Spice (Sisters Practicing Intelligence Creativity and Empowerment) is an organization based in Detroit for black lesbians. On Friday night we met for almost 3 hours, ate dinner, talked with each other and shared our lives.

During an emotional moment we had youth telling us that we had let them down and that no one was mentoring them. We listened, we heard and we left with a new sense of what we need to be doing in our work with each other.

During the next day in the People of Color Hospitality Suite, a young man entered the suite and asked for an iron. He held the iron while looking at his pink wrinkled shirt and kept saying that he had no idea how to do this. This youth was hopelessly unaware of this basic skill until a black butch lesbian pastor jumped to her feet and said “I need to teach you how to do this."

This gracious womyn was not behaving in a manner of the old stereotype of the black “Mammy” image. NO, she was caring for him, sharing her homemaking skills and doing exactly what the youth had told us during Spice’s meeting the night before. Mostly I believe the youth during the Spice meeting were saying: Pay attention to us, lead us and be an example for us.

In teaching this youth to iron, she was mentoring him and showing him how to always look professional. It was an older black lesbian helping a youth. While this basic act of ironing was an every day task, it hit me that the Creating Change Conference had allowed for a connection between two people. And I am sure that both an old-time butch black lesbian and a youth have now formed an intersection that will never be erased.

Now ask yourself, what was the Intersection identified in all this? Answer: We all need our clothes ironed and I love you!!!