Our Revolution will be Black, Queer, and Written!
We are Dulce-Marie Flecha and shea martin, two dope educators and writers. Dulce-Marie is a queer biracial/bicultural Black latina. shea is a queer, non-binary-ish Black woman. We are both radical, free, and bountiful in our existence on this earth.
In a time of rebellion and revolution, we’ve made the conscious choice to dare to dream and write. We’re fighters - each day we fight like hell in our words and actions, both offline in our communities and online in the larger educational community. We’re dreamers - our ideas and writing acknowledge our reality but it also challenges those around us to imagine beyond it.
The Plan
We’re raising money to go write and rest in the middle of this rebellion. We’ll spend 15-30 days in a remote location in New England writing in community. We have projects we’ll be working on. We’ll keep each other accountable. We won’t commit to providing this community anything from that time because we’re investing in our craft. If we produce something we eventually share, that’ll be cool. If not, it’ll still be dope because we’ll have been given the space and time to work on our craft without expectation.
Our goal is $10,000.
It’ll pay for housing, food, supplies, transportation, and our bills while we’re gone.
In true awkward fashion, we didn’t feel comfortable writing about ourselves so we’ve opted to write about each other.
Dulce-Marie on shea:
Writing felt like dreaming for the first time last Sunday when their pen spoke of freedom without stuttering. Neither writing nor dreaming comes painlessly to Black women. shea has woven both into their public work for years, to the benefit of both countless children and an audience of educators who rely on them for learning.
shea deserves time and space to continue their learning as a writer and as a dreamer. This retreat will provide them with weeks to devote to practicing their craft as an author in community with their loved ones. Your support will provide funding for a space in the mountains and time to prioritize their well-being and craft.
shea on Dulce-Marie:
Dulce-Marie’s work makes me feel alive. With her words, both in Spanish and English, she creates worlds where existence is limitless, magical, and revolutionary. Dulce-Marie has spent much of her career loving and supporting kids and teachers in some of the most trauma-filled spaces. Her writing and being in our lives is a reckoning and revolution in itself. It is that reckoning and revolution that provides so many of us with lessons on how to grapple with trauma, support ourselves (and our communities), and dare to be unequivocally us.
There is no one who deserves the time and space to write more than Dulce-Marie. It is easy for me to be selfish and think, “wow. What kind of amazing story or book could come out of this time! I can’t wait to read it.” But in reality, she deserves it because her writing is her healing; it is her meditation. Whether we get to ever read a word that she writes in the mountains, her soul and mind deserve the space to heal, to grow, and to be without expectation.