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• Two Rivers
• Alexis Pauline Gumbs (bio)

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Act Like You Know, for Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.

[End Page 140]

For Fannie Lou Hamer and Audre Lorde.

i

Go to Tougaloo, the meeting place of two rivers, and be quiet. Wait for the light that floats above the water where Pearl meets Mississippi and step in it. If you are too afraid to trust the light, to know yourself as more than one river, you will never know. Step in when you are ready.¹

When you step into the light it is loud, but keep breathing. You will hear what sounds like an ocean of singing, thousands of renditions of "This Little Light of Mine." Stay still until you know that the light holding you came from within. Let it shine.

This is a portal thousands of years old. Cool from the people who stayed offering centuries of Choctaw care. Smooth from the running of water. Stealth from the breath of the free people who refused to be held by enslavement. It is enough that you are here in this moment. Feel that multitude. [End Page 141]

Let your hands lead you to what you want, which is the writing under shore raised like braille so you have to touch it first to know it. Touch that part of yourself that is current and running and flooding at exactly this time. And continue to breathe.

What two rivers agree upon when they meet is the ocean. Their destination. Their longing. That pull. When two rivers meet it is a ceremony, a delegation for only those who have reshaped land with their cleansing. Only those who have learned that the first form of their name is an acrostic of "letting go." The meeting of two rivers is surrender. It births civilizations and swallows them back. This is why you came to Tougaloo, the meeting point of two rivers, with your question.

ii

When Afro-Caribbean Black lesbian feminist warrior Audre Lorde came from New York City to be a poet-in-residence at Tougaloo, she had a question about what it meant to be a poet. When she arrived, she was a librarian. By the time she left, she had become a teacher. But those two rivers were all love for the ocean of poetry. A love for rhythm only clarified by the ricochet of bullets from the white supremacists who couldn't touch the flooding within themselves with bare hands, who were afraid to trust themselves as light, afraid to know themselves as more than one river and who were therefore offended, incensed, moved to violence by the very building, the very greens, the very thought of Black students in college in the state of Mississippi.²

The students wondered something about the poet-in-residence Audre Lorde. "Miss Lorde," they asked on the first night, "would you call yourself a nature poet?" Because they felt the convergence of rivers and oceans. Because the sound of her voice was reshaping stone. Because they, children of the Delta, could smell the air before the flood. And the flood happened. Audre Lorde let herself love those poetry students so much that she revealed her secrets to them, who she was and who she loved, which is what she taught them to do with their poetry. Be who you are and act on your love. And when the student evaluations came to ask them what they would change they said over and over again that they wanted more. More Ms. Lorde. Could she stay here forever? More. She really inspired and lifted us up. We could be more who we were when she was with us. If we could make a suggestion to the provost, we'd say, "Please let her come back."³

It was a flood, and also a portal. Audre Lorde fell in love with the students and also with Frances Clayton, a white woman who let herself be known as light and more than one river and part of the ocean of Audre becoming more true to herself. In one sense, it seems like Audre left...

中文翻译：

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两条河

代替摘要，这里是内容的简要摘录：

• 两条河
• 亚历克西斯·波林·古姆斯（生物）

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为Fannie Lou Hamer，Ella Baker和密西西比自由民主党采取行动，如你所知。

[完第140页]

对于房利美·哈默和奥德丽·洛德。

一世

前往两条河流的汇合地Tougaloo，保持安静。等待珍珠上方与密西西比河相遇的水面上方漂浮的光线，然后踏入其中。如果您太怕不相信光，不知道自己像一条河，那么您将永远不会知道。准备好后进入。^1个

当您走进灯光时，声音很大，但要保持呼吸。您将听到听起来像是歌唱的海洋，成千上万的“这枚我的小矿灯”的演绎。保持静止，直到您知道束缚自己的光来自内部。让它闪耀。

这是一个已有数千年历史的门户网站。从那些留下了数百年的乔克托式护理的人们中获得了凉意。从流水中畅通无阻。从拒绝被奴役束缚的自由人民的呼吸中隐身。此时此刻，您在这里就足够了。感受那众多。[第141页]

让您的手将您引向您想要的东西，这就是像盲文一样在岸边抬起的文字，因此您必须先触摸它才能知道它。恰好在这个时候，触摸一下自己当前正在运行的那一部分。并继续呼吸。

两条河流汇合时达成的共识是海洋。他们的目的地。他们的向往。那个拉。当两条河流相遇时，这是一个仪式，一个代表团仅向那些通过清洗而重塑土地的人提供服务。只有那些知道自己名字的第一种形式是“放手”的方言。两条河的交接投降。它孕育了文明，并将它们吞没了。这就是为什么您带着疑问来到两条河流的汇合点图加卢（Tougaloo）的原因。

ii

当非洲黑人加勒比裔女同性恋女战士奥德丽·洛德（Audre Lorde）从纽约市来到图加卢（Tougaloo）居住时，她就对成为一名诗人产生了疑问。当她到达时，她是一个图书管理员。到她离开时，她已经成为一名老师。但是这两条河全都热爱诗意的海洋。对节奏的热爱只有白人至上主义者的子弹跳来澄清，他们无法赤手空拳触摸自己内心的洪水，他们害怕相信自己是光明的，害怕知道自己不止一条河，因此在密西西比州的大学里，黑人学生很生气，很生气，很生气，很暴力。^2个

学生们对驻地诗人奥德丽·洛德（Audre Lorde）感到有些疑惑。他们在第一天晚上问：“洛尔德小姐，你会自称是自然诗人吗？” 因为他们感到河流和海洋的融合。因为她的声音正在重塑石头。因为他们是三角洲的孩子，所以在洪水之前可以闻到空气的味道。洪水发生了。奥德丽·洛德（Audre Lorde）如此爱自己的诗人，以至于她向他们透露了自己的秘密，她是谁，谁是她所爱的人，这就是她教给他们的诗歌创作方法。做你自己，并按照自己的爱行事。当学生评估问他们要改变什么时，他们一遍又一遍地说他们想要更多。更多洛尔德女士。她能永远待在这里吗？更多的。她的确鼓舞了我们，使我们振作起来。当她和我们在一起时，我们可能会更像我们。如果我们可以建议教务长，我们会说：“请让她回来。” ³

这是洪水，也是门户。奥德丽·洛德（Audre Lorde）爱上了学生们，也爱上了弗朗西斯·克莱顿（Frances Clayton），她是一位白人女性，她以光明着称，而多条河流和奥德雷的一部分海洋对自己更加真实。从某种意义上说，似乎奥德丽离开了……