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sjjnyc · 1 year ago

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A Bird' Eye View: Water Futures in the Colorado River Basin

Have you read my creative essay?! Click the link above and check out all the other amazing contributions!

Photo Description: Top to Bottom - A screenshot of the title of my essay on the Southwest Contemporary website, a screenshot of a paragraph in the essay about memory, the cover of Vol 7 and a marketing graphic for the "Finding Water in the West" panel I participated in.

A follow-up reflection on Beauty

I think there is a lot of beauty in this region of the country. I've barely touched the surface of anything during my time here, but from what I have noticed living in Arizona and visiting New Mexico and southwest Colorado, there is a lot of beauty. All kinds of beauty. I remember my initial reaction toward going out West, "go out there! Where there's no water?! It's so hot there and blah blah blah". Imagine all the things you miss because you don't recognize the beauty of a place . . . I'm searching for other words but I can't put my finger on them. So I settle on beauty and maybe magic. I'm trying to stop myself from saying otherworldly, but there are otherworldly places in this region. Thank the rocks! Maybe another way to think about it is the energies of a place. Energy that makes you go WHOA. Also, self esteem is coming to mind. All this stuff going on with the land and water here, and all the nonsense that doesn't get news coverage, or is even known. I like thinking about self-esteem/community-esteem and place. I think the moment I started to recognize the beauty of the desert was when I went to this herbalist's Instagram page and saw all the herbal goodies she is making from desert plants like Saguaro Cactus and Prickly Pear. I saw the desert's beauty through her and her connection to plants and herbalism. I've seen more beauty through other people too. All kinds of beauty.

A time travel gadget making workshop in the Year 2023

Photo Description: The first and third images are graphics promoting my workshop "It's About Time" downloaded from Southwest Contemporary's Instagram account. The second image is of a time travel gadget I made for my essay in Vol 7.

RECAP: It's About Time: A Water Futures + Time Travel Workshop with Simone Johnson Thursday, June 15, 6-7:15 pm MDT free | via Zoom

Please join us! As part of our continued exploration of creative practices engaging with water issues across the West and Southwest, Southwest Contemporary presents It's About Time, a free virtual workshop by Simone Johnson, an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, and cultural worker and author of "A Bird’s Eye View: Water Futures in the Colorado River Basin" in Southwest Contemporary Vol. 7—Finding Water in the West. In this workshop, you will:

Learn more about Simone's approach to her water and time travel research focused on the Colorado River Basin.

Learn how she made a time travel gadget for her essay featured in Southwest Contemporary Vol. 7.

Make your own time travel gadget as it relates to water and ecologies where you live.

Materials needed: What can you use that is lying around where you live? While searching for materials, play with your imagination to see how they can be used. Some ideas include paper, cardboard, fabric, an old tissue box, a fork, a stick from outside, glue, tape, paperclips, string, etc.

My time travel gadget from the workshop!

"Thanks to everyone who joined the Water Futures + Time Travel workshop yesterday with @swcontemporary 😭🥰

🌵This is the time travel gadget I made; a mason jar top filled with dried Rose petals tied to my hand with string. I told everyone in the workshop you have to have a certain kind of Rose for the gadget to function properly, and it has to be tied to your hand a certain way to work as well.

🌵This morning I woke up, and wondered if there are any desert rose species, and decided this gadget only works with particular desert plants. And it's activated only by Sun and Moonlight shining from/under southwestern/western skies in the Colorado River Basin.

🌵It transports me to waterways and surrounding lands in the basin. Works really great since I don't drive. It's a device of somekind that is specifically made for this region. One day I want to visit the famous Colorado River. As I begin to transport it starts to glow more blue. I added some filters to the image to help convey the time travel gadget, which I made spontaneously in 15 minutes!

💫FYI, portals to NYC are currently not opening up for me, but when they do . . .haha.

🌵The end!

Thanks again for being interested in my water art practice" ☺

IG Post on June 16, 2023

Making time travel gadgets at home

One of my favorite parts about the workshop design is that participants make their time travel gadgets at home. If you are really interested in this idea, and you haven't set up your gadget making studio-lab yet, what are you waiting for?! I would love to see what you create :) If you are on IG, please DM @sjj.nyc!

With a variety of prompts (that I still need to develop more) to help people generate ideas, characters and stories, time travelers are also encouraged to search for materials inside and outside where they live. The golden question is: what will you find?

Thanks so much to Natalie and Lauren from Southwest Contemporary for the opportunity to share, and to everyone who joined!

No.4 Judy Jetson: A Flower Essence for Time Travel

Photo description: A photo of two different sides of the flower essence "Nov 4. Judy Jetson".

Right before I facilitated "It's About Time" I was gifted a flower essence called "Nov 4. Judy Jetson" by multidisciplinary artist and medicine maker Iruka Maria Toro. She shared with me that it is connected to time travel, and I feel like it is so special to receive this medicine during a time in my life where I am exploring water and time travel. Thanks so much Iruka! <333

"An energetic essence of flowers and stones that activates multiple timelines. It spins the wheel of fortune and dissolves boundaries with a wink and a smile.

This potion is a time machine. Return to any point on the clock & remember: all lifetimes are now.

It’s possible to rewind or fast forward. It’s possible to get multidimensional about it.

Ancestor work is supported here. Evolutionary soul work is supported here.

Kiss the spiral of non-linear time".

I have never taken a flower essence like this before, and since I have started working with it, I have noticed a couple of things so far. What I will share for now is that between last Fall 2022 and early August 2023 I have had several different timespirals coursing through my being, all while struggling personally at home, with easy access to public transportation and getting A TON of NOs for artistic opportunities and job applications. Every direction I tried to go in last year and this year (until the recent Full Moon in Aquarius on August 1, 2023), I was blocked. My theory behind all the ruthless limitations, challenges, setbacks and roadblocks is that my Saturn Return was in full effect.

The last year and a half have been an emotional rollercoaster to say the least, and at times I became very weak and depressed, not taking care of myself which opened the door to spiritual parasites I had to extract from myself in a dream. No lie. I'm open to sharing this because I'm alive, and would like to share the challenging moments in my life.

When I started taking this flower essence there must have been 3-4 different life directions I could possibly go in, and the whole time I was feeling into whether I truly wanted to go in these directions, and if they were aligned. In the end, I think a mixture of things including working with "Nov 4. Judy Jetson" collapsed and dissolved timelines my spirit knew wasn't right for me. And the timecircle that unexpectedly emerged . . . well . . .

PHOTO: CDWHEATLEY/GETTY IMAGES

When I was reading about the medicine on Iruka's apothecary, it said it could also be used for ancestor work, and that made me pause- ancestor work? I shook my head and agreed with myself that I wanted to focus on water and time travel in the Colorado River Basin. A couple of hours later I took four drops of the essence and by the end of the night I was thinking about my paternal line, researching my Ghanaian heritage and how the island of St. John could be some sort of official entry way into ancestral research I've been hesitant, cautious and grumbly about.

I decided recently that I'm going to use the essence for dreamwork. I remember saying to myself when my paternal lineage came up that I'm not ready to connect with my paternal line through my dreams. Even though, maybe, I already have. I didn't have dreams with my paternal line that night, but the following morning I woke up researching the Volta River, realizing the river could be another way to "enter" Ghana. An hour or so later, I learned about the work of Yvette Tetteh and Agbetsi Living Water. Ha! So much for sticking to water and time travel in the Colorado River Basin.

I hadn't been thinking about my Ghanaian heritage for awhile until I took the flower essence, and I believe it created an opening inside of me that I honestly couldn't imagine happening. Because, at this time in my life, I don't think I'll ever feel close to Ghana, but the essence helped make a bridge between my interest in water and the Volta River, so I guess I'll see what happens. Coming across Agbetsi Living Waters strengthened the opening and seeded a possible timeline where maybe I might find myself in my absent father's homeland.

Photo description: A map of the Volta River drainage basin and its main three tributaries, the White Volta, Red Volta, and Black Volta rivers

Today is Saturday, September 16, 2023 and I just did a timeline jump

I think it's one thing to think about time travel, and another thing to experience it in my body. I bought many herbal medicines with me for my destination, but I definitely need them during the process of connecting to the new timeline. I really like having herbs I can take immediately, especially if my nervous system gets inflamed from being in an airplane for hours or being around too many people for long periods of time. I like having a Skullcap tincture, but prefer an infusion. Herbal oils like St. Johns Wort are really helpful for calming my nervous system. Sometimes when I get off planes, trains and busses, my body aches so much and my back hurts, but it's really my nervous system that is inflamed.

I like taking garlic, honey and oregeno oil capsules to stop me from getting sick when I go to public places. I've heard Osha Root and Spilanthes are great to take before getting on a flight because they stimulate your immune system to protect yourself when you're in an enclosed tube with many people. Infusions really go a long way though, which is why it sucks when I find myself timeline jumping, or doing anything really, and I don't have access to water, a teapot and stove. I think taking pauses in the midst of change can be really medicinal too, and pouring libations before the journey begins. I am interested in thinking more about how to stay grounded while time traveling, especially in an embodied way. I really could use a massage right now, let's add that to our time travel care. I gotta return to this. It's a bit rough on the edges, but I have to go!

#Youtube

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sjjnyc · 1 year ago

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The Desert Continuum + thoughts on having a fluid identity and lifestyle

I bought The Funambulist's Issue #44 about the desert because I felt like, while living in a landscape I didn't grow up in, it would be helpful to learn various desert perspectives. I really love the idea of a "Desert Continuum" described in the excerpt below because it raises my awareness that there are other desert communities around the world. Duh! I know.

"What we can do however is to loosely trace these porous boundaries and, from it, observe the drawing of a desert continuum (see the map on next pages) that links Dakar to Ulaanbaatar by way of Karachi, Volgograd, Gaza, and Nairobi—considering cities, rather than mountains or other salient points, has to be understood as arbitrary geographical references here. Just as we talked in our issue on The Ocean about the political commonalities that islander nations could experience through the Ocean despite living thousands of kilometers apart, we can envision such a commonality throughout this continuum."

- excerpt from the Introduction

After growing up on an island near the Atlantic Ocean, I felt like a dear caught in headlights moving to the arid West. I didn't think I would even be here this long. I'm kind of not surprised I found myself in this region of the country during my Saturn Return; I was born in Denver, Colorado in 1991 and grew up in Denver, Aurora and Colorado Springs until the age of twelve, so it makes sense that I would find myself back here during my first Saturnian rite of passage.

Besides living in Brooklyn with my great-grandmother for almost two years (when I first moved to New York City and for my grandmother, when she returned after two decades away), I mostly grew up on Staten Island. It makes sense that I and other people would place myself in this distinct place, but then I have familial migrations, histories, lineages and personal callings going in all sorts of directions, so it's hard to place me somewhere.

I have not shared the story of why I came to Arizona in 2019 in the first place; I didn't want to come here. And I didn't want to stay in New York City either, because like a lot of folks I have a love-hate relationship with the city. I've moved around a lot since I was a child, whether I was staying at different family member's houses, moving to another neighborhood, another city, another state, another borough. On the outside I look like an adventurous nomad, but my whole life has been constant uprooting and uncomfortable home situations.

I root in water, my body and taking care of myself

I root in water, my body and taking care of myself. Sometimes people don't understand the first part, they don't understand my watery energy and predominate watery expression- and what tends to happen is that I become judged and pathologized, and something that needs to be balanced and fixed. I'm not shy in letting folks know I have problems and things to work on, but honest to God it is so interesting how sometimes the first thing people do is pathologize my relationship with water. Or my hyper focus and expression of water explains xyz issue in my life. At first, I started internalizing these reactions, but I think all of this reflects what's going on with other people.

I live in an aquatic universe yall (with other beings, many who have lived here way before I was a twinkle in somebody's eye); I don't need to second guess myself, accept other people's funky energy about how I express myself, feel ashamed or feel like I need to abandon myself/my aquatic heritage in order to make sense, be relatable and belong.

It was water who reached out to me. I was on my way to being a farmer while my water art practice quietly emerged in the background. But Water, while living in urban New York City, came forward into my consciousness and life in an unexpected way. Most of my life is guided by Water, and it's intelligence draws or attracts people into my life who inspire me and who I (need to) learn from. And after almost thirty-two years on the planet, I find myself a part of the Desert Continuum, but I don't know if I belong, or if I'd ever call the southwest home, even though I absolutely love New Mexico.

Desert Libraries in Mali, The Invention of Nubian Deserts and The Impact of a Life (and Death): Colonial Encounters and Aboriginal Desert Practices

The Desert Issue is included in my make-shift water library (Timbuktu is not mentioned in the magazine, but thinking about water libraries made me think about desert libraries (#nobinary) so I included a link about desert libraries in Mali), and since I'm moving once again, I had to pack up my water library and put it in my grandmother's garage. You can review the digital version here; it needs to be updated!

Mali is a part of the Desert Continuum / Photo Source: Libraries of Timbuktu

Ancient desert libraries / Photo Source: Timbuktu Hopes Ancient Texts Spark a Revival

I only managed to read two stories anyway: the displacement of Nubian people from living near their ancestral waterway, the Nile River, and the life and death of desert Aboriginal artist and community leader Mr. Ward. These essays were difficult to read; it's like I can't read the other contributions just yet because I'm still sitting with these two stories, each one having stirred my spirit and left some kind of imprint.

All Image Sources: The Funambulist Magazine #44

I'm really big on life not being a quiz. With all the technology many of us are afforded, I think it's helpful to relieve ourselves of having to know and remember everything and feel free to look something up or ask someone when we don't know something. In saying this, there are probably places I know about that I don't even know are deserts.

When I think of Egypt I know about the pyramids, but it never really registered that Cairo is a desert city. Also, outside the US I have been paying attention to Desert Mob, Central Australia's largest First Nations art and cultural event and exhibition held in Mparntwe or Alice Springs. I happened to find the organization on Instagram. At least for me in my personal experience, it is really nice to see the art and cultural practices people in different desert communities are creating and participating in. Even though I don't know anyone well in Egypt or Central Australia, these places, being a part of the Desert Continuum, develop my consciousness and clarity more around desert identities and lifeways.

PROMPT: This prompt is more for people who live in arid and semi-arid environments: who are your favorite desert artists? Or whose work would you like to learn more about? Another prompt is to take a portrait of yourself in the place you call home and share it if you want!

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sjjnyc · 1 year ago

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4 ways I've stayed connected to the ocean while living in the desert

I never realized how lucky it was to live right near the Atlantic Ocean. Living on the coast was such a regular part of life for me that I think, maybe, I took it for granted. Or maybe, I didn't think I would end up on a timeline where I lived in the arid West far away from both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Either way, I'll always cherish the ocean, and no matter where I go, I'll still be a salt-water person through and through.

1) Being a student at OCEAN/UNI, a free online university that gifts amazing classes about the ocean.

Towards a common heritage for allkind

October 11 – December 6, 2023

Biweekly live sessions and activations online via Zoom and on Ocean-Archive.org

2) Reading the Funambulist's "The Ocean . . . From the Black Atlantic to the Sea of Islands" was so rich; I loved every single contribution and especially felt intrigued by Black Internationalism in Oceania by Quito Swan.

Micronesian ocean chart representing islands, currents, swell patterns, and drift lines. / Photo by Brewbooks (2008).

Interview excerpt from "Black Internationalism - From Bermuda and Africa to The Oceanian Struggles: A Conversation with Quito Swan"

Léopold Lambert:

Your book is entitled Pasifika Black, which suggests - Pasifika as an adjective and Black as a noun - that your primary goal might have been to make Melanesia surge into a global discourse (which tend to be quite Atlantic- centric) on Blackness, even more than to make Blackness surge into the political history of Oceania. Is it a correct assumption and if so, could you speak to this necessity to multiply the sites from where Blackness is articulated?

Quito Swan:

Yeah, it's a great question, and it is a pretty accurate assumption. I was thinking a lot about what does or did Blackness and race look like from the perspective of Oceania, and the Pacific? If you center the Pacific in this discussion, what does Blackness look like? And I was interested in going beyond the Atlantic formations, because I think, all too many times, Atlantic formations problematically have encouraged us - at least mainstream history - to look at African history as something that starts with the Atlantic slave trade. And as African history clearly does not begin with slavery, the African diaspora does not start or end with the trade as well. Architects of African Diaspora Studies, like Joseph E. Harris out of Howard University, were really keen about also looking east of Africa, and at Black populations that also left Africa voluntarily, as opposed to involuntarily, who may have gone east, by land or by sea.

These images are sourced from The Funambulist Magazine

3) Writing fictional short stories

Wild Sun Catchers written and narrated by Simone Johnson with animation and sound design by Jennifer Parker

A kelp forest mermaid living by and within the Channel Islands in Southern California shares thoughts and stories about home, sea otters, time on land, memory, shallow subtidal dream worlds and the impact of the climate crisis.

You can READ, WATCH and/or LISTEN to the story!

BIG PISCES ENERGY

I wrote Wild Sun Catchers during Pisces season last year, and as usual, people low-key made fun of me for being too much, too out there, too "woo woo". Shout out to relational astrologer Diana Rose for her voice in these earthly-cosmic streets, uplifting Piscean energy and its contribution to the collective.

This series of Instagram posts is from Diana's IG page.

Naomi: a short story about mermaids, marine archeology and slave shipwrecks

Prologue:

This short story takes place along the Mobile Bay, where the river meets the sea, and later at a fictional diner, all located near Plateau, Alabama, or Africatown, where many descendants of enslaved Africans brought over on the Clotilda live. The Clotilda is the last known slave ship to the United States; in 1860 it illegally transported 110 souls on board from Benin, West Africa, across the Atlantic Ocean and into the mouth of the Mobile River where the ship was intentionally set on fire and sunk to hide it as evidence.

The United States Congress passed the “Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves” in 1808, "making it illegal for Americans to engage in the slave trade between nations". Despite this legislation, slaveships continued making journeys across the Atlantic, and the enslavement and domestic sale of African peoples continued until 1865, when the 13th Amendment in the United States Constitution was ratified, officially abolishing slavery. That same year, Juneteenth was born, an annual holiday where African-Americans remember our ancestor's struggle for freedom and celebrate the end of chattel slavery. It is important to note that slavery, systemic racism and inequality, and discrimination continue to exist in the United States, in other forms and with different names, and collective efforts towards racial justice continue.

First and foremost, I think it's important to acknowledge that I am not from Africatown or Alabama, and have yet to visit the Mobile River. But my heart pulls me strongly toward Florida and Alabama lands and waters, and the genealogy research my family has done for decades has led us to finding Jane, the last ancestor we can trace on my maternal grandmother's side, being in both Georgia and Alabama.

Like so many African-American families, we have relied on family memory and passed down oral stories, cooking and food traditions, genealogy research and heirs property to locate our ancestors in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and possibly Alabama. In my personal experience, the further back we go, especially on my grandmother's side, the blurrier details become. But, I'm trusting Alabama and Florida are calling me for a reason.

I learned more about Africatown and the Clotilda after watching "Descendant", an award-winning film by Margaret Brown who returns to her hometown of Mobile, Alabama to document the search for and historic discovery of the Clotilda. With all the other slow research I'm doing around marine archeology, slave shipwrecks, mermaids and family constellations, I notice myself becoming utterly transported by my findings.

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Through the work of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Alabama’s primary marine education and research center, I also learned that manatees (or sea cows) not only swim in Florida waters, but also visit the Alabama coast, Mobile Bay and other waterways. I love manatees, so this is another reason why I am drawn to Alabama. It also happens that manatees are connected to mermaids, a magical relationship I am still researching!

I am a Colorado born, New York City bred artist who has no lived experience growing up or being in the South that much. But, part of my family and ancestral roots are in this region of the country, and I'm wanting to tend to this curiosity and perhaps subtle longing I have for these geographies, which my grandparents and their parents left, most of them hardly looking back. It was too painful.

I'm particularly interested in viewing marine archeology, slave shipwrecks and mermaids through the lens-combination of family constellations and the ocean (and waterways in general). Having spent most of my twenties studying agriculture and food sovereignty finding my roots in land, I am now exploring my aquatic roots, which currently branch out into the ocean, especially the Atlantic, Staten Island, waterfronts, ferries, swamps and marshlands, and in the sky.

vimeo

Sonya Welch-Moring is a transgenerational practitioner, writer and ancestral researcher. A background as a professional coach, mediator and workshop facilitator, led her to develop Ancestral Constellations. This therapeutic process explores family and community dynamics, using systemic constellations and African spiritual traditions. It is a visual, storytelling approach, using figurines (dollies) to explore unresolved family issues and generational patterns. Sonya uses illustration and narrative in her work and is currently writing a commissioned book on Ancestral Constellations as family research in practice.

*if the video is not working, here is the link

One of my dreams is to have the stories I write translated into film, and so I often find ways to inspire and visualize "Naomi". I adore the work of Los Angeles-based painter Calida Rawls (first two images below) and have imagined the characters through her paintings. The upcoming film "The Little Mermaid" starring singer and actress Halle Bailey has inspired me to do research on Black mermaids and the visual representation of mermaids from the continent of Africa and the Diaspora. Folklorist, anthropologist and author Zora Neale Hurston's work, from her archival film footage to the folk songs she collected and sang, to “Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo’'', also help me ponder and imagine this living story across space and time.

Film Mood Board + imaginary cast

From Top to Bottom: Two digital images of Calida Rawls paintings representing the two main characters in the story, the actors LaKeith Stanfield and Samuel L. Jackson, two images of divers from "Diving with a Purpose doing marine archeology work, a screenshot of a news article about the Clotilda, an image of the Clotilda under the Mobile River, a screenshot of the description of the film "Descendant", and a promotion poster for the film. This series of images were posted as a film mood board on my Instagram on July 7, 2022.

What initially inspired "Naomi" is the work of Diving with a Purpose, a 501c3 organization “dedicated to the conservation and protection of submerged heritage resources by providing education, training, certification and field experience to adults and youth in the fields of maritime archaeology and ocean conservation. (Their) special focus is the protection, documentation and interpretation of African slave trade shipwrecks and the maritime history and culture of African-Americans who formed a core of labor and expertise for America’s maritime enterprises”. Learning about their work also raised my awareness around the Slave Wrecks Project, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Inter-American Slave Trade Databases, and the role of New York City in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

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National Geographic Explorer Tara Roberts also hosts "Into the Depths", a six-part podcast series that explores the complex history of the global slave trade and the stories of the estimated 12.5-million Africans forced to make the Middle Passage.

From the moment I read about specific slave shipwrecks, like the Henrietta Marie, The Wanderer, Trouvadore and São José Paquete Africa, I was gripped, and so was my imagination. For me, I feel like the aforementioned water work helps me "touch or feel" the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in a way I have never felt before. I hope one day I can learn how to scuba dive and participate in the search and recovery of slave shipwrecks.

When I first thought about "Naomi", it was the first name that came to me. I wondered if I should keep searching for another, more African sounding name, but I listened. In all honesty, the spirit of Naomi has many names, just like me, and maybe you too.

Finally, I started writing this short story not knowing where it would take me, and how it would continually express itself - sharing it on this website could be . . . just the beginning. Thank you for reading!

I had a chance to share my short story at the Oceans as Archives Conference, and here is the abstract I submitted to present:

Photo Source: Oceans as Archives

Abstract: Read about in articles and books, seen in numerous films, found in genealogy research and felt in lineages and bloodlines, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade remains in living memory and in local to global conversations on various scales. What if you could dive underwater off the coast of Florida or in the Mobile River in Alabama and draw a map of a sunken slave ship? What if you found actual shackles from this slave ship and other materials in the hold?

There is an international network of divers, researchers and institutions locating slave ship wrecks, literal submerged history, around the world. As an artist mostly making work about water and a descendant of enslaved Africans, this work has inspired "Naomi", an early stage multi-year creative writing and film project I'm working on focused on slave shipwrecks, marine archeology and mermaids.

The goals for the short story I am submitting include 1) researching the three aforementioned topics through an interdisciplinary and interspecies lens 2) weaving connections between these topics through storytelling and 3) contributing to memory, dialogue and knowledge production around the Ocean as an Archive and the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade through underwater perspectives.

By working on "Naomi" over the next year or so I also want to simultaneously or polychronically explore how this research can support writing new and creative narratives about the relationship between people of African descent and the ocean.

4) Watching and listening to Meditation Ocean

Meditation Ocean is an art, climate, and environmental justice project buoyed by meditation practice, made in service of human and more-than-human thriving.

Conceived and directed by Hope Ginsburg, M.O. is realized by the Meditation Ocean Constellation, an expansive ecosystem of artists, curators, writers, musicians, meditators, divers, and scientists. You can watch many of the videos on their IG account.

Meditation Ocean is supported by the Wexner Center for the Arts Film/Video Studio Program and Artist Residency Award in Film/Video.

#ocean #university #deep sea #creative writing #film #documentary #meditation #pisces

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sjjnyc · 1 year ago

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Embodiment and Power: Asia Dorsey's Winter Herbal Immersion

In 2022 I was researching mermaids off and on while writing two fictional short stories about mermaids; Wild Sun Catchers and Naomi. Fast forward to the Spring of 2023, I unexpectedly had the idea pop in my head to organize a merfolk happening that would coincide with the release of "The Little Mermaid" starring Halle Bailey and other amazing actors. Luckily people were interested in participating and everyone's contributions were amazing!

The Little Mermaid premiered in mid-May and I wish I could have seen it at the movie theater on Court Street in Brooklyn, but I saw it at a local theater in Gilbert, Arizona. A desert mermaid going to see and support some of her kinfolk on the big screen. It's amazing how this one film generated even more conversations, projects and visual representations of Black mermaids.

Shout out to the merfolk imagery that existed before the "Little Mermaid" release, like Bianca Barclay (who also happened to grow up on Staten Island) bringing mermaids to life in Netflix' "Wednesday".

Note* These images do not represent the various environments mermaids can be found in. I'm still waiting to find images and video of swamp, marshland and mangrove merfolk! #WetlandsAreLife

Photo Description: From Top to Bottom - a house with a short dock in a Louisiana swamp, marshlands in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and an image of Mangroves.

A strong presence of mermaids has been in my life for two years now. I feel that not only is this happening in my life and expanding and deepening my identity, but on a collective level, mermaids have come into the collective consciousness (in 2023 specifically) in such a big way, it makes me think, knowing how the ocean and the cosmos reflect and are in conversation with each other, there is something going on in the stars related to mer-creatures.

It's mid-August now and I just finished watching a new Netflix TV series that, what do you know, has a mermaid character and symbolism in it. Right then and there it hit me while watching this tv show that the mermaid spirit(s) is with me for the rest of my life.

I'm grateful that I could participate in Asia Dorsey Winter Herbal Immersion, which was chock full of information on living a lifestyle of nourishment, with a special emphasis on supporting the kidneys. Later on, she would participate in Water School's Open Residency offering a workshop called "Interview with the Mermaid". The experience was like how we might imagine encountering a mermaid; she was there for a clear moment, and then she was gone. All I can say is, if Asia ever does this again, I would join in a heartbeat.

During the immersion we got to choose from a short list of herbs one we wanted to work with during our time together (and beyond). I wanted to work with Oat straw, but what was available to me at that time was Nettles (also on the list), because it just so happened that my AirBnB host (thank you river!) gifted me a large mason jar of Nettles. It would be a few months later when I finally started gaining a grasp on establishing a consistent herbal routine, coming into my power day by day.

The spirit of the water element in the kidneys

I learned a lot, and I really recommend you take the winter immersion the next time Asia does it. The first thing I noticed about the course is how it brought our attention to the kidneys, and this organ's connection to water, winter, the ocean and mermaids. We learned about the kidneys through various lenses, particularly Traditional Chinese Medicine, so when I continued researching the kidneys through this healing tradition, I learned that the kidneys are: where our life force and genetic inheritance are stored, play a role in memory ( I don't have a great memory so I think my Kidney Essence needs support), are the home to Zhi, the spirit of the Water element. This excerpt from the article really got me:

"Zhi, the spirit of the Water element, is housed in the kidneys. It is known as one’s Will power, ambition, purpose, and destiny. Zhi is a force that allows a person to move along their destined path without much conscious thought or effort. And, it’s thought to be the innate power of life itself – life that wants to live, strives to stay alive and survive".

Endless gratitude to Traditional Chinese Medicine practioners, your ancestors and the legacy of your healing traditions which help other cultures learn more about the body.

I'm African-American with Ghanaian heritage, how can I learn about the kidneys within my own cultural context? I'm not 100% sure, but I think throughout the course Asia was connecting Mami Wata to the kidneys, and I'm thinking now, how even if there isn't a lot of cultural literature or media about African-American healing practices specifically about the kidneys (peep the emergence and rise in visibility of Black water workers), we can CREATE our own cultural connections between the kidneys, water and whatever else, we can CREATE culture. Does this make sense? I think this is what Asia is doing.

Sometimes people in the U.S. and around the world think that African-Americans (with layered identities) have no culture or are culturally disconnected and poor, when the reality is that we have rich cultures (plural, because Black culture in the US is similar across the board but different based on what part of the country you are in), and like other cultures, we create from our deep individual and collective wellsprings.

Black folks and kidneys . . . let's talk about it.

Nourishing foods for the kidneys, aka nourishing foods for merfolk during the winter season

Photo description: I found a random photo and recipe of a pot of bone broth with onions, carrots and other vegetables.

I'm still processing what we learned during the course, but one section that really stuck out to me was the foods and tonics we can eat that support our kidneys, some of which come from the ocean. I was excited to learn that I was already, unknowingly, eating kidney foods like dried seaweed snacks, berries, yogurt (although I eat a cashew alternative) kale, salmon, (salt and chocolate covered roasted) almonds, sardines and now nettles. Now I want to eat nourishing kidney foods more intentionally, and start incorporating foods I don't ingest a lot, like bone broth, oysters and black beans.

Out of all the places in my body I'm interested in exploring and being called to pay attention to, I don't think I would have ever looked more deeply into the kidneys until taking this immersion. The kidneys have been trying to get my attention for some time now; I just didn't know the signs were connected to my kidneys. It feels overwhelming sometimes how much attention and awareness the body needs. I took this course when I visited Albuquerque, New Mexico. My AirBnB host invited me to a group gathering where we walked to the Rio Grande. I spoke to the organizer along the way who told me her life's work is to be embodied, and that has stayed with me.

PROMPT: Go check out Asia's website! What sparks your curiosity?

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sjjnyc · 1 year ago

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Wetlands in the desert

Three words . . . #WetlandsareWealth

GET INTO IT!

(btw, this is not new information)

Sometimes I have anxiety that people will quiz me on my knowledge about wetlands and I won't be able to come up with interesting and accurate facts to convey their importance. I don't want to feel pressure to be a walking encyclopedia of wetland knowledge (even though that would be cool); the way I want to learn about wetlands and share my experiences with different kinds of wetlands is by visiting them and that being enough. As I do this, I know along the way I'll start to retain information. In the meantime, I've been creating digital PDF zines about my experience with wetlands. Learn more at the end of this section!

Photo Description: White birds that look like pelicans (not sure if they are) at the Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch in Gilbert, Arizona

Before coming to Arizona, I ignorantly thought there was no water out here. I bought into the danger of the single-story writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talked about during a TEDx talk. Of course Arizona and the southwest have rivers, streams, lakes, springs, seeps and groundwater, so what the hell was I talking about! I was also pleasantly surprised to learn that not only are there man-made wetlands in the Phoenix metro area, but there is a such thing as desert wetlands. My first reaction was "oh my gosh really?!" My second reaction was "that is so f'ing magical" and my third reaction was, "is it normal to have wetlands in the desert?"

"From agricultural expansion and river diversion to invasive species and climate change, wetlands face numerous threats. But one of the gravest may be ignorance. We still don’t know enough about these habitats, and they can still surprise even seasoned scientists like us. Perhaps most surprising of all are those wetlands that seem to confound all logic by thriving amid some of the driest places on Earth". - Paradox lost: wetlands can form in deserts, but we need to find and protect them

Here are more links I found about desert wetlands:

What is a wetland?

Conservation of Desert Wetlands and their Biotas

Desert Wetlands

UTAH DESERT WETLANDS ABUNDANT WITH MIGRATING BIRDS

Cuenca Los Ojos

Mexico’s northern desert wetlands in danger

WETLANDS IN THE DESERT: A PLACE-BASED JOURNEY OF SEASONAL OBSERVATION AND OUTCOMES

Some keywords/phrases from these articles:

Bioregional awareness

Wetland habitats

Beauty

Jaguar

Cuatro Cienegas Basin in Coahuila, Mexico

San Pedro River in Arizona

Water filtration

Flood and erosion control

Homes for fish and wildlife

Degradation

Escalante River in Utah

Black Bears

Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico

Arid lands

Desert springs

Holistic approach to biodiversity conservation

The playas and wetlands in Arizona

Ocelot

Mohave Desert in California

Groundwater extraction

Unique desert wetlands

Beavers

Big Bend National Park in Texas

Chorus of voices

United States-Mexico border

My visits to the Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch in Gilbert, Arizona

"The Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch was created as an innovative and unique way to combine water resource management with wildlife habitat preservation, education, and outdoor recreation. It is an oasis in the Sonoran Desert featuring seven aquifer recharge basins – each kept at different water levels to create diverse habitats and attract a variety of wildlife. Designated as an Important Bird Area by the National Audubon Society, approximately 298 species of birds have been identified at the preserve, and many insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals have found a home here as well." - Discover Gilbert

I took these photos of the riparian preserve during different seasons.

During my visits I have seen hummingbirds, quails and large white birds that look like pelicans, but I don't know what they are called.

Photo description: I'm not sure what these birds are called, but I love that the riparian preserve is a safe place for wildlife, a place to store and recharge ground water and a recreational area for the community.

Photo description: This is a Corkscrew or Screwbean Mesquite tree

Photo description: I forgot if this is somekind of barrel cactus

Photo description: I think this is a Mesquite tree with the long yellow cylindrical flowers

Photo description: Cactus beings at another entrance to the preserve

Photo description: An empty recharge basin

Photo Description: A filled recharge basin

Photo/Video Descriptions: This area of the preserve has signs that say "Reclaimed Water: Do not Drink". I'm guessing that the wetland habitat helps to filter and clean used water so that it can be used again. I'm still trying to understand how the recharge system works and hope maybe one day I can talk to someone who works at the preserve.

Photo description: I'm not sure what this plant is!

"the future" | predicting the future

"the future" captures my first time knowingly standing over an aquifer which is described as an underground lake about 150 feet below these sounds of treated wastewater being pumped into seven different recharge basins throughout the Riparian Preserve in the town of Gilbert. A plaque in front of the recharge infrastructure I stood in front of/near to record, describes where Gilbert gets its water from, it reads:

"In the past, residents of Arizona used groundwater from this aquifer faster than it could be replenished naturally with rainfall. These basins were designed to allow water to seep down into the aquifer, replenishing our groundwater supply, so that we have plenty of water available for our use in the future".

Photo description: A photo of the paragraph above on the plaque.

Listen to "the future" on Soundcloud!

Watch this video to learn more about the treated wastewater and aquifer recharge at the preserve.

-Is there such a thing as telling the future? - What kinds of premonitions, predictions, telling or seeing into the future practices are you aware of? -How are the ways groundwater and aquifers are treated/cared for a way of telling the future?

For the title I use "the future" as it relates to water, waterbodies, waterways and water cycles as a way to push back on this particular spacetime language being in quotation marks - with quotation marks often times being used to indicate inspection or interrogation, irony, inaccuracy or skepticism.

"the future" | predicting the future was the first artistic exploration I did connected to my water and time travel research in the Colorado River Basin.

Photo Description: An online map of the preserve

Surprise Surprise . . .

What do we have here?

Headlines about the recent loss of federal protections for wetlands in the country

#Repost @honortheearth REPOST: @lakotalaw Important Update: Change in the Wetlands Protection Update: The EPA's recent decision alters wetlands protection, raising concerns about impacts on ecosystems. Wetlands are vital for clean water, biodiversity, and flood control. Loss of federal protection may harm water quality, increase flooding risk, threaten wildlife, impact economy, and challenge long-term sustainability. We strongly suggest that everyone contacts their local representatives, participate in community discussions, and educate others about the importance of wetlands. Our collective voice can drive positive change and encourage a more balanced approach to development and conservation. Let's stand together for the protection of our environment, because in the end, the health of our planet directly impacts the well-being of current and future generations. Photo sourced from @npr View all 72 comments

#Repost @democracynow: The Environmental Protection Agency has rolled back parts of the Clean Water Act which protect millions of acres of wetlands, in order to comply with a Supreme Court ruling. The right-wing-dominated court ruled in May that wetlands must have a "continuous surface connection" to streams, oceans, rivers and lakes to be subject to federal regulations on pollution. Up to 63% of wetlands will be affected. The White House said the Supreme Court ruling "jeopardize[s] the sources of clean drinking water for farmers, businesses and millions of Americans." View all 609 comments

The destiny of wetlands: Is there such a thing as destiny?

I never really use the word frequency because it's used so much and some people associate it with the New Age Movement, so therefore its discounted, but frequency is real. I'm curious about the frequencies that make up the awareness and visions we as human beings (with our various identities and positionalities) want and have for wetlands, and what the desires of wetlands themselves might be?

I'll always remember thinking about rewriting the stories of wetlands which for so long have been seen as useless and taking up space, as well as the destiny* (in other words, the trajectories) of wetlands during my explorations of Jamaica Bay in 2021, especially in contrast to the Graniteville Wetlands in Staten Island.

If we think about the kinds of resources and amount of resources a wetland as an ecosystem is afforded (i.e. love, care, protection, healing, stewardship) can we wonder about its destiny? Does logic have a role in destiny? For example, you plant a seed, and it gets soil with compost, water, sunshine, seed songs and conversation, and before you know it, a plant has blossomed and fruited to produce more seeds. Every seed doesn't make it, even with the best care, but is there some kind of TLC-logic (tender-loving-care-logic) that makes the plant's life possible? If we think about the kinds of resources and amount of resources a wetland as an ecosystem is afforded (i.e. love, care, protection, healing, stewardship) can we wonder about its destiny?

Please research the history of wetlands where you live and in the United States. We've lost a lot of wetlands to agriculture, industry and real estate development, but not all. The more people who uplift wetlands in different ways, the better, and it's happening! We are a glorious chorus for that which was previously seen as dirty, useless and taking up space.

*Destiny: We all have our own understandings and views around destiny, and some folks resonate with this word while others do not. Another word to replace with destiny could be trajectory.

Check out my Wetland Zine Series!

Photo Description: During the summer of 2021 I crossed paths with this Eastern Prickly Pear a little ways past the West Pond and now Living Shoreline at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens, New York. Eastern Prickly Pear is a native cactus found growing along the Atlantic coast.

I'm making zines about my wetland experiences in the order I encounter them; so far I've made one zine about a swamp in upstate New York. Up next . . .

PROMPT: Visit a wetland in your community. What kind of wetland is it? What do you notice about it?

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sjjnyc · 1 year ago

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Love Letters to Dugongs and Manatees

Dr. Tracey M. Benson, the creatrix/co-creator behind “Meeting of the Waters Oceania" and I collaborated last November writing love letters to manatees and dugongs. It happened serendipitously at the same time as Manatee Awareness Month in the US (not sure about anywhere else)! This project is inspired by “Silent Whale Letters”, which I first encountered as a student of OCEAN/UNI.

Photo description: This is one of my favorite photos of a dugong!

Tracey recently attended a Dugong Symposium on her home of Bribie Island and facilitated a Love Letter writing workshop to the dugongs living in the waters around the island. She also invited me to write a letter that she shared with everyone in attendance!

"With National Science Week in full swing, BIEPA is joining in the Australia-wide activities by hosting the Bribie Island Dugong Symposium on Saturday 19th August at the Bribie Island Seaside Museum. The Symposium will bring together researchers, citizen scientists, artists, and the community, to share knowledge and help develop a framework for the actions needed to conserve and protect our mythical marine friends."

A letter to you, dear creator/creatrix:

I wanted to write something about creative power and expression, but I feel like I'm always talking about this, and even when I started to write this section, I stopped and remembered how Manatees and Dugongs give off such an essence of calm and peace. Although I haven't seen these marine mammals in real life, looking at photos and videos have been enough where I've felt or sensed an energy of peace.

Tracey shared a love letter that a First Nations artist wrote at the Bribie Island Dugong Symposium, and they too, spoke about how they felt peace from dugongs.

P.S. If you cross paths with manatees and dugongs and don't sense or connect peace to them, that is fine! I'm sharing my personal experiences, which is not meant to be a signal to you on how you should think about and experience manatees and dugongs.

I also think back to my experiences with drinking an infusion of Lavender flowers and the calm I feel afterward. Between the manatees and dugongs and the Lavender tea, I feel like they give off this energy of peace that feels like a gentle gust of warm wind on my bare skin. I can't really explain it, except that I know it's calm and peace that I'm feeling, and it feels good.

There is so much going on in the world every day every week; to talk about feeling peaceful and wanting to explore peace more feels insensitive sometimes, and something I should do in private. But then you see all the Instagram posts and memes about holding onto your joy in the midst of an intense world, and I think for me, the roots of my joy are connected to peace, to feeling relaxed and not stressed. Is peace another word for safety? Ahh safety . . .

Sometimes I tell myself that I have to be able to withstand the stressors of my life and the world without help from plants and xyz, because what if there's a scenario where I don't have access to Skullcap, Lavender, Milky Oats and my special St. John's Wort Oil to tend to my nervous system? Then what? I've relied so much on plant medicines that I can't calm down without them. But I've learned that thinking that way and preparing myself for a scenario like this only harms my mental health. I need plants, and I'm telling myself it's okay that I and we human beings rely on plants. Interconnection could be another word for reliance.

We are learning from the ocean in exciting ways; right now there is a lot of public interactions with and conversations about whales. I look forward to seeing how the whale communications continue to unfold. Maybe manatees and dugongs, in a (an energetic) language of their own are sharing messages or reminders of peace. I think, based off of my perception and imagination, there's a lot being communicated during the moments a manatee and dugong are munching on seagrass; eating and digesting peacefully.

Exploring imaginaries focused on Peace

Many of us are complex people with complex histories, stories and relationships, so I don't think we should put pressure on any of ourselves to be perfect in order to share our thoughts about and experiences with peace. I think water, lavender, manatees and dugongs, and peace have much in common; it's a vibe I'm exploring, a vibe or confluence formed from three different directions that started across time and space.

One day the image of bright red blood ebbing and flowing in the ocean came into my mind (I was thinking about something personal). And then when I thought about putting lavender plants in a glass bowl of water and swishing the water around with my hand, blood started to become visible in the swirl of water and earth. Even though I'm focused on peace, blood appears, and blood could symbolize a lot, but my first reaction is how peace can't be divorced from acknowledging hurt and pain. I'm not 100% sure why I saw blood in these mental images.

Then, it's not just water, lavender, manatees and dugongs and peace, but also song! Of course! Tracey sent me a rare video of a dugong making sounds under water. "What a world!" I responded to Tracey.

Now I wonder about the relationship between sound, singing, music and peace, and how peace is a feeling, but also a place (i.e. where does a high Soprano note take us?), that can perhaps be accessed through activating the voice and singing. Then our voices can be used as instruments of peace? I know it's not that cut and dry. Thinking and thinking and thinking . . . I love honoring thinking and intellectualization, which does have an important role in society and evolution. Other times, drinking infusions of Lavender flowers is enough. So is lying in your bed randomly singing where no one hears you, but you still exist. Admiring that one photo of a dugong is enough. What is peace?

PROMPT: What do you know for sure helps you calm down and relax? If you're not sure, what are some things you want to try out?

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sjjnyc · 1 year ago

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Speaking of Oceania - here is my rejected curatorial research application to . . .

This has nothing to do with my time living in the southwest, except that I applied for this fellowship while I was living in Gilbert, Arizona. I thought I would share this since it wouldn't see the light of day anyway lol . . .

Meeting Across Waters: Water Art in the United States and Oceania

Below is my original proposal unaltered; the title is inspired by "Meeting of the Waters Oceania", a two-and-a-half-week online course I took Fall 2021. After reviewing my application again I wrote a reflection about what I would improve on and included some examples of artists I would interview in the case I had gotten this fellowship.

One-sentence proposal summary (40 words):

Researching people of African descent in the United States and First Nations/Blak/Black/African people in Oceania who are both making or doing work connected to water, and putting these identities, experiences and places in conversation.

Description of proposed curatorial research, goals, and process, including the next three steps you plan to take to develop your research project (400)

This curatorial research is inspired by tuning into the work of Black artists and cultural workers in the United States making work about water. It is also inspired by my participation in “Meeting of the Waters Oceania” a two-week course in 2021 where I learned about Indigenous and local knowledge around water in Oceania, Quito Swan's recent essay “Black Internationalism in Oceania” in The Funambulist Magazine, and social media research around this region of the world. My proposal and main goal is, through research, oral storytelling interviews and a virtual event, to continue dialogue between the United States (US) and Oceania, and/or the Black Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, using certain topics as points of conversation and connection, like experiences with racial/ethnic identities, place and water.

I envision my research sort of like a college major and minor. I will major in researching people of African descent in the US who are making work about or connected to water (also acknowledging these folks can be of many identities- African-American, a first generation Trinidadian or Shinnecock woman) and my minor will be researching people in Oceania who identify as First Nations/Blak/Black/African who are making work about or connected to water. I would like to understand identity more in both these contexts, especially in Oceania and the Pacific Islands. In this way I can be focused and site-specific on the United States, but also explore and connect to Oceania - which I feel really passionate about.

I could only focus on researching Black artists in the US, but it is really important to me to connect Black people in the US to other Black identifying people around the world, in this case, Oceania. I'm really interested in seeing where similarities and differences lie among people of African descent around the world. I'm curious in general about Meeting across Waters - experimenting with ways to open up or start conversations with people in different parts of the world, creating spaces for learning, exchange, connection and collaboration.

As an interdisciplinary artist, researcher and cultural worker, I see this focus on water as a personal, cultural and ancestral practice for me, and most definitely a spiritual matter. In the end, I hope to contribute to the presence and legacy of water, especially in Black communities, inspiring Black people of many identities now and in the future.

Please describe resources needed and/or travel plans (100)

For travel plans, I imagine spending the budget on four things: 1) two week to one month stays at AirBnBs in four different regions in the US, for example Washington, New Mexico, Florida and New York City 2) money for food/in-state transportation 3) money allocated to pay specific US and Oceania based artists / cultural workers for interviews and 4) paying access doulas for one to two virtual events (need a zoom account!). Traveling to Melbourne, Australia or Aotearoa, New Zealand for a month or less could also be a possibility depending on what’s left from the budget.

Please describe any mentorship needs to support the development of your project (100)

My understanding is that this opportunity is geared toward curators with at least five years experience working with artists. Even though my curation experience is with Water School, I feel like I think and research like a curator in my own way, and have a lot of potential. I consider myself a new curator with six years of experience collaborating and performing with artists as an artist myself. For mentorship, my hope is to talk to someone about my process, research and experiences during the duration of the fellowship, and get feedback on how to present or share my research.

Please describe the relevance of the project to the field (100)

It seems in the last year or so, water in all its expressions has become a strong topic of interest and conversation, whether it's related to art, climate change, people fighting for clean drinking water or relationships with marine life. In 2018 I had a residency at Works on Water, a collective of artists in New York City who make and curate work about water. This is the first curatorial example I've come across connected to art related to water. I would love to add my perspective to this emerging curatorial field as a Black non-binary artist.

How would a fellowship impact your practice? (100)

This fellowship, with all that it has to offer, will feed my practice and help it develop. I've been making art about water for the last six years and in the grand scheme of things, this is only the beginning, as the seed of my practice has so far pushed its head out of the soil and grew into a happy sprout. But even as this is still the beginning, I notice that there is a possibility to not only make work about water, but also curate work about water, and this fellowship will help me enter this new direction.

REFLECTION ON MY PROPOSAL

Now that I've read my application over again, there are some things I would change about it, like how I talk about and distinguish various identities. I think I was still trying to find the words and articulation around this when I submitted my application. This is really important to me because growing up in New York City as an African-American (I learned about my Ghanaian heritage later in life), I had Black and/or melanated friends and classmates from all over the world, who always made it verbally clear to me that although we were both Black, we were different from each other.

When I went home to the projects in Brooklyn, that message stayed with me as I noticed differences between my family and my great-grandmother's home attendants who were from Haiti and Trinidad. Even years and years later when I would cross paths with brown and dark-skinned Native people from Northeastern tribes on Turtle Island, the first thing the person would tell me in some form or fashion, in less than five to eight minutes would be 1) how they were not Black or 2) that they were both Black and Native, as if to let me know they are not just Black.

So I feel hyperaware and sensitive around making sure people, who have the same skin complexion and hair as me, feel their identities are properly known and acknowledged. There's so much more I could reflect on, but I will leave it here.

Water Work examples:

I use the term "water work" to encompass all of the ways people work with water, including cultural and artistic exploration, but some of these folks may not describe what they are doing as water work.

Read Ojeya Cruz Bank's "I Dance for the Dead: The Blue and Black in the Pacific: A Eulogy for Teresia Teaiwa"

"In the Pacific and Black/African diaspora world, we dance for the dead. For the late, legendary, Black Pacific poet-scholar Teresia Teaiwa (1968–2017), I danced a eulogy in Fiji. The performance is featured in a short film I made to honor her memory. A central focus of this article is to chronicle Teaiwa’s epic influence upon Pacific Studies and her establishment of a group of women artist-scholars of both Pacific Island and African diasporic heritage mostly based in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Teaiwa emboldened us to share family stories and to embrace our Black Pacific heritages through artistic practice and research. She honored Pacific solidarity, and diversity of knowledge, and was a fierce critic of Black racism in the region. I pay homage to her".

Watch CULLUD WATTAH Excerpt 1 at The Public Theater

youtube

*if the video doesn't work, watch it here

"CULLUD WATTAH by Erika Dickerson-Despenza Directed by Candis C. Jones 2021 | Susan Smith Blackburn Prize winner Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s new Afro-surrealist play premieres at The Public about three generations of Black women living through the current water crisis in Flint, Michigan. It’s been 936 days since Flint has had clean water. Marion, a third-generation General Motors employee, is consumed by layoffs at the engine plant. When her sister, Ainee, seeks justice and restitution for lead poisoning, her plan reveals the toxic entanglements between the city and its most powerful industry, forcing their family to confront the past-present-future cost of survival. As lead seeps into their home and their bodies, corrosive memories and secrets rise among them. Will this family ever be able to filter out the truth? Directed by Lilly Award winner Candis C. Jones, CULLUD WATTAH blends form and bends time, diving deep into the poisonous choices of the outside world, the contamination within, and how we make the best choices for our families’ futures when there are no real, present options. CULLUD WATTAH comes to us from the same playwright and director duo behind the thrilling digital production of shadow/land. Video by Bardo Arts Productions"

Vanuatu Women's Water Music - Sogor (Rim Rim Siag)

youtube

*if the video doesn't work, watch it here

"This is an excerpt from the film 'Vanuatu Women's Water Music', which I made with the people of Leweton Village on Espiritu Santo Island in Vanuatu, with the support of Further Arts a Vanuatu based NGO supporting local cultures through their culture and arts. I was originally asked to produce a CD, but when I arrived the village asked if I could make a film instead, so we looked at our resources, two basic cameras, some decent sound recording gear, a team of young local creatives keen to learn and create and number one - incredible talent, songs along with stunning locations. So we went for it and spent a week filming the cultural practices and songs of the village, which I cut together back in Australia (in Alice Springs, out in the desert, what a contrast). The film has no English voice over, narration or subtitles and is all about the village, their culture and hanging out with them. This song is based on the 'Vus Ero' rhythm, and another song called Rim Rim Saig, which is a work song sung when people are working together, pulling in the fishing nets, to keep time and gain strength. Our latest project collaborates with artists across the ocean, including the Vanuatu Water Women, filming and recording on their homeland islands in nature, to raise awareness about climate change and environmental issues across Pacific and Indian oceans".

Whale Fall by mayfield brooks

vimeo

*if the video doesn't work, watch it here

An interview excerpt from:

"A Choreographer Diving Into Grief Looks to Whales"

You’ve spoken about how you like to create an imaginary space. Why is it so important?

There’s so much trying to pull at our imaginations — there’s so much information, there’s so much distraction. And to kind of quarantine myself in this space was really nice because I was feeling some despair around creative process.

In what way?

I miss being with people. So much of my work is about being with people, being with the objects, being with space, being with community. And that all shifted. I think that’s been part of this work, too: the loneliness.

Part of your idea around “Whale Fall” has to do with what you’ve referred to as decomposing the show. What does that mean?

I was in Munich working with 22 artists under the direction of Meg Stuart. And then I came back — five days later, I’m sick with Covid, and I knew it because I lost my taste and smell.

In the first two months, everything was locked down, and I just felt like my body was decomposing, but in a more anaerobic way. There was just like no air flowing.

And how did you decompose the piece?

Strip it down, strip it down, strip it down. Just work with natural light. Nothing’s hidden. At the same time, my body is falling deeper and deeper. By the end, hopefully, I’m on the ocean floor.

What has life during the pandemic been like for you?

I think more than anything else, this time has been for me a contemplative dive into what it means to just be constantly faced with death. There’s been so much Black death this year. I mean all the way back to Trayvon Martin. And to be in the middle of a pandemic where the numbers of Black people dying are the highest, and then to have this extremely traumatizing record of a literal lynching of George Floyd.

Part of what I was going through with this piece is just trying to figure out what is this? What is going on with this death?

What do you want to express?

I want to find ways to be in an awareness of how Black death is a quotidian thing. It’s happening all the time, but, also, what does it mean when the bodies pile up? Do we get to decompose this trauma? Do we get to grieve it without it being a spectacle?

How does that connect with the whales?

Maybe the whales are teaching us something about holding the toxicity and the pollution of the human problem of waste and climate change. When something is rotten to the core, how do we get inside of it and then try and work toward a whale fall?

How did you learn about a whale fall?

In September, there were almost 400 pilot whales that beached themselves off the coast of Tasmania. And then it happened again in Sri Lanka. At that point, I was so exhausted. The protests had been happening in Brooklyn right outside my door. I felt so numb. I was so moved by the story of these whales. I couldn’t really find an answer as to why they beach themselves, but I found the phenomenon of the whale fall. And the story of these whales brought me to my emotions again.

SINK/RISE by Nick Brandt

About an hour ago (today on 9/12/2023) I came across the stunning work of Nick Brandt. Although my proposal focuses on people throughout the United States and Oceania, Brandt, who is British, shot a series of photographs that focus on South Pacific Islanders impacted by rising oceans from climate change called Sink/Rise. Please view the photos and video below!

*if the video does not work, watch it here

"The local people in these photos, photographed underwater off the coast of the Fijian Islands, are representative of the many people whose homes, land and livelihood will be lost in the coming decades as the water rises. Everyone and everything was shot in-camera underwater."

Calida Rawles' Paintings

"Radiating My Sovereignty" depicts a young Black girl floating face up, trance-like, in water, the artist wanted to convey a sense of her being at home in water, reveling in her own self-awareness.

In "The Space in Which We Travel" Calida Rawles depicts two adolescent girls in white dresses who are submerged underwater, grasping each other’s hands; their bodies create a double helix, suggesting their genealogical linkage. Rawles reflects that water can be turbulent and terrifying but also enveloping and elevating: it is "duplicitous...a very dangerous element,” she says. “In order to survive in water, you have to relax. If you struggle, you sink. You take the waves as they come. I think of that as just a state of being."

In "A Dream for My Lilith" floating on ripples of cerulean and washes of deep cavernous blue, Rawles’ portraits envision black women in gowns of ivory floating in masses of unnamed water that nearly exceed the curb of the canvas. This non-place of water harbors moments of leisure and sensual delight along with spiritual relief and kinship. Water, with its historical connection to black suffering through Middle Passage and Jim Crow legislation, is also the architect of black serenity in escape and spiritual cleansing and is ever-present in Rawles’ paintings. Strokes of acrylic create textures of deep movement where figures sink and float within the canvas surface. At the same time, their gestures suggest the possibilities of peace in the face of uncertain bodies of water. Rawles works towards the allegorical potential of water and its boundless pursuits offering a new space for black healing.

"Rippling and glistening like glass, the subjects which Calida Rawles paints are beautifully submerged in the most detailed of settings. Bodies are drenched in a deep blue landscape, moving through still water as they leave a bubbly trail behind. It’s photorealism at its finest, as the African-American women and men are composed with “poetic abstraction,” Calida tells It’s Nice That.

For Calida, water is a spiritually healing element. The key theme throughout her work, she turns towards this element for its heavily loaded context – “it’s historical connotations to racial exclusion and cultural fears,” she says. There’s a certain and complicated duality about water that she’s attracted to, with it being a way of addressing identity, politics, as well as “reimagining her subjects beyond cultural tropes”. In this sense, her work is often a mirror to that which surrounds her, whereby current events, “topographic maps of cities” and accounts of racially targeted violence play key parts in the making-of her work. In other parts, however, it can be more celebratory, as she aims to depict the “resilience, strength and beauty” of African American culture". - It's Nice That

P.S. If anyone ever wants to gift me a painting or print for my birthday by Calida Rawls, I will gladly take it!

#Youtube #Vimeo

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sjjnyc · 1 year ago

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Swimming in Phoenix + The Bad Ass Swimmers Club

I enjoyed the few times I was able to go swimming in an outdoor pool in Phoenix at Ability360! I loved the heated therapy pool and got a chance to feel my body react to being submerged in water from the shallow to deep end. It's too bad I didn't continue swimming lessons when I was a kid, because then I'd be a part of the Bad Ass Swimmers Club lol (aka all the folks who swim!). I literally feel like taking swimming lessons as a child is one of the best things a parent/guardian can do for their kids; it can be a great advantage to have as the child gets older. I'm learning and accepting it's never too late to start something you really want to do, so I really look forward to swimming more in the future!

The Bad Ass Swimmers Club

I just randomly made up the concept of "The Bad Ass Swimmers Club" to be an umbrella term for all the swimmers I admire. There are folks in my personal life and orbit who inspire me (s/o to Nora Almedia who is an avid swimmer and has a dope project called "Open Waters", and Charmaine Bee who documents their time swimming in the ocean and waterways in/near Bahia, Brazil), and I just feel like swimming journeys are some of the most beautiful unfoldings to witness.

I've also been following two recent river swims:

#HudsonSwim2023 by Lewis Pugh and team!

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"On August 13 2023, Lewis Pugh began his 315-mile (507-km) swim down the Hudson River, from its source to its end at New York City. He is doing this to highlight the critical role rivers play in a habitable planet.

Lewis will explore the interconnectedness of rivers and oceans, and stress the urgent need to restore, protect and respect them. “If we want healthy oceans we also need healthy rivers — it’s that simple.”

The end of the swim will coincide with the UN General Assembly Week, Climate Week NYC 2023, and the UN Secretary General’s Climate Ambition Summit".

Agbetsi Living Waters Swim by Yvette Tetteh and team!

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"Imagine a future where the beach is clean and the waters clear. A future where fishing nets catch fish, and not trash. A future without discarded clothes washing up along the banks of our rivers, burning on our roadsides, or towering over the homes of thousands of people at the place once regarded as a sacred lagoon. A future where the Korle Lagoon is swimmable…

With the stage set by decades of Waste Colonialism and centuries of extractive and exploitative global trade, this future may seem impossible, but it is the future we are working toward. It is the future we must work toward, breaking down the impossible into its constituent parts, one stroke at a time.

We are excited to launch the Agbetsi Living Water Swim, a month-long exploration of the Volta River System that gives life to millions of people in Ghana and throughout West Africa".

Yvette Tetteh actually joined Lewis Pugh for a leg of the Hudson Swim journey on September 12, 2023!

#REPOST from @lewispughfdn "Wonderful to have our #RiverWarrior @yvette_tetteh join @lewis.pugh on the #HudsonSwim2023 yesterday. Yvette recently swam the entire length of the Volta River in Ghana to raise awareness of the impact synthetic microfibers have on river ecosystems and communities 👏🏊‍♂️ #RiversAreLife"

Hello you swimmers out there! You inspire me! Here's a message for you!

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#Youtube

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sjjnyc · 1 year ago

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dream workshop with charmaine bee

I'm very happy that I had a chance to take a dream workshop facilitated by charmaine bee; a dream tender, herbalist, swimmer and host of the Dream Support Hotline. Below, I share about how Lavender came into my life (I choose Lavender to work with during the workshop), my dreams related to death and my experiences strengthening a practice of documenting my dreams.

How did I meet Lavender?

In 2018 I met performance artist mayfield brooks and since that time, I have attended several of their performances, movement workshops and even got to participate in a dance film they created in 2021 called "Whale Fall". One time I went to one of their Improvising While Black workshops at 122CC - Ninth Street Studio via Movement Research where we drank Lavender tea. I had never had Lavender tea before and remember it being really fragrant, oily and extremely relaxing. It must have left an impression on me because ever since then, I've day-dreamed about working with Lavender off and on, eventually getting some at my go-to herb store in Brooklyn. Years later (i.e. this year actually - 2023), I would see a jar of Lavender Honey during my Valentine's Day trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and I knew I just had to have it! And when I didn't have Lavender in my life, this plant still found a way to me, particularly as an herbal hand salve from my friend and herbalist, Katie Calcaterra of Big Love Botanicals. I can see why mayfield worked with Lavender as a performing artist because it's so calming, and for some reason I want to connect this plant to my dreamtime. I drink Lavender tea with Milky Oats sometimes while I make this website. Even though I've always known about Lavender, I didn't really start paying attention to the plant until the Improvising While Black movement workshop with mayfield.

Tending to our dreams: making time to acknowledge them

I really enjoyed charmaine's workshop; it gave me a lot to think about, particularly how I record my dreams. We talked a lot about the ways we can document our dreams whether by journaling or remembering them using a voice recorder app on our phones. I've mostly recorded my dreams with a voice app, but I do want to explore writing my dreams down. I'm really inspired when I learn about other people's dream journals; for example, "MISA TSURUTA EXPLORES THE INFLUENCE OF THE CULTURE ON DREAMS" is an interview by Charmaine Li in a dope dream focused online magazine called ONEIRIC.SPACE. Li talks about a Buddhist priest who kept dream journals for a large part of this life that are still available today. Read an excerpt from the interview below:

I wanted to ask you about one of the prominent dreamers in Japanese history named Myōe (1173-1232) that you’ve spoken about at the IASD conference. Could you introduce us to him?

"Myōe was a Buddhist priest who lived in the twelfth century during the transition from the Heian period to the Kamakura period. During this time in Japanese society, the power shifted from the aristocrats to the warriors—so the samurais. As a child, Myōe lost his parents and was then sent to live in a temple. He wanted to be a Buddhist monk early on and went on to study the Kegon sect of Buddhism, which he wanted to rejuvenate and preserve. He was very critical of his Buddhist peers at the time and was so devoted to his practice that in one instance he cut off his ear to prove it. Later on, Myōe founded and led the Kōzan-ji Temple in the mountains of Toganoo, near Kyoto. He’s very well-known for keeping dream journals from the age of 19 to 58—and they still exist today. They’re actually kept in a few different places around Kyoto. It’s quite amazing that we still have access to these dreams records from the twelfth century".

Months later I would read an Instagram post by Queens-based poet Sherese Francis about their research on Benjamin Banneker's dream journal. Shout out to Sherese because learning about this opened up my dream explorations even more! I did a brief google search on Banneker's dream journal and Google brought me to a book called "The Scribes of Sleep: Insights from the Most Important Dream Journals in History" which was recently published June 22, 2023! And honestly, this is what I needed to find because I feel like I want to create a robust practice of recording my dreams, but I haven't taken it seriously. Until now.

Documenting our dreams with the possibility that they could be shared publicly one day could be an interesting way to continue communicating with and even inspiring others when we are long gone. We could also view this as ancestor work in the form of left-behind dream writings and other embodiments. Imagine a dream journal (day and night-time dreams) as an extension of your legacy as well. In another vein, it's totally fine to record our dreams only for ourselves, and even our (chosen) families, and not offer them to the public. There's a variety of ways to connect to and share our dreams.

Sharing a few of my dreams on the internet

These dreams (and a few more) will only be available to listen to until the end of October. Thank you for taking time to look at my website and listen to my dreams.

Dream Transcript:

I had this dream that I was, I could choose between going to this really nice trailer or this home. But I just remember choosing a home, and then changing my mind and said oh I have to tell grandma, oh I was in this trailer. I can't remember it at all, but I just remember some kid that I knew taking me to their, taking me to a house but it was a trailer, I don't know. And we went upstairs and there was this table filled with all these gorgeous herbal medicines. I just remember there was this lotion, this lotion with . . . it had Calendula and Rose in it. This lady also said there was molasses. There were just these beautiful medicines to dig through. She asked me . . . I just remember looking out and seeing this beautiful expansive sky, and her saying, "do you want to go home?". I remember thinking this is so different than being in New York, being in the city. There was so much more to that dream. But the thing that really stuck with me was . . . those gorgeous medicines.

*dreams are recorded right after I wake up

Dream Transcript:

Oh, see I didn't even record. I just said in my last dream that I was dreaming a lot, but I remember . . . walking past this tiger that was like, split open, and its body had been deteriorating in a pool of water. And it's eyes were wide open and there was someone else dead next to him. Like a Black woman, and I don't know who it was, but I think I was looking for her. I remember thinking water is connected to wealth and also violence. There was a lot going on in this dream, like, I was in this dark house and I grabbed some fruit, but it was so dark and . . . I don't know, it was like I was in different worlds . . . I don't know if I'm dealing with ghosts, I don't know. Okay, now I'm going to look up what a dead tiger means, because tigers have always represented God to me, so . . . let's go see what this means.

*dreams are recorded right after I wake up

PROMPT: Record your dreams (I especially encourage using the voice app on your phone) and listen to them in six months with some snacks! I personally like eating fruit, nuts, jerky, cashew yogurt ect when I listen to my dreams!

Lighting Candels: Dreams about death

**Trigger Warning: I talk about death**

I have had a lot of dreams about death; whether I am actively passing away myself, or I have died already and observe a group of people conducting my funeral rites, to dreaming of ghosts, which are different than the dead people I dream about, who some if not all know they are dead, to dreaming of my great-grandmother's voice and visiting her as she asks me "what am I doing here?". It wouldn't be the first-time I find myself with people who have passed away in my dreams, and they ask me in one way or another what I'm doing there. Me, I'm like - what am I doing where? Where am I?

My reaction to these dreams at first was like . . . Okay . . . lol . . . it was odd but I never thought too deeply about them. Then I started having more and more dreams related to death, and then I started paying attention. I noticed I wasn't scared in any of these dreams (and there's more details about them that I'm not sharing here), and it got me thinking about how death and ghosts in particular are portrayed in film. More on this later.

These dreams have stayed with me (and I don't usually remember my dreams, but as I always say, when I remember my dreams it's because I'm supposed to and/or something is being communicated to me), and I've tried to make sense of them, but I don't have any answers I'm completely sure of. I do know that the more I have acknowledged these dreams, the more they come to me. I feel like acknowledging dreams and the dream world in general is telling this world "I am open to you".

Back to the portrayal of ghosts - kids movies can truly be healing. Check out the section of this website where I talk about my favorite films and TV shows I watched during my time in Arizona, and how #adulting is not always what it's cracked up to be. Anyway, hang tight with me, I know this is a lot of words, but I really want to share this.

Last Fall I watched 28 Days Haunted; a reality tv show that sends paranormal investigators and psychic-mediums to some of the most haunted houses in the United States. I personally didn't like this show at all because there was this overwhelming focus on evil, fear and trauma. If I could write Netflix, I'd tell them to take the show off their streaming service and cancel it. Even though I know the participants signed up for the experience, I can't imagine what they were going through.

After watching that show I had to cleanse my aura and remember there are other portrayals of death and ghosts, like "Coco" (2017 -video clip shown below), "Casper" (1995), "Haunted Mansion" (2003), "Ghost" (1990) and even "Beetlejuice" (1988) and "Pirates of the Caribbean" (2003). A bit of fright like the Sixth Sense (1999) is okay (not opposed to snuggling up with friends/bae and watching a scary movie), as long as I know there are other ghost stories out there and find balance around different representations. Death, funeral rites, ghosts ect shown through magical realism, fantasy, comedy and more is cool. It's worth it to contemplate how all these things are being served to you.

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Well, I've written so much and think I will end here: the more I think about death and all that it is connected to, for example, the soul, how different families and cultures honor and remember a person's life, grief, dreams, the ancestral realm, mediums, God, the unknown and more, it feels like a really rich and tender topic to explore.

#dreams #dream journal #lavender #herbalism

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sjjnyc · 1 year ago

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Root healing in the desert

It really is true . . . the medicine will find you.

A couple of months after I arrived in Gilbert, Arizona I started getting regular pelvic physical therapy. Meanwhile, there was this beautiful plant across the street in the neighbor's front yard, and I later learned it was an Ocotillo plant. I fell in love immediately. Sadly, the shrub was removed, and I felt a strange loss. The following year I would notice another Ocotillo plant down the block and around the corner. It was as I remembered; glorious.

At some point I visited an apothecary in Tempe and left with some medicinal goodies, and one happened to be an Ocotillo tincture. When I looked the plant up on my phone in the shop, low and behold I learned that Ocotillo supports moving stagnant energy in the pelvis. I laughed because it really is true, the medicine will find you. Time and time again, I am reminded of the information we can gather about our health from noticing what plants, herbs and foods we are attracted to and find in the kitchen and pantry.

Ocotillo tincture by Rainbow Bliss Botanicals in Tempe, Arizona

Here are some resources to learn more about the medicine of Ocotillo:

Ocotillo Medicine: The Mover and Shaker

Ocotillo -- Kiva Rosethorn

Ocotillo - wonder botanica

Ocotillo Elixir by La Abeja Herbs

Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens): Ecstatically Grounded and Passionately Responsive- A Desert Ally for Stagnancy, Flow and Connection with Life Force

Tending to my reproductive/pelvic health is a part of my ongoing water work

I was always interested in reproductive health; I can't pin-point the exact time I started diving more into it, but I think my journey started in my early 20s when I learned about the work of Queen Afua. I can't remember! Then I found myself reading websites and books about menstruation and birth (particularly birth imprints), and later on I took two workshops focused on pelvic health and pleasure respectively. I even thought about being a doula and took a post-partum doula training in Harlem, but being a doula wasn't for me at that time because I was still working through mother wounds.

I took a break from my studies, and then returned a couple of years ago, finding people to learn from through social media who focus on reproductive and pelvic health, the nervous system and somatics, birth, herbalism for the female reproductive system, menstruation awareness and literacy, sensuality, pleasure and family constellations work. I documented this in 2020 on my other IG account @rootsandrainbowbodies.

At some point when I first returned to these interests, I came across the work of Marissa Correia and learned so much from her; it was truly a special time. Among several beautiful gifts, I took her ENCOMPASS course during the winter of 2019 when I lived directly by the Hudson River in Troy, New York. It was really magical; I wish I could go back to those moments of joining class at night with the cool air, snow falling and the winter river running close by.

Marissa calls the pelvis the root, and ever since then, I've been referring to my pelvis as a root. She was the first person I learned from about how the nervous system is foundational to our menstrual cycles, how I can understand my cycle through seasons, and not override my need for rest in a go-go-go world. As I've continued doing my pelvic exercises at home after my physical therapy, I've been making connections between what I experience during my exercises and what I learned and experienced during her classes. You can learn more about her work and Womb School, of which she is a co-founder, alongside Kris González and Dr. Jeevan Singh.

Never in a million years did I think another layer of my root consciousness and healing would take place in the desert, and that a desert plant like that of mystical Ocotillo would support me. Two plants have clearly pointed out where in my pelvic bowl needs attention and healing: Cannabis and Ocotillo; they both have "said" the same thing in my body. Between going to my physical therapy appointments (I'm so grateful I had health insurance and a doctor who was patient and encouraging), doing at home exercises ( I try to stay consistent), working with Ocotillo and learning from various practioners and wayshowers like Lisa Hendrickson-Jack, Kimberly Ann Johnson and Lizzy Jeff (among others!), I feel like I am making a lot of progress.

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