Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Alexis Pauline Gumbs is an American writer, independent scholar, poet, activist and educator based in Durham, North Carolina.[1][2] Gumbs advocates for other POC queer women and is commonly known as a “Black Feminist love evangelist.”[3] In her experimental triptych (Spill, M Archive, and Dub), Gumbs explores the implications of humanity’s struggle with ecological disruption and Black feminist theory and refusals.[4]

Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Gumbs on The Laura Flanders Show in 2016
Gumbs on The Laura Flanders Show in 2016
Born1982
OccupationAuthor
NationalityAmerican
Education
Notable works
  • Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity
  • M Archive: After the End of the World
Website
www.alexispauline.com

Biography

Gumbs holds a PhD in English, African and African-American Studies, and Women and Gender Studies from Duke University.[5]

Gumbs was the Winton Chair in the Liberal Arts in the Department of Theater Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota (2017–2019).[5] Gumbs is the Founder and Director of Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind and founder of BrokenBeautiful Press.[6][7] She is the dramaturge for "dat Black Mermaid Man Lady", a performance by Sharon Bridgforth.[8]

Gumbs has spent the majority of her career as an independent writer and scholar outside of formal academic institutions.[9][10] Her writing and activism is influenced by the work of her grandmother Lydia Gumbs who designed the flag of Anguilla during the country’s 1967 revolution.[11] Gumbs teaches online seminars, writes blog posts, and runs webinars through her website Brilliance Remastered.[9] Because she does not work at a university, she has participated in conversations about how intellectual work can be more path breaking and widely accessible outside of the academy.[10]

She was awarded a Windham Campbell Prize for poetry in 2023.[12]

Works

Books
  • Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity (2017)[13][14][15]
    • The first book in her trilogy and is a collection of poetry that engages in consistent dialogue with Hortense Spillers’ anthology titled Black, White, and in Color: Essays on American Literature and Culture.[16] The poetry included is written with black women in mind rather than about them and explores how black women can utilize poetry for liberation.[17] Gumbs’ “speculative history” imagines a world inherited by black women and flows between inherited memories, historical references, and a recollection of visions.[18] Spill unites the creative work of all black women through the art of poetry, citing solely black women throughout the book.
  • M Archive: After the End of the World (2018) [19]
    • Gumbs’ second book in her trilogy centers on concepts of black life and black metaphysics from a feminist perspective and is in conversation with Pedagogies of Crossing by M. Jacqui Alexander.[20] She uses the book to create space for readers to be mindful of ongoing societal issues like environmental degradation, anti-blackness, and corrupt systems of capitalism through recognizing indigenous knowledge systems and the significance of black writers' work. In the format of a “speculative documentary,” Gumbs paints a picture highlighting the ideologies of feminist theory, rooted in the metaphysical, to demonstrate the unsustainable nature of modern life and the detriment of reliance on digital archives.[21]
  • DUB: Finding Ceremony (2020)
    • The third book of Gumbs’ trilogy encourages readers to think critically about the connection between the individual and the collective, pushing the audience to consider marine life as a metaphor for the black social condition.[22] Gumbs outwardly draws on Jamaican writer Sylvia Wynter and the dub rhythm for inspiration in the book.[23] She creates an interdisciplinary handbook guiding black people in managing modern struggles such as police violence, environmental degradation, and the exploitation of developing nations. The final book in Gumbs’ trilogy emphasizes interspecies relations and the significance of black ancestral and archival silence, giving insights into black feminist theory.[24]
  • Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals (2020)
    • Gumbs’ book reflects on marine mammal behavior's ideological and cultural significance, encouraging readers to reevaluate how society undervalues black women and humans' connection to nature.[25] She divides her book into twenty sections, with the first nineteen using a unique marine mammal’s behavior to teach a different lesson directed toward helping black women navigate the struggles of modern America.[26] Gumbs explores the universality of breathing and how it connects all life, refuting Euro-Western ecological superiority. She uses marine mammals to investigate interlocking forms of oppression, recognizing how discrimination pervades the classification of aquatic life.[27]

Edited volumes
  • Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Frontlines (2016) – co-editor with Mai’a Williams and China Martens. This book focuses on the activity of mothering.[28]

Documentaries

References
  1. "Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs homepage". Alexispauline.com. Retrieved November 8, 2018.
  2. Alsous, Zaina (March 28, 2018). "Alexis Pauline Gumbs's Groundbreaking Poetic Trilogy Engaging with Black Feminist Scholars Continues in M Archive: After the End of the World", Indyweek.com. Retrieved September 3, 2018.
  3. Hülsen, Lea (January 31, 2017). "Spill(ing) Over The Edges — Accounts of Black Fugitive Women". KULT_online (49). doi:10.22029/ko.2017.998. ISSN 1868-2855.
  4. Thomas, Cathy (June 1, 2021). "Reverberations of the Black Feminist Breathing ChorusAn Interview with Alexis Pauline Gumbs and Sangodare". Resonance. 2 (2): 281–295. doi:10.1525/res.2021.2.2.281. S2CID 237925014.
  5. "Winton Chair in the Liberal Arts".
  6. "Bio -". Alexispauline.com. Retrieved November 8, 2018.
  7. Staff, Harriet. "Alexis Pauline Gumbs Talks About Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press", Poetry Foundation, June 13, 2012. Retrieved September 3, 2018.
  8. "the show". Datblackmermaidmanlady.com. Retrieved November 8, 2018.
  9. Talley, Heather Laine (2012). "Brilliance Remastered: An Interview with Alexis Pauline Gumbs". Feminist Teacher. 22 (2): 165–167. doi:10.5406/femteacher.22.2.0165. ISSN 0882-4843. JSTOR 10.5406/femteacher.22.2.0165. S2CID 143017157.
  10. Jafri, Beenash (2017). "Intellectuals Outside the Academy: Conversations with Leanne Simpson, Steven Salaita, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs". Social Justice. 44 (4 (150)): 119–132. ISSN 1043-1578. JSTOR 26538398.
  11. Gumbs, Alexis Pauline (November 17, 2020). Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals. AK Press. ISBN 978-1-84935-398-4.
  12. "2023 Prize Recipients". Windham Campbell Prizes 2023. Windham Campbell Prizes. Retrieved April 21, 2023.
  13. Joy KMT (February 4, 2018). "We Stay in Love with Our Freedom: A Conversation with Alexis Pauline Gumbs". Los Angeles Review of Books.
  14. Gailey, Alex. "Alexis Pauline Gumbs inspires with feminist 'Spill'". The Daily Tar Heel.
  15. Brown, Lesley-Ann (October 23, 2017). "Toni Morrison to Jenifer Lewis: Stay woke and inspired with our fall reading guide". NBC News.
  16. ""Spill" Maps a Future In Which Black Women Inherit the Universe". Bitch Media. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
  17. "Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity by Alexis Pauline (review)". Palimpsest: A Journal on Women, Gender, and the Black International. 7 (1): 65. April 17, 2018. doi:10.1353/pal.2018.0010. ISSN 2165-1612.
  18. "Los Angeles Review of Books". Los Angeles Review of Books. February 4, 2018. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
  19. "M Archive". Dukeupress.com. Retrieved November 8, 2018.
  20. Michele, Storäe (July 2021). "Book Review: M Archive: After the End of the World by Alexis Pauline Gumbs". Feminist Review. 128 (1): 169–172. doi:10.1177/0141778921992310. ISSN 0141-7789. S2CID 236179813.
  21. Frank, Chandra (2018). "M Archive. After the End of the World by Alexis Pauline Gumbs (review)". Feminist Formations. 30 (3): 214–217. doi:10.1353/ff.2018.0049. ISSN 2151-7371. S2CID 149599514.
  22. Lewis-Meeks, Anya (September 22, 2022). "Dub: Finding Ceremony , by Alexis Pauline Gumbs". New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids. 96 (3–4): 429–430. doi:10.1163/22134360-09603047. ISSN 2213-4360. S2CID 252510804.
  23. Brown, Jordan (July 9, 2020). "Dub: Finding Ceremony". Canadian Art. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
  24. Kwakye, Chamara Jewel (2022). "Dub: Finding Ceremony by Alexis Pauline Gumbs (review)". Palimpsest: A Journal on Women, Gender, and the Black International. 11 (1): 206–207. doi:10.1353/pal.2022.0011. ISSN 2165-1612. S2CID 250271500.
  25. Darling, Kristina Marie (May 31, 2021). "Response to Alexis Pauline Gumbs' Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons From Marine Mammals". Tupelo Quarterly. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
  26. Chan, Melvin Chin-Hao (December 1, 2022). "Review of Undrowned: Black feminist lessons from marine mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs". Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education. 25 (3): 379–383. doi:10.1007/s42322-022-00113-1. ISSN 2522-879X. S2CID 251716714.
  27. Brooks, R.B. (May 28, 2021). "Deep dives, deeper breaths: A review of 'Undrowned– Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals' | SGD Institute". sgdinstitute.org. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
  28. McClain, Dani (May 7, 2016). "How to Understand Mother as a Verb This Mother's Day and Always". The Nation. Retrieved September 3, 2018.
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