"I want to move through the world in a way that acknowledges Black women as the originators of so much freedom work without reducing our existences as Black and Native women to a harmful and impossible comparative study."
Author: Erica Violet Lee
nēhiyaw poet. rock & roll and thunder shakes her soul.
Free Up! Abolition & Transformative Justice Series: This Summer!
Free Up! is an 8-part abolition & transformative justice learning series benefitting the Prisoner Emergency Support Fund. Organized by Rania El Mugammar, with generous contributions from guest facilitators, this virtual series features workshops, panels, case studies and labs that explore justice for incarcerated folks, dreaming and building abolitionist futures, transformative justice in our families, building… Continue reading Free Up! Abolition & Transformative Justice Series: This Summer!
April 9th talk at Carleton University – “Deviant Ceremony: On Intoxication and Other Erotic Ecologies”
On April 9th from 1-2:30pm Ottawa time (EST), I'll be giving a talk as part of Carleton University's Department of Sociology and Anthropology's Brown Bag Lunch series. Deviant Ceremony: On Intoxication and other Erotic Ecologies In the midst of a pandemic, many are tending to our relationalities as sites of renewed hope and healing. Those… Continue reading April 9th talk at Carleton University – “Deviant Ceremony: On Intoxication and Other Erotic Ecologies”
YouTube event: Solidarity with Prisoners in the Saskatoon Correctional Centre, tomorrow
Tomorrow at 1pm CST, we're hosting a discussion in support of prisoners in the Saskatoon Correctional Centre, who are severely impacted by COVID-19. As of November 28, some prisoners are hunger striking against the living conditions in the prison. The event will also be available online after the livestream, with captioning. YouTube: https://youtu.be/DxJvoHzGu-8Facebook: https://fb.me/e/3lwxLFMFATwitter: https://twitter.com/ericavioletlee/status/1333507701104664578
Indigenous women on the Prairies deserve reproductive freedom (CBC Indigenous)
"Indigenous women and girls — especially those on reserve and in rural communities — face barriers to accessing basic health care; and yes, access to abortions is a necessary part of the basic health care package that we deserve."
In Defense of the Wastelands (GUTS Magazine)
I wrote a feature for the fabulous GUTS Canadian Feminist Magazine's issue 7: Love, titled In Defense of the Wastelands: A Survival Guide: "...for those of us in the wastelands - for those of us who are the wastelands - caring for each other is refusing a definition of worthiness that will never include us." "To provide… Continue reading In Defense of the Wastelands (GUTS Magazine)
Red Rising Magazine: Land, Language and Decolonial Love
I wrote a feature for the November 2016 issue of Red Rising Magazine, a publication run by and for Indigenous people, based in Winnipeg. On land and language: "Our languages and lands were made for love. We have wide skies, northern lights, and thousands of chokecherry bushes to duck behind. I know it’s taboo, but… Continue reading Red Rising Magazine: Land, Language and Decolonial Love
My ancestors survived colonization and all I got was this lousy eye twitch
As the doctor empties a third needle into my face to temporarily freeze the colonial eye twitch I’ll endure the rest of my life, she chirps, “It’s great that you started this procedure so young: you’ll never get wrinkles!”
My Optimism Wears Moccasins and is Loud: On Paris, Heavy Metal, and Chasing Freedom
Content Warning: attempted sexual assault; Indigenous Feminist anger that cuts like the lead riff in “The Trooper” My optimism wears moccasins and is loud. My optimism sometimes wears moccasins and is always loud. As a Nehiyaw girl growing up in a small prairie city in Canada, I got into punk, hard rock, and metal music… Continue reading My Optimism Wears Moccasins and is Loud: On Paris, Heavy Metal, and Chasing Freedom
Feeding the Heart of the City: A Love Letter at the Closing of Our Grocery Store
It is not a coincidence that areas with high Indigenous populations are the areas deprived of access to food and health care. At its core, this is an issue of maintaining the dispossession of Indigenous people and the legitimacy of Canadian control; an attempt to destroy the nations and legal orders that we hold in our blood, our muscles, our stomaches, our minds, our mouths.
Erica Violet Lee 