Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Gumbs holds a PhD in English, African and African-American Studies, and Women and Gender Studies from Duke University. ==Career==

From 2017-2019, Gumbs was the visiting Winton Chair in the Liberal Arts in the Department of Theater Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota. She is the dramaturge for "dat Black Mermaid Man Lady", a performance by Sharon Bridgforth. Additionally, she and collaborator Sangodare co-founded the Black Feminist Film School. Gumbs has spent the majority of her career as an independent writer and scholar outside of formal academic institutions. She characterizes her writing as genre-defying. 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, as well as Audre Lorde, June Jordan, M. Jaqui Alexander, Dionne Brand, and others. In fact, Gumbs attributes her desire to attend Barnard College partially to June Jordan. Alexis Pauline Gumbs has been recognized as “The Pride of Anguilla” by the Anguilla Literary Festival. Gumbs teaches online seminars, writes blog posts, and runs webinars through her website Brilliance Remastered. 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. ==Works==

Books • Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity (2017) • 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. The poetry included is written with black women in mind rather than about them and explores how black women can utilize poetry for liberation. Gumbs’ “speculative history” imagines a world inherited by black women and flows between inherited memories, historical references, and a recollection of visions. • 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. 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. • 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. Gumbs outwardly draws on Jamaican writer Sylvia Wynter and the dub rhythm for inspiration in the book. 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. • 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. 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 American life. ::Gumbs explores the universality of breathing and how it connects all life, refuting Euro-Western ecological superiority. She also looks at hyper-visibility, direct action, and alternative education models. She uses marine mammals to investigate interlocking forms of oppression, recognizing how discrimination pervades the classification of aquatic life. • Survival Is a Promise (2024) • Biography of Audre Lorde 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. Featured in • Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements (2015) — edited by adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha. This speculative fiction book is inspired by the writer Octavia Butler. • ''This Unruly Witness: June Jordan's Legacy'' (2025) - edited by Darrell M. Callier, Dominique C. Hill, Lauren Muller, and Becky Thompson. A collection of writings on June Jordan's legacy as a poet, healer, and activist. Documentaries • The Revival: Women and the Word ==Personal life==