ADRIENNE MAREE BROWN on Pleasure as Birthright /115
Art by Ashley Lukashevksy
adrienne maree brown begins this week’s episode by asking, “If we were not ashamed of our pleasure, what would become possible? If we started to understand that pleasure is something that everyone should have access to, what would become possible?”
This week on For The Wild, we are exploring how to embody pleasure in its many forms with adrienne maree brown. Drawing upon Audre Lorde’s seminal publication, Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power, adrienne maree brown’s latest book, Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, reiterates how once we truly know the pleasure of being alive, suffering becomes unimaginable. Above all, pleasure resides in our body, but many of us seem to forget this through lifetimes of social conditioning, performative identities, and the multitude of ways in which capitalism and patriarchy have filtered love and desire through the lens of ownership. Yet, whether we are cognizant of this or not, our pleasure and our liberation remain inextricably bound together.
“One of the major ways we collaborate in our own oppression and suffering is by buying into the lie that we don’t all deserve access to pleasure.”
adrienne maree brown
adrienne maree brown is the author of Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds and Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good and co-editor of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements. adrienne facilitates social justice and Black liberation through the Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute, the Detroit Narrative Agency and is part of Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity. She and her sister, Autumn Brown, co-host the How to Survive the End of the World podcast.
This captivating conversation explores how the denial of pleasure contributes to our own oppression, how radical honesty and kindness can transform our relationships, moving through the limitations placed on radical imagination and desire, the importance of pleasure beyond sex, and how our pain and sorrow is a measurement of our pleasure and joy. We hope this conversation inspires you in your own experimentation when it comes to acceptance, desire, and liberated relationships as we collectively pursue sustainable long-term pleasure.
You can purchase Pleasure Activism here.
♫ Music is Unknown Title by The Boom Booms, "O.O.T.G" by JB the First Lady, and "Visions" by Small Town Artillery.
For The Wild is a slow media organization dedicated to land-based protection, co-liberation, and intersectional storytelling. We are rooted in a paradigm shift away from human supremacy, endless growth, and consumerism. As we dream towards a world of grounded justice and reciprocity, our work highlights impactful stories and deeply-felt meaning making as balms for these times.