spotted this new gallery in sf this past weekend. reminded me of the first section of my mfa thesis, titled “[space] the in between.“ confirmations like this...amen.
my time in new york is coming to a close and i'm so looking forward to getting back to my studio. there are so many ideas swirling in my head, i'm ready to put them out into the ether. getting back to work will help add to my mfa thesis. i left an entire section out of the version i turned in for review and there are so many edits i need to make. i felt, and still feel, scattered in my thoughts, but i'm becoming more resolved in the reality that it won't be perfect and that's okay.
i started writing notes last semester that seemed relevant to what i want my project to say. a manifesto of sorts. i've gotten as far as the list below and its in my thesis. although, i haven't been able to get past the last line...
We are sequential
We are molded in the dark
We are star(dust) perpetually returning to(ward) the chaos
We all navigate in search of home(s)
We all carry our coffins with us
We all meet death with our light vessels in tow
Some of us are capsized ships on foreign shores
Some of us make dwellings among the ruins
Some of us are captains and the water is a womb
Some of us are captives, held by the place that time forgot
Some of us remember so that memory will not be persuaded by time and power to forget
...
i'm in New York for the holidays. seeing family, friends, and art. i caught another excerpt from Kahlil Joseph's Shadow Play at the New Museum. per usual, i was blown away.
having watched Black Mary throughout last month, i am so full off this iteration. i can honestly admit that I have a reverence that borders on jealousy for film artists/makers. where and when the visual and the sonic meet is everything. Kahlil has certainly mastered that space while leaving room for the viewer to float, bounce, rock, melt, soak...and BE in that in between.
i could've watched this short film all day. i might go back, before i leave for cali, and take it all in again.
here are the sounds for Fly Paper. read up on the exhibition and more here.
after the crazy lessons of 2017, we're certainly in need of some repair.
sounds from MEND...
yesterday 5/5 presented a group show, the last before the end comes and it’s 2018. follow us on ig: @fivefifthscollective
After-Party: at Thee Parkside from 3 to 5 p.m. at 1600 17th Street to continue the festivities and reconnect with CCA community.
Complimentary refreshments will be served!
Open Studios: Graduate Center, 184 Hooper Street (between 7th and 8th Streets)
CCA graduate students in Fine Arts open their studios to the public. Maps of students' studios will be available at each building entrance.
Free and open to the public
Black women certainly are at the center of my stories. I think part of this is from my personal experience of growing up with women who are very powerful—to me—but very vulnerable in their society. That duality has always struck me, watching how people have to live in these situations, live in the bodies that we live in, and have to contort who we are in different spaces. Especially if you are poor and female in very stratified society. I think that as vessels of memory, of people who carry their stories, I see that as more than symbolism, I see that as survival. When you attach migration to it, there is a hunger in people like me to know everything from the story tellers, the story carriers in my life, because I absolutely need those stories. I desperately need them. I especially need them for the next generation of my family. I need them for daughters and nieces, and for my nephews too. I need them to know how we lived before they knew us. I need them to know who we were before we came here. I need them to know how we managed to survive, how we managed not to die. I need them to have these stories as tools for their future. In migration it becomes even more important, because you are so afraid to lose all that. You’re separated from the physical space where you were born. You can go back but it’s always changing. You’re always changing. What you are left with are the stories, and these stories come in bodies. And for me, it’s often a black female body like mine.
+Edwidge Danticat, “The Past Is Not Always Past:” A Conversation with Edwidge Danticat
in honor of Fet Gede / All Souls Day
i owe my life to the souls on the other side of the water.
Black Mary - A Film by Kahlil Joseph
y'all, i'm floored...#foreverinspo
To coincide with Tate Modern's exhibition 'Soul of a Nation Art in the Age of Black Power' Tate commissioned filmmaker Kahlil Joseph to create a new and exclusive film inspired by the haunting black and white photography of Roy DeCarava.
Part 1 (of a two-part film) featuring Alice Smith's haunting rework of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ "I Put a Spell on You."
new x old wips.