What is The Clearing?

We started this thing called The Clearing.

And The Clearing of course is inspired by Baby Suggs Holy, Toni Morrison's book, Beloved, where Baby Suggs Holy calls the community to the clearing at a, at a point in the book.

And in the clearing, Baby Suggs Holy, who is like an, uh, supposed- she represents, like, the ancestors, she brings the people to the clearing and she says, "You got to love yourself." Mm.

"Because ain't nobody else gonna love you.

They would rather see your neck stretched, so you have to love your neck.

You've got to love your face.

You've got to love your liver.

Because if you don't love you radically, nobody's gonna love you." Mm-hmm.

There's not a guarantee that anybody else is gonna love you in this here world.

And so it's ra- it's a call to radical self-love and, and also a radical centering of our own stories, the stories of Black women.

And I would add now Brown women.

Mm-hmm.

Because of the trauma that has been laid on our, on the shoulders of Brown women because of- Yes ...

the exorbitant and brutal, brutally violent pogrom against immigrants in the United States right now, Brown women's economies have actually begun to dry up as well.

Yep, that's true.

And, and there's a sense of not, not knowing if they belong.

Mm.

So The Clearing is specifically a place for women of color to come and to be filled back up with self-love and the resources that you need in order to hold the weight of what we are carrying in this world today.

And lest we think that things are getting better and they will continue to get better, please remember that the big, beautiful bill doesn't really take effect until after the midterms.

Mm.

And that big, beautiful bill will be completely slashing Medicare, cutting Social Security, slashing SNAP.

Yeah.

It will be taking out almost completely the Education Department, if it hasn't already started.

There are huge cuts that are coming to our communities as a result of, honestly, as a result of, of the legislation that's being passed over the past year, as a result of 2025, Project 2025.

And we might, we have a respite right now, but the reality, um, many do, others don't.