Self-Care As Resistance Pt. 1 : Identity

1 Identity

Melissa A. Fabello of Everyday Feminism defines self-care as

“any set of practices that makes you feel nourished, whether that’s physically, emotionally, spiritually, all of the above.”

With this in mind, we acknowledge that there cannot be one blanket strategy for practicing self-care.

Each person requires different tactics to maintain their personal well-being. Here we seek to explore the ways self-care practice and identity intersect.

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The concept of intersectionality* refers to how categories like race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability are interconnected and work together to affect our individual and collective experiences -and explains how these categories correlate to different yet connected systems of oppression and privilege.

For some people, self-care may be based around leisure. While these practices are valuable, they become problematic when the idea of self-care neglects to recognize trauma, injustice, and various forms of inequality. *KimberlĂŠ Crenshaw coined the term "intersectionality" to describe the fact that many social justice problems [like racism, sexism, transphobia] are often overlapping, and do not act independently of each other, creating multiple levels of social injustice.

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In order for self-care to be truly accessible to all people, we must reshape the way we perceive it so that it is not dependent on privilege.

The ways we care for ourselves must reflect nuanced experiences while challenging oppression and acknowledging self-care as an act of self-preservation.

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.�

-- Audre Lorde

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contents 5.

UnApoloGENTIC ................ Kweli Kitwana

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Sangre Mia ............ MarĂ­a Alejandra Sage

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Untitled response ..................... Anon Illustrations ........... Samuel Rios Cuevas

11. Response ............. Caitlin Siobhan Eagen 13. I Don't Want To Hurt Anymore ........... CSE 14. Untitled ............................... CSE 15. Handout ................................ CSE 16. Old Photos ..................... Jordon Best 19. Garden ............................ Dan Gray 20. Untitled Poem ................ Heap of Ruins 21. Untitled Illustration ............... Sabika 22. Mindfull Identity Exercise

UnApoloGENTIC she was the glory of self ancestors knowingly gifted her the glory of UNapologetic self awareness

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Kweli Kitwana

I am an older African American Woman who grew up on the Southside of Chicago during the 60s and 70s, therefore my identity is full of a cultural and a racial ridden society.

Not considering my race and gender has never been an option.

Self care is a part of my culture. African Americans use self-care when they seek out community---it's our way of lovingly extending pride and respect to ourselves. Growing up,my family would gather around food, hobbies and community events/activities.

It's important to see yourself and people who look like me when I seek self-care communities.

"Traditional" self-care environments don't typically offer this for People of Color.

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Anonymous

Meditating on my ancestral roots, memories with my family and the oceanI am often able to keep my PMA in check.

I find balance surrounding these things because each reminds me of my child-self, who I want to emulate in love every day.

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MarĂ­a Alejandra Sage

Sangre Mia I wander into the kitchen, dazed & curly, 9 añitos Papi's coffee drips from the chorreador and stains my morning air forever La mesa esta llena de mango, papaya, melón...plates of fried cheese, yolky eggs, gallo pinto y pan.

My great tíos Hilda y Lalo sit amongst the spread, head of this altar; Ancient lapis guides, brown and wrinkled by the San Jose sun.

And a er breakfast, Playa Longing draws us to the sapphire tessellation we've known in every life.

My hermanitas rush into each wave like an old friend Mamita floats away into the pink horizon A lily pad, effortlessly I find the moon watching me first. Hello Dios. Diosa.

I welcome me as you do, perfectly.

Inside me this moment repeating, gentle reminders of my blood returning home to the sea 8

María Alejandra Sage

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Samuel Rios Cuevas

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Samuel Rios Cuevas

I consider my identity a lot.

Queer, mentally ill, and grief experienced/ touched personally by death of a parent, grew up with a disabled motherall these things have had a profound impact on my identity and how I view myself and care for myself.

I spend an exuberant amount of time learning how to create rest ethic and self compassion.

It was not part of my family structure.

My mother is also mentally ill and was very competitive with who was the "sickest".

My experience with community and self-care has come the strongest through my fathers death and through other friends who have lost immediate family members.

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Caitlin Siobhan Eagen

It's honestly a daily struggle.

But I prioritize it by using the perspective that I can only compare myself to my own wellness - not others.

I recognize that even though society doesn't see "calling out depressed" as valid - that I can stay home from school if I need to.

Practicing self care is unselfish because we cannot help society if we ourselves have nothing to give.

You can't pour from an empty well.

Self care is a radical act in a fast paced and outsourced society we operate in.

Self care benefits our community by learning how to be active and kind listeners and the art of knowing how to allow someone to feel and to say "tell me more".

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Caitlin Siobhan Eagen

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Caitlin Siobhan Eagen

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Caitlin Siobhan Eagen

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Caitlin Siobhan Eagen

Old Photos I was looking at old pictures of myself, selfies circa 2012.

At first I was awash with the all too familiar cringing one experiences when remembering that days were once lived before the discovery of the eyebrow pencil, a good hairdresser and a foundation the same colour as one’s skin. I flicked through the photos on an iPad which hadn’t been charged since Skrillex was relevant. The ripped high-waisted shorts, the pouting, the dip-dye, it was a journey through a dark history that I allowed to resurface with great fear and tentativeness. There was something else though, a subtle theme, an undercurrent that only I knew was there. In these pictures I was fourteen and I had an eating disorder. In these pictures, when I was able to see past the home-job dip-dyed hair, I was able to see the fatigue, the trepidation, the anxiety, the sleepless nights and the exhausting days, I could see the fear in my mother’s eyes, I could hear my voice that wavered and hid under the cha er of others.

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Jordon Best

I could see a face which had tears streaming down it more o en than a smile across it.

I felt sorry for her.

That was the most fascinating thing about these pictures, it was hard to see them as myself. Not out of embarrassment, but because she really did seem so other to me.

I was one of the lucky ones who came out on the other side. I now have an identity. I have a self-belief that I once thought unimaginable. That fourteen-year-old wanted nothing but to fit in and she tried her best to do so by asking politely and pulling and stretching at her young skin to try and squeeze it into a mould. Only now do I know that the mould needs to be broken. That acceptance can be demanded. That self-love, especially in a woman, isn’t narcissism – it’s necessary. I don’t know it all, of course I don’t, I’m nineteen, I’m a millennial mess in an arts degree.

What I do know is that I ma er and that my fat ass is a work of art.

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Jordon Best

I recently came back from a holiday, where an excessive consumption of beer le my favourite jeans feeling a li le snug. I’d spent the last three weeks shoveling nothing but salad that tastes like sadness into my mouth.

It was these pictures that reminded me that cake is okay.

That I am okay. I owe it to that young and apprehensive girl who was scared of and silenced by the world around her.

She deserves to continue to grow and run and be a woman and be a voice and be a force and be a hurricane and be annoying and take from the world all that she can. I deserve to exist, I deserve to take up the space I need and I deserve this chocolate ĂŠclair.

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Jordon Best

The mind is a garden that grows what is planted in it.

Be witness to the condition of the garden.

If you ever feel lost in a chaotic headspace remember to breathe. Bring your attention to your breath.

Your breath is your compass in the limitless garden of your mind.

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Dan Gray

I like to feel the soft Places under my skin And pretend that beneath The membranes There are miles of warmth And safety I cannot see Likewise with the hard Expanses of bone that The skin slides over with Slightest pressure As if beneath the tissues Lies a dense armor Or a wall Built for leaning

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Heap of Ruins

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Sabika

Mindfull Identity Exercise Many of the qualities that we think of first

when we consider our identity are linked to a systemic perspective of what makes us who we

are. We are sorted and grouped into superficial categories like age, race, class, gender, etc.

/// We can find unity and solidarity in knowing that we all need forms of care on an individual and community level that address the structural and institutional influences that prevent our wellness in the first place. (ex: capitalism)

/// These factors often shape the value we place in ourselves and limit what we believe we have to offer the people around us.

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/// Take some time to ask yourself; what lies

underneath these socially designated constructs and expectations -- What makes you feel alive?

/// In this space, we are invited to place value in the inherent qualities that bespeak our

child-selves. Here we can claim autonomy over our identities and practice self-care by acknowledging the worth in our most genuine state, dictated not by governments; but by memory, emotion and feeling.

/// Use the following exercises to call on your child-self or other identities that lie beneath the surface questions of name/age/race/gender etc.

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favorite article of clothing: color: spirit animal: tribe: element (air, water, fire, earth): mantra: future goal: dog / cat / cat-dog: a place you love: adj + n

to describe yourself:

an inspiration: a motivation: a curious expression: a passion: your preferred name:

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pick one: ocean // mountains be in two places at once // time travel flying // breathing underwater surf with a shark // surf in lava naked // in all your favorite clothes third eye // third arm have all the questions // all the answers whisper // shout go on a date // eat a date travel the world // the universe see every sunrise // sunset dream forever // never need to sleep smiling // laughing surrounded by people // solitude city // animals perform // experience a performance feeling the wind in your hair // quiet stillness tell a story // listen to a story surprise phone call

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// surprise letter

recall a story from your childhood:

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“Revolution begins in the self and with the self�

-- bell hooks