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past 

editions

j freeman | po'chop chicago performance/burlesque artist

welcome

ed. iv vol. i

welcome back to the brown pages. edition iv is here and late af. i have no excuse. this is just my general attitude towards deadlines.

enjoy 'em ya'll. if you finish reading the brown pages feeling a bit better than you started. consider sharing that experience with a friend, a family member. a collaborator. 

Jeezy's Juke Joint Logo
Jeez Loueez
SALIEM
Elektra
Rose Whip
Switch the Boi Wonder
Elektra
Po'Chop
Cruel Valentine
SALIEM
Rose Whip
Jeez Loueez
Po'Chop
Jeez Loueez
Jeez Loueez
The Cast
Po'Chop
Cruel Valentine
Jeez Loueez
What is Jeezy talking about?
Switch the Boi Wonder
Cruel Valentine
Rose Whip
Elektra
Switch the Boi Wonder
SALIEM
Jeez Loueez
Po'Chop
Po'Chop
The Juke Joint Fam

Jeez Loueez

Cruel Valentine

Rose Whip

Elektra

Josephine Shaker

Switch the Boi Wonder

po'Chop

SALIEM

Nashville

9.9.17

WHERE WE 

Juke Joint

News

j freeman | po'chop chicago burlesqe + performance artist : the brown pages
j freeman | po'chop chicago performance/burlesque artist performing in nashville for Jeezy's Juke Joint
photo x google

revolution is not a one-time event. it is becoming always vigilant for the smallest opportunity to make a genuine change in established, outgrown responses.

-audre lorde

j freeman | po'chop chicago burlesqe + performance artist

9.16..17 : thank the lorde (a testimony). shared at Vaudezilla's afer dark. 

j freeman | po'chop chicago burlesqe + performance artist
j freeman | po'chop chicago burlesqe + performance artist
j freeman | po'chop chicago burlesqe + performance artist

in spaces were it feels the most inappropriate. where folks come for simple entertainment. interrupt. it seems we've been saying and doing this for generations. trying to make clear the simplest of pleas. as of right now i'm seeking to answer lorde's question: "How are you practicing what you preach-whatever you preach, and who exactly is listening?"

#loveliberates w/ black sex matters

9.26 LOVE LIBERATES

BLACK SEX MATTERS

it was hot. sweaty

muscles relaxed.

beautiful brown smiles

warm embraces

sexy curves and buzzing bass.

j freeman | po'chop chicago burlesqe + performance artist
j freeman | po'chop chicago burlesque artist

asabassco Burlesque @ City Winery | 9.29

j freeman | po'chop chicago burlesqe + performance artist

gone

this was dope because some folks from black sex matters was in the audience. knowing this made me feel safer. i enjoyed the night with a fantastic cast including Sweetpea!, my fringe factor friends. Lady Jack + Eva La Eva and more. 

upcoming 

j freeman | po'chop chicago burlesque artist

Sister Outsider

Sister Outsider

Audre Lorde

Sister Outsider

Sister Outsider

Sister Outsider

Sister Outsider

Sister Outsider

Sister Outsider

Sister Outsider

Sister Outsider

Sister Outsider

Sister Outsider

Sister Outsider

Sister Outsider

Sister Outsider

Sister Outsider

Sister Outsider

Sister Outsider

Sister Outsider

Sister Outsider

Reflections on Zami + Sister Outsider

"i am a reflection of my mother's secret poetry as well as of her hidden angers."

-audre lorde | zami

my mom is the first black woman i have ever loved. my best friend. i slept wrapped in my    mother's arms until i was 18.

i grew up surrounded by black women's love. my mom had 2 sisters + my grandmother. before my grandmother's death my aunts were thick as thieves. throwing parties. and get togethers to celebrate someone's recent achievement. cakes and thoughtful decorations. my aunts and my mom had formed what seemed like an impentrable bond. there were occasional conflicts. bursts of sharp sentences carrying the force of being buried for years. i was young enough to believe in 'forgive n forget'.

then

my grandmother died and almost as if all of that love was for the sake of her, my aunts and my mother no longer could find a cause for their bond. living in a small town just minutes away they struggle, the women in our family, to connect beyond their our current and past pain. 

reading zami made me miss the days when we would sit in someone's living room. my mom, my aunt jeannie & my aunt lisa, laronda (my cousin who i begged to be my sister), and my grandmother. something would be simmering in the kitchen, while we'd flip through home interior magazines, planning the redecoration of someone's home. there were surprise parties and collected offerings for someone's hardships. full belly laughter and long hugs. cracking jokes.

sister outsider

certain truths change relationships and love indefinitely.

"As Black women we have the right and responsibility to define ourselves and to seek our allies in common cause: with Black men against racism, and with each other and white women against sexism. But most of all, as Black women we have the right and responsibility to recognize each other without fear and to love where we choose. Both lesbian and heterosexual Black women today share a history of bonding and strength to which our sexual identities and our other differences must not blind us."

-audre lorde (scratching the surface | sister outsider)

differences must not blind us says the lorde.

and yet i haven't spoken to my mother in over a month. and that is not to say she hasn't called. or that she doesn't love me to the moon and back (her words). or that i don't love her.

 

an practiced unconditional love. 

in zami i find lorde speaking directly to the thing i fail to articulate.

we are the bearers of our mother's _________.

i'ma call my mom now and do my best to wade through our differences.

 

seeking a common ground where we both can stand.

 

fully seen. fully celebrated.

"the rhythms of a litany, the rituals of Black women combing their daughters' hair."

audre lorde | zami

MAKE IT A GREAT ONE!

until next time...

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the brown pages are edited by The people's Champion.

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