The Black Sublime Podcast

We cling to mythology to buttress our sense of personal power or understanding and to help us cope with violence, disappointment, and confusion. The same myths that inspire and console often contain the exact violence we fight against daily. This episode explores myths about black queer folk, black cis men, and black cis women that lure us into this trap.

Part of my “healing journey” required me to face how much I had been loved in the dark, how used to that I had become, and how safe I felt being loved where no one could see, touch was the main way to navigate, and silence was expected. I studied how that unnatural quiet settled in my body and those of Black queer folks around my age, how it shaped expectations about how I should pursue love from others. Recovering from that necessitated both a political understanding of the larger, systemic forces that benefit from my reticence and a brave commitment to expression and connection. What follows is another personal episode detailing this process with the hope of providing easier passage for others.  

So many people, especially older Black women and queer folk, keep the tradition of silence, absorb the weight of that burden into our bodies, and, at best, hope to leverage that burden into mere survival. We master the craft of silence and keeping secrets while dealing with the harsh realities of truth and the task of pursuing it, and then we manage the toll it exacts on our bodies. This episode is personal, for it discusses elements of my family life, but I hope it uplifts you.

A. White uses Caroline Myss's language of the archetype to explore the ways we give away our personal power in response to fear. The episode discusses the trauma of poverty (material and social), integrity and how it is compromised, and the specific ways A. White contends with these issues.

A. White discusses what we, as non-military actors, can learn from Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people, specifically its transformation from the persecuted into the oppressor. Many of us become the bully when we decide that we no longer have any compassion for others, and most of us arrive at this point because of the violence we have endured and survived. This episode warns against this approach.

The Black Sublime Podcast is back after an almost two-year hiatus. A. White revives the podcast with the most necessary smoke, re-introducing himself and the work, sharing how over-functioning as a child contributed to a scarcity mindset, and discussing why side hoes should be paid. 

Mr. Haberdashery returns after a 6-month hiatus to share their journey with loving self. With great gratitude, they discuss Erich Fromm's "The Art of Loving" and Jessica Fern's "Polysecure" as key guides to their progress.

Mr. Haberdashery begins to explore the link between trauma's impact on the body and the integral role intimacy plays in liberatory politics.

This episode explores the personal experience Mr. Haberdashery has with polyamory and the bridge between one's politics and affinities as a lover.  

A response to Alok Menon's conversation on The Man Enough Podcast exploring the role self-creation plays in winning liberation for all.

A response to DaBaby's foolishness and the conversation around it, namely the latent homophobia and misogyny in the strict association between HIV and Black gay men (people assigned male at birth). 

An exploration into femininity outside the context of capitalism. 

Mr. Haberdashery discusses the dangers of being desired by the masculine and how that troubles their quest for romantic love. 

Mr. Haberdashery shares some of what they would say to their younger self as they reflect on the significance of Pride.

This episode discusses the role aesthetics plays in building a new world and achieving our personal, professional, and political goals. 

"i can only experience joy to the extent that i allow myself to be affected at all. i can only greet my friend with my full spirit, with a love that roars with laughter and erupts with dance, if i am open to being deeply moved. if not, i may greet them with a smile that may be forced to varying degrees, but it will not be my fullest smile, it will not be my warmest; it will be what i can muster from whatever energy i have left."

alliance with white supremacy leads to the actualization of racist mythologies white supremacy once used against those formerly excluded. the lesson for black folk or for anyone seeking liberation is that there can never be alliance with whiteness. assimilation is not simply erasure; it is also conscription into the army of white supremacy, and white supremacy will exploit your ethnic assets (e.g. shared history, art, religion, language) for the furtherance of its aims. there is no limit to the horrors this exploitation will levy against your people or against the direct victims of the latest white supremacist, imperialist, colonist agenda. this hatred will simply beget more hatred not only for the target group but also for the assimilated group, for the assimilated group will be scapegoated in the end.

Discussion of the artist’s role as a conveyor of beauty and the role of beauty as a mastery of intimacy. While there are many creatives without a traditional art form, there are those that foster a special kind of intimacy in the design of their relationships and social interactions. These folk, the social artists, have a special role to play in our journey toward liberation.

Mr. Haberdashery shares how their professional struggles have provided insight into the roles of joy and pleasure in revolution and freedom. 

Mr. Haberdashery shares one of their poems "another chance," and discusses their trials with heartbreak that inspired it. After brief commentary on Lil Nas X's new art, this episode explores the social colonialism that exists in the transactional approach to relationships. 

Mr. Haberdashery shares some thoughts about the Grammys and protecting the integrity of our art (without the Academy, of course). We explore the human will as a faculty of collaboration instead of domination, the beliefs we hold that obstruct our freedom, and divestment from the gender binary. 

Mr. Haberdashery discusses his preference for a therapeutic approach to liberation over analysis, shares health updates and "reviews" (read: talks sh*t and cackles about) Behind Her Eyes and The United States vs. Billie Holiday. 

Points of Gratitude: grateful for our younger selves and their attempts to live full lives, grateful for the time to heal

Special shoutout to Buried by the Bernards, now streaming on Netflix!