by Rosamond S. King
Dear Friend,
Perhaps you have noticed, in the last couple of years or months, people who seemed to generally share your politics—or seemed not to share them at all—who have become outraged at local or national events, having never expressed such emotions before. Perhaps you have been, as I have been, surprised at their recent shock and outrage which reminds you that you have had such feelings for most of your life.
For such situations, inspired by Adrian Piper’s Calling Cards, I have created the “Welcome to rage” cards. They are meant to share when you want to: 1) sincerely respond to earnest feelings; 2) signal your own longstanding (out)rage; and 3) encourage the person to participate and move beyond feeling to action to change the status quo—all without requiring an extended conversation.
I premiered these cards online and at the American Studies Association and the National Women’s Studies Association conferences (the latter being where Audre Lorde made her famous “Uses of Anger” speech). I’m happy to share some cards with you. I am also happy to mail some to you, free of charge (donations to cover expenses accepted). Email or message me to request your cards and provide your address.
See you in the streets.
Rosamond S. King
info@rosamondking.com
www.rosamondking.com
(after depart meant
Blind-colored glasses and the damocles is in
Visible. No threat against an Abattoir dweller enrages
Elsewhere. Even the shock of murder lasts only
One news cycle. Rinse and repeat. But
Care covers Elsewhere women
Like a dropped cloth Like a tablecloth
Protecting precious The straight, pressed
From blood spatter Foundation of every wholesome
.
Finish your food – don’t you know
Child run in the Abattoir
Are starving? But don’t clean your plate
; Lucy here is happy to have that job
.
Blind-colored classes and
The damocles is in\visible over
The Abattoir
Over Elsewhere too
Rosamond S. King is a critical and creative writer and a Mellon Mays Fellow whose scholarly work focuses on sexuality, performance, and literature in the Caribbean and Africa. Her book Island Bodies: Transgressive Sexualities in the Caribbean Imagination received the Caribbean Studies Association best book award. King’s scholarship has also been published in Meridians, Callaloo, The Progressive, the Ms. blog, LitHub, and elsewhere. Her poetry includes the Lambda Award-winning Rock|Salt|Stone, the forthcoming collection All the Rage, and poems in more than three dozen journals, blogs, and anthologies. King is Associate Professor of English and Director of the Institute for the Humanities at Brooklyn College, part of the City University of New York. She is also Co-Chair of the Caribbean International Resource Network and Creative Editor of sx salon.