The Cypher

The Weekly Roundup + Allow Us to Re-Introduce Ourselves

Hey fam!

Below, we’re sharing what we’re watching, listening to and reading! Plus, every week for the next 3 weeks, one of the CFs will be re-introducing herself. Today it’s CF SheriDF.

Watch:

Our IG live with Brittney, Susana, and (friend of the CFC) Treva Lindsey honoring Ma’Khia Bryant and discussing the vulnerability of blackgirls. 

Friend of the CFC Yaba Blay’s Professional Black Girl webseries premiered on World Channel as part of Black Public Media’s annual global series, AfroPop: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange. 

Coming Soon! Mr. Nelson on the North Side, Prince Roger Nelson documentary available Saturday April 24th.

Listen:

Darnell Moore’s Clio Award winning podcast Being Seen centers the stories and visibility of the gay and queer black experience. Give season 1 a listen. 

The Dissect Podcast on Spotify analyzes albums one song per episode. The dope deep dives are worth a listen--season 8 is on Yeezus by Kanye West, but I’m currently re-listening to season 6 on Beyoncé’s Lemonade.

Read:

Appreciated this piece from NYT, There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing

In celebration of National Poetry Month, this piece on Black poets and Affrilachia is a good read

Check out this op-ed on the life and death of Ma’Khia Bryant from Truthout that breaks down what we are fighting for.

Look:

Don't Call The Police is a list of community based resources that are alternatives to calling the police in multiple cities that could be very helpful. https://dontcallthepolice.com is a database of local and national community-based alternatives to calling the police or 911 broken down by city.

GirlTrek is doing a Walking is Healing for the Love of Black Women and Girls National Walk and Talk on Saturday at 10 am ET.

Justice for Black Girls has a new Black Girlhood Studies Fellowship in partnership with Spelman.

Also, check out this thread of Black furniture and decor companies that made CF Chanel really happy, so much stuff in the cart….

Now…..Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself

How it Started….

How it’s Going

I’m Sheri and I’m one of many CF rabble rousers but my speciality is labor and worker justice. You can find me on a picket line, chanting on a megaphone, and drumming if given the chance. I was a young mama to a 3 year old, finishing a doctorate in my hometown, Atlanta, when I was invited to be a blogging member of the CFC. I had not found my full writing voice and was pretty timid about writing for public audiences then.

Now I’m known as Dr. Davis-Faulkner, the Associate Director for the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization (CIWO) at Rutgers University, and co-Director for WILL Empower. I work nationally and globally supporting women’s leadership in all forms of worker organizations. I teach about critical race theory, black feminism, and labor at multiple institutions including Spelman College, and I host BlackWomxnDemands, a series of dialogues between Black women labor leaders, scholars and social justice activists.

Over the past 11 years I have learned the value of having a crew, personally and professionally. The CFC gives me the courage to be bold and take risks and pay-it-forward for BIPOC women and non-binary folks, especially in movement building spaces.

After many challenges, I re-mixed my life in Philadelphia. I am at my highest heights with my brilliant/talented teenager and an unexpected great love story. Arundhati Roy says “the pandemic is a portal” so let’s get on with making the world we need to live fully. This is our time and I am so glad to be writing, in collective voice, again!

Onward!

Sheri