the hive newsletter
Shades of Honey newsletter bringing you updated events, merch, future collaboration, news, and our community
NOTES FROM THE HIVE
SHOP SHADES
POEM OF THE MONTH
COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHT
BOOK OF THE MONTH
NO-FLY ZONE
OUR COLLABORATORS
HONEY OF THE MONTH
March 2022
From: Donavon Bright
Donavon Bright, one of the cofounders of Shades of Honey gazes into the distance with his arms folded. There is a cup of coffee to the right of him on a plate and various books scattered around the table. The wall behind him is a green panel with a gold accent piece.
NOTES FROM THE HIVE— Donavon Bright
mun·dane
/ˌmənˈdān/
2. of this earthly world than a heavenly or spiritual one
synonyms: earthly worldly secular terrestrial
my first bookstore was my grandma’s bookshelf. i would glide each finger alongside aged, withered books, collected in love and made to fit so comfortably into a child’s embrace. my favorite way to read was to nestle my feet underneath my thighs while i tucked the edges of my toes into the plush position, where the cushion meets debris. i often sat in the corner of a couch so that i could rest my angled arms which held what was, to me, some of the greatest stories ever told. usually, it was a sunday, we have just left church and the family is gathering somewhere, at someone’s house, to watch sunday football. my mother could be found swimming in a pool of gossip between cousins, my cousins, playing videos games, eating sausage patties and coconut bread, are dreading tomorrow’s menagerie or what this place calls school.
i wouldn’t understand the value of coming from such a large and illustrious family until i grew into becoming my own. becoming, in a capitalist, classist, world. i believed all that i had as a child was everything i could ever need. back then i envisioned my adult life as a teacher and author in a small quaint home, nothing too big. cruising in my jeep wrangler singing to anthony hamilton or corrine bailey rae on the way to a sibling or friend’s house for saturday coffee. traveling, reading, and hosting good conversations. i never had a desire to be the richest, the smartest or even the greatest at, well, anything. my only dream is in this life, as a child, was to be happy and do what makes happiness possible.
but we grow up to discover different dreams, delineated from classist minds who are educated by capitalist standards. the seemingly harsh but jokingly remarks regarding children’s shoes or clothes we made on the school bus have become deadly rhetoric that displaces mundane desires of life, turning them into voracious needs achieved only to create an illusion of what it is “mundane” or “luxurious”. in the age of social media, what seemed to be joyous pleasures webbed themselves to become moments we neglect or compare with others’ experiences. in an occupied country where the land isn’t free nor are the free truly freed, children become adults who want the world because satisfaction isn’t guaranteed until you have it all. but what is “all”?
i hadn’t come to appreciate chucking green beans with my great-grandma on a serene afternoon. my feet swinging off the edge of the porch as she sways in her rocking chair. watching the red burned stained sunset effortlessly slide into the pastel blue sea. or how her laughter could echo out of a room in the ears of those who couldn’t her presence or afford the luxury to do so.
—DONAVON (CO-FOUNDER)
The House
BY WARSAN SHIRE
i
Mother says there are locked rooms inside all women; kitchen of lust,
bedroom of grief, bathroom of apathy.
Sometimes the men - they come with keys,
and sometimes, the men - they come with hammers.
ii
Nin soo joog laga waayo, soo jiifso aa laga helaa,
I said Stop, I said No and he did not listen.
iii
Perhaps she has a plan, perhaps she takes him back to hers
only for him to wake up hours later in a bathtub full of ice,
with a dry mouth, looking down at his new, neat procedure.
iv
I point to my body and say Oh this old thing? No, I just slipped it on.
v
Are you going to eat that? I say to my mother, pointing to my father who is lying on the dining room table, his mouth stuffed with a red apple.
vi
The bigger my body is, the more locked rooms there are, the more men come with keys. Anwar didn’t push it all the way in, I still think about what he could have opened up inside of me. Basil came and hesitated at the door for three years. Johnny with the blue eyes came with a bag of tools he had used on other women: one hairpin, a bottle of bleach, a switchblade and a jar of Vaseline. Yusuf called out God’s name through the keyhole and no one answered. Some begged, some climbed the side of my body looking for a window, some said they were on their way and did not come.
vii
Show us on the doll where you were touched, they said.
I said I don’t look like a doll, I look like a house.
They said Show us on the house.
Like this: two fingers in the jam jar
Like this: an elbow in the bathwater
Like this: a hand in the drawer.
viii
I should tell you about my first love who found a trapdoor under my left breast nine years ago, fell in and hasn’t been seen since. Every
now and then I feel something crawling up my thigh. He should make himself known, I’d probably let him out. I hope he hasn’t
bumped in to the others, the missing boys from small towns, with pleasant mothers, who did bad things and got lost in the maze of
my hair. I treat them well enough, a slice of bread, if they’re lucky a piece of fruit. Except for Johnny with the blue eyes, who picked my locks and crawled in. Silly boy, chained to the basement of my fears, I play music to drown him out.
ix
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
No one.
x
At parties I point to my body and say This is where love comes to die. Welcome, come in, make yourself at home. Everyone laughs, they think I’m joking.
SHADES OF HONEY
A photo of a woman has her face cut in half with the top half situated with bull horns. The bottom of her face is kept in tact. She is looking off to the side to show her profile. The text reads “TENDER IS THE FLESH” A NOVEL AGUSTINA BAZTERRICA
Tender Is the Flesh, by Argentinian author Agustina Bazterrica (and wonderfully translated from the Spanish by Sarah Moses), is not for the faint of heart. The novel is set sometime in the future, when animals across the world have been infected by a virus that’s made them poisonous to eat. In response, governments cull their livestock, empty their zoos, and mandate the use of umbrellas to prevent diseased birds from passing on the infection. A rise in cannibalism – with immigrants and the indigent disappearing in large numbers – forces world leaders to act; but rather than ban the consumption of human flesh, they lean into the practice, gradually transitioning society to a legalised form of cannibalism.
COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHT: AERIK FRANCIS
Aerik Francis is a Queer Black & Latinx poet & teaching artist born & based in Denver, Colorado, United States of America. Aerik Francis is a Queer Black & Latinx poet & teaching artist born & based in Denver, Colorado, United States of America.
Aerik is the author of the forthcoming chapbook, BODYELECTRONIC (Trouble Department 2022), which was named a finalist for the 2021 Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize by judge Benjamin Garcia. Their micro-chapbook STASIS (Ghost City Press 2020) was included in the 2020 Summer Series and is available online for free. Their poetry has been nominated for the Best New Poets Anthology and featured widely in print and online. Their work is featured or forthcoming in wildness, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, The Santa Clara Review, Kissing Dynamite, So To Speak Journal, Linden Avenue Literary Journal, and Stellium Literary Magazine, among other publications. Their poetry is anthologized in The Skinny: Poetry Anthology and Ate Mais: Latinx Futurisms Anthology.
Aerik has received poetry fellowships from CantoMundo and The Watering Hole. Aerik was named a fellowship finalist for the 2020 Fall Brooklyn Poets Fellowship. Aerik was also named a distinguished finalist for the 2021 Emerging Writer’s Fellowship at Lit Fest via Lighthouse Writer’s Workshop, where reviewers noted of their work: “Strongly rhythmic and musical; politically sharp; vibrant language; distinctive voice—this is one of the strongest submissions I've read.”
Aerik was also the recipient of poetry scholarships: the 2021 Robert Hayden scholarship for the Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway at Murphy Writing Program at Stockton University, as well as the 2019 Amiri Baraka scholarship for the Summer Writing Program at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. Aerik is also an alum of the 2019 Winter Tangerine online poetry workshop. Aerik has been a featured performer and workshop facilitator all across the state of Colorado, from the historic Mercury Café in Denver to Writer’s Block in Boulder to Keep Colorado Springs Queer to the Slamming Bricks poetry slam in Grand Junction. Their poetry performances have also been featured by Head Room Sessions where they have been broadcasted locally via PBS 12 in Colorado, as well as Redline Art Gallery at the 2021 48 Hours of Socially Engaged Art & Conversation Summit.
Aerik is currently a poetry reader for Underblong poetry journal. They are also an event coordinator for Slam Nuba in Denver, Colorado. Aerik is a poetry workshop facilitator for the Youth Writing Program at Lighthouse Writer’s Workshop in Denver, Colorado.
Aerik Francis has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Chicago (AB’14). They delivered the Student Convocation Speech during the 2014 graduation ceremony.
“Organizations are communities of human beings, not collections of human resources”
OUR COMMUNITY
THESE ARE PEOPLE IN OUR COMMUNITY THAT CONTINUALLY SHOW UP FOR AND ALONGSIDE SHADES. THEY HELP US TO HOST EVENTS, FUNDRAISE, AND STAND IN LOVE WITH US! PLEASE SUPPORT THEM, THEIR MISSIONS, AND THEIR BUSINESS!CUT & PASTE COLORADO
@cut.paste.colorado on IG
THE BRAZEN PROJECT
fights to shift the culture on Colorado campuses to end abortion stigma. We’re loudly, unapologetically pro-abortion access. We help lift up and share stories, have meaningful conversations with other students, and push for a better understanding of this common medical procedure. Right now, we’re active on the Auraria campus, CSU, and CU Boulder.
THE LABORATORY OF RITUAL ARTS & PEDAGOGY
The RAP LAB at the University of Colorado, Boulder is a trans-disciplinary research hub for the study of hip-hop cultures and adjacent artistic movements of color. We not only study the history of this artistic movement but its mechanics as a dynamic system of rituals that can be implemented in the streets to help youth and families engage in culturally legitimate learning. Inspired by a natural sciences laboratory and a hip-hop record label, The RAP Lab is experimental, project-driven, and outward-looking. We bring together students, faculty, and community leaders to work on collaborative and individual research, publications, digital multi-media content, archives, courses, community projects, and public events.
NO-FLY ZONE
Rest helps us recover from physical and mental effort and can be either active or passive. Relaxation techniques like mindfulness are active forms of rest since we have to practice them. Moderate exercise is sometimes considered active rest, as it can be more restorative than reclining or doing nothing at all. Passive forms of rest like napping or lying down also come to mind when we think of rest.
Shades of Honey offers the “no-fly zone” to provide a way for you to rest. This month we have included a poem by Porsha O. Sit back, relax and enjoy, even if its only three minutes.
HONEY OF THE MONTH
Every month we give you a new song!
STREAMING: LIKE A STAR- J. COLE
Baby girl, roll down the window
I love to see your hair float when the wind blow
Even if the money been slow
Ayy, to you it don't matter, 'cause you're still gon' ride with me
You're still gon' ride with me
I say you still gon' ride with me
I know you're still gon' ride with me, hey