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Shabazz Palaces: Black Up after watching Shabazz Palace’s...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:12:00 -0400

Shabazz Palaces: Black Up

after watching Shabazz Palace’s new video, i was moved to reflect on their work and the radical sentiments infused with the elements of nature, fantasy, and magic within the realistic and familiar settings we live, breathe, create, break, bend, heal, and be within on a daily basis. that thought process led me back to notions held about Octavia E. Butler, The Black Constellation’s ode(s) to her, and how her work may be of even more resonance now than when they were originally published. the power of art to transcend linear/spatial limitations of the time and place it was originally crafted is a large part of why creation is so integral. we need art—art manifested as honest reflections of the human condition with the intent to incite spiritual, psychological, and social change.

despite all that’s currently happening in music—Hip-Hop, specifically—Shabazz Palaces is doing something that genuinely interests, inspires, and moves me to delve deeper within myself and my artistry to see what dwells beneath my own layers of being.

their new video for “An Echo from the Hosts that Profess Infinitum” can be viewed here.

are you into witchcraft or do you worship the devil?

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 05:08:00 -0400

are you implying that one who is into witchcraft must worship an entity called “devil?” don’t do that.

i am into divine love and healing and magic and connection and creation and nature and utilizing the gifts i was blessed with to hold down the grid of universal consciousness. if that is what you mean by witchcraft then yes, yes i am. fervently and without question.

osobigbear: to all those white people who thought thug life...

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 23:37:42 -0400

osobigbear:

to all those white people who thought thug life wasn’t an actual movement

✨ ~ ✨

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 13:46:00 -0400

✨ ~ ✨

"Why these sisters struck me as the most dangerous of artists was because of the work of, say,..."

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 21:46:56 -0400

“Why these sisters struck me as the most dangerous of artists was because of the work of, say, Morrison, or Octavia Butler, we are shown the awful radiant truth of how profoundly constituted we are of our oppressions. Or said differently: how indissolubly our identities are bound to the regimes that imprison us. These sisters not only describe the grim labrynth of power that we are in as neocolonial subjects, but they also point out that we play both Theseus and the Minotaur in this nightmare drama. Most importantly these sisters offered strategies of hope, spinning the threads that will make escape from this labrynth possible. It wasn’t an easy thread to seize-this movement towards liberation required the kind of internal bearing witness of our own role in the social hell of our world that most people would rather not engage in. It was a tough praxis, but a potentially earthshaking one too. Because rather than strike at this issue or that issue, this internal bearing of witness raised the possibility of denying our oppressive regimes the true source of their powers-which is, of course, our consent, our participation. This kind of praxis doesn’t attack the head of the beast, at the beast’s heart, which we nurture and keep safe in our own.”

- Junot Diaz, When asked “What do you think was the most important advance that women of color made on work of [those] earlier male thinkers?”The Search for Decolonial Love Part 1 (via browngirlinterrupted)

(Sparkles)…Recollections of the Wraith: The Black...

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 21:27:00 -0400

(Sparkles)…Recollections of the Wraith: The Black Constellation

since it’s initial release to the interweb, i’ve revisited this short repeatedly for its sheer brilliance and magical simplicity—an honest reflection of the work of Miss Octavia Butler, herself. this morning i received “Parable of the Sower” today and about an hour ago i finished “Kindred.” i’ve been completely mystified with the storytelling of Octavia B. upon reading “Wild Seed,” my first exposure to her work, some time ago and recent experiences of my own—walking down streets parallel to a freeway in northern california, the roses crawling up along the side of a building, the beating of the sun on my face, hands aching from the weight of over-filled bags, the way he and i must have looked carrying them (young, exhausted, determined, with somewhere to go). i watched him trudge along about nine feet in front of me, telling him something about how the moment, the visuals gave me an idea for a film. maybe a short one, perhaps a feature length one. something about a modern day, Black version of Bonnie and Clyde. but no, no, that’s overdone…okay, maybe something about a young couple on the run in another country (Mexico, i’d said) from the government. i’d babbled on a little more about themes concerning futuristic dystopias, the paradoxical nature(s) of existence, the “isness” of being, decolonization, overthrowing the Amerikan government, rebellion, and revolution whilst playing out scenes of a mob of young people, fire in their eyes, passion in their spirits, surrounding a fire—the flames flickering across their pupils—reviewing the logistics of months of planning with the likes of Ab-Soul’s “Terrorist Threats” as the background music. a mob of young people of color about to fuck shit up, essentially, the young couple standing in the center of the energetic sphere. for some reason or another, i cannot shake the images of motorcycle vests, leather, facial piercings, tattooed arms, black, purple lipstick, combat boots, timbs, hoodies, and other aesthetics i find appealing that i subconsciously associate with mobs and their intent to handle things.

i’ve not the slightest idea what those little bit of somethings may eventually manifest themselves into, the vision merely triggered the young speculative fiction fanatic in me who used to write sagas about an extraterrestrial alter-ego named “KMX” as her “about me” on myspace when she was thirteen. Octavia Butler began writing when she was twelve, upon watching a B sci-fi film and knowing she could write something better. it is interesting, the things that incite us to immerse ourselves within our passions. the instances that remind us that they are always there. the mystic kind of passion that takes up permanent home in you and vows to never let you rest another day of your life.

it is there and ever-present in the inspiring, electrifying, immortal kind of way.

there is magic oozing from my being, awaiting the moments of cultivation in which they will manifest themselves in whichever ways the source has orchestrated.

"Science fiction isn’t just thinking about the world out there. It’s also thinking about how that..."

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 16:14:46 -0400

““Science fiction isn’t just thinking about the world out there. It’s also thinking about how that world might be—a particularly important exercise for those who are oppressed, because if they’re going to change the world we live in, they—and all of us—have to be able to think about a world that works differently.””

- Samuel R. Delany (via theparisreview)

"stay out the ancestor’s work, it does not involve you."

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 14:28:00 -0400

“stay out the ancestor’s work, it does not involve you.”

- nayyirah waheed

“what are you?” he asked. the way he pinched the skin of his forearm resembled the...

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 13:45:48 -0400

“what are you?” he asked.

the way he pinched the skin of his forearm resembled the dance of divine fingertips piecing together lifetimes.

“what are you?” she replied.

smile stretched across face. heart beating the powerful melody of ancestral worship rituals…

“because humans are not created like this.”

it is one thing to have tasted love, another thing entirely to...

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 21:20:00 -0400

it is one thing to have tasted love, another thing entirely to be in the presence of divinity in its purest—to have that space magnify your vision and your experience of what it means to be “here,” the now, and our perceived ever afters. the growth, healing, and liberation manifested between my beloved and i consistently multiplies and spreads itself throughout the other spaces of purity i find solace in. daily, i give thanks for him, his spirit, his very being and the ways it has impacted me on my journey and influenced my evolution.

love of a lifetime.

beloved surprised me with a trip to the garden. ✨

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 01:22:46 -0400

beloved surprised me with a trip to the garden. ✨

habibi. ✨

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 19:40:27 -0400

habibi. ✨

Photo

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 19:39:57 -0400

dontwantoleave.

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 19:39:45 -0400

dontwantoleave.

thebodynarratives: “If I didn’t define myself for myself, I...

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 10:11:26 -0400

thebodynarratives:

“If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive.” ― Audre Lorde

Aesthetics continues to be an essential basis by which we are judged, looked at, and ultimately defined as women. This space is an attempt to curate and document all the ways in which as Women of Colour we navigate, understand and own the embodiment of our narratives and experiences. At the heart of this journey, we seek to uncover how our bodies belong to ourselves.

In collecting a diverse range of women of colour’s voices (across race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, geographic location, able-bodiedness and gender queer identities) and mediums, we hope to create a restorative body of work spiritually, emotionally, physically, and intellectually that heals.

Using articles, interviews, essays, love notes, poetry, prose, art, photography, film, and discussion both online and offline we attempt to map these journeys.

Follow us! Support us! Get in touch if you would like to get more involved or have something you’d like to share/contribute either by the Submission or Ask box or email us: thebodynarratives@gmail.com

P.S. check out Jay Katelansky’s work she’s contributed to make our banner and part of our logo - doesn’t that get you excited?

Photo

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 09:11:49 -0400

✨

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 09:11:41 -0400

✨

the calla lily that grew from concrete.

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 09:11:00 -0400

the calla lily that grew from concrete.

i’ve been waiting for the words to come into being on their own… the dream i had that...

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 08:57:00 -0400

i’ve been waiting for the words to come into being on their own…

the dream i had that affirmed his existence, how this time last year i was riding the high of our blossoming friendship, i have known oceans before—none this deep, this vast, his peace, my soul recognizing long before i did / pulling from this vessel / out-of-body-attraction, crushin’ lowkey, the questions: how do two beings go about these things with all of this riverdesertforestoceancountry in between? the answer: they must transcend it. what used to be laments about the not having the presence to come home became the understanding that there are spaces so sacred that not even the physical can quite reach. however, i’d still very much like to lick his pretty little eyelids when i feel so inclined.

when 115 days became 15 hours.

when 3000 becomes “here.”

when i made the transition from the green-eyed bag lady to orange moon.

there is a beautiful honey-skinned brotha awaiting my arrival on his edge of the continent and my God, how good it is.

flowagorl.

Thu, 30 May 2013 22:30:00 -0400

flowagorl.