot reader and astrology lover, to start your new year. Many years have passed since I’ve met Sam, and she was one of my first teachers in both tarot and astrology, and is one of the most talented readers I’ve ever worked with. All proceeds go to our operational costs (Zoom, PO Box fees, website etc.) and will help us out a lot as we keep developing programming that centers the theory and practice of love, feminism, anti-racism, community building and learning together.
Our board is composed of historians, sociologists, rhetoricians, poets, and more, and all of us have come together with a deep commitment to our mission. We believe in a better world — the one we see in pockets each day during interactions with people like you — and we believe that those moments of practice can shift the future. As artist Molly Costello says in this art below: practice makes patterns, creates culture, and weaves new worlds. We are so grateful to be practicing alongside you towards a world in which we are all safe, loved, and cared for.
Happy solstice, happy new year, happy everything!
With love,
The Georgia Feminist
