This Hot Takeaways page serves as an offering of written resources and reflections. All content was created in contemplation, community, and conversation. Appreciations to the folks who lovingly gifted me with their time, feedback, and patience as I built out each contribution.
Multi-versed
A Homemade Theory
“We create homemade theories out of our everyday shared lives, and it really helps us to make sense of everything that we are and all that we find to love,” Aurora Levins Morales.
Multi-versed (Adjective): Primary Definition
Describes a Person of Color who deeply values the versatility gained from their connection to multiple communities. They unapologetically identify within several groups whose collective presence/power is often unappreciated or disrespected by the rest of society.
Multi-versed: Poetic Description
A Person of Color who practices the re-membrance and survivance of infinite intersectional experiences. An embodiment of power, expertise and versatility derived from centering all of their beloved identities — identities historically deemed as marginal. It conveys use of an internal compass where multiple identities co-exist at the core to guide decisions made, or directions taken, in life.
Example Sentences
- The Black Lesbian Love Gathering featured a grief circle with 4 multi-versed healers who each lovingly represented/centered multiple races, sexualities, income levels, geographic locations, genders, and disabilities.
- Jayna defined herself as multi-versed when describing the depths of her experiences living holistically as a Black Blind woman.
Purpose
Multi-versed individuals are highly skilled travelers through universes of reclaimed time, reshaped space, restored histories, reunited communities, and reimagined dreams.
Origins
Our bodies and our minds are astral archives that we actively explore each day as the embodied ephemera of entire Soular Systems. We are made of stardust, divine miracles, collective magic, and ancestral memories. It is a practice grounded in entire worlds of worthiness and galaxies of gifted generations. Direct Lineages include: Black Feminist Theory, Critical Race Theory, Indigenous Research Approaches/Decolonized Methodologies, Healing Justice, Disability Justice & Afro Futurism.
Created by Justice Shorter in community and conversation with other beloved multi-versed folks.
Justice Shorter 