(blood memories bout where we come from to dis’ days we live in and what is destined with the paths we’re on), in the spaces between honouring our ancestors, our children, and the future generations.
“It is time to speak your Truth. Create your community, be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader. This could be a good time! ~
“There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold onto the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly. Know the river has its own destination. ~
The Elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open and our heads above water. And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate.”
[part of] Hopi elder’s prayer
…..these are a few of my fav poems for grey days with mounds of homework and metamorphosis, that call out to be pegged blue, red en yellow. Dis are some of the ones I hold close to my heart…..
Moon marked and touched by sun
My magic is unwritten
But when the sea turns back
It will leave my shape behind
I seek no favour/untouched by blood/unrelenting as the curse of love
Permanent as my errors/or my pride
I do not mix/love with pity/nor hate with scorn
En if you would know me/look into the entrails of Uranus
Where the restless ocean pound
i do not dwell/within my birth nor my divinities/who am ageless and half grown
and still seeking/my sistas/witches in dahomey/wear me inside their coiled cloths
as our mother did/mourning.
i have been womban/for a long time/beware my smile
i am treacherous with old magic/and the noons new fury
with all your wide futures
promised
i yam
womban
and not white.
[between the lines: we explore indigenus myths en ancestor worship in diasporic tongues, in the spaces between a.k.a another place not here, like]
The hadithi we’re crafting in our villages are blood.bone.memories of our origins en transplanted cultures, being explored in the ‘best’ city of the world to live in ‘like’ global villages, (i heart)Tdot….The big arts festivals of the year, manifesto, TIFF & Word! Sound! Powah! may be fresh dun, we already got our fall/winter homework lined up, with a balanced diet of soul food: ‘continental’ en narrative docs,
‘drama’tic periods, more along the lines of….
our.own.stories
Revolushunary music…..
en wishlists of visions of bredrin and dadas building coalitions: human positive, moyo wa africa, colourspill & deviant productions, docuvixen films, elimu sanifu, kwari village, the people project, colour me dragg, lesblues, schools without borders, weapon of the revolution, Yoruba house project, afrakenya, GEAP, Farug, TITs & anitafrika dub theatre
[imagine if jus to start, these 18 (en then as many mo) groups shared mo resources and supported implementing each other’s programs….how many mo ghetto babies would be birthed en grow to thrive in de grassroots?…..dis journey we’re on in the q_t werd is exploring jus’ that, en all the spaces between, those fertile grounds where we give en receive love, where we seek guidance en manifest our right/full destinies]
These are some of the stories of the q_t werd: we’re retelling jus’ 5 of these, from Hamilton, Jo’burg, Kampala, Nairobi, back to Tdot: the crux of dis’ (re)organising that we documenting, growing in sacredness en urgency….
where we go so much tings to do en say n so lil’ time, where with the way tings been metamorphosing, we got no choice but to continue to live in truth, give en receive all the love that abounds, and do the best we can with what we got to fulfill our dreams.
Because the question remains, if we don’t, then who will?
Stay chuned…..kesho bado, e ni for elimu sanifu: pamoja tutafika!
Recently a ‘rafiki’ (kiswahili for friend) of ours, offered critical feedback on the storyboard of dis’ documentary feature en the (wish-list of a) series, it came in the form of a rhetorical question, in the wake of goodbyes en hellos, masking many fears en hopes en deep scars, grasping at the heart of the matter…
[blogger’s note: ‘us’ (our.stories.n.people) in the q_t werd stands in for the non/fictional, biodramamythical collective of artists, artivists and village (organizer)s aka. ‘bredrin and dadas in solidarity’]
bigger point is, dis dada said ”you know what your doc doesn’t have? an antagonist……..”
(leading us to the latest ‘episode’ in this quest of building solidarity en salaam [Arabic en kiswahili for peace], but first a lil’ background…..truthIs, we’ve been seeding, planting and sharing our ideas and the storyboard of the q_t werd in our villages since way before the inception of this blog, or the ‘other’ one/s – where behind the mask/‘we’ all get nekkyd)
Our roster of bio/mytho/biographies en interviews feature only people we love, respekt and admire, and reads like we’re totally in love with so so many of dem, n we unashamedly are;
those real talks that make the q_t werd are as fresh as the legends of jus dis week in review….from the highs of ‘our’ colour me dragg AND cassie walker winning $5,000 @ manifesto, to ‘our’ community raising the roof @ granny boots for kim & nat, doing it revolushunary grassroots style…..
real talks as conflicted as the lows of last night with the drama n fuckery that defined the was the ‘powers that be’ hosting the AGM meeting for ‘our’ Pride Toronto
[in the spaces between, we continue to chart the journey in dub…..where a is for anitafrika dub theatre, b is for [the vision of] bredrin and dadas in solidarity, c is for colour me dragg and colour spill productions, all the way to p is for the people project andwhere m is for the myths that we’re relearning , taught by our kinda legends, in these hadithi of the q_t werd]
…………As women, we have been taught either to ignore our differences, or to view them as causes for separation and suspicion rather than as forces for change. Without community there is no liberation, only the most vulnerable and temporary armistice between an individual and her oppression. But community must not mean a shedding of our differences, nor the pathetic pretense that these differences do not exist.”
[excerpt from: The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's Houseby Audre LordeFrom Sister Outsider, The Crossing Press Feminist Series (1984)]
These are the stories that make the q_t werd, as real as our children and lovers, institutionalised scandals, mashups and makeups, evolving bashes and (not-so) complicated backlash to ‘our’ community organising and village rebuilding, and all the lessons we’re relearning in our journeys.
the bigger point of this post is…… ‘that’ question,
the answer is….we have plenty antagonists, plenty of enemies BUT…… we choose to focus dis quest of documenting our healing en collective recovery, of rebuilding salaam and solidarity, on people we love
and even then, still……d is for drama is the crux of the q_t werd…
because the truth is….. we’re still working thru our shit, and even if we were to start jus with people we know en love, we would have more than nuff stories of conflict transformation and wishful fantasies for seven seasons.
The q_t werd is as simple as ABC en D [toZ] en as mysterious as the riddle of the sphinx…..
Dis’ doc (in the works of becoming a series) is the love child of revolushunary villages
(rebuilding en dialoguing) in Hamilton, Tdot, Nairobi, Joburg & Kampala.
Dis’ is our nekkyd truth, a.k.a real talks, about these visions we have on our quest of re-educating not only ourselves, but others, in the practice of freedom n’ liberation: where every moon is afrikan hirstory month, every day i(nvolve)s building solidarity within our diversity n peacemaking
[In the spaces between: we develop as a collective with all the means we have, our biomythdramas, inspired by the artists who’ve studied and performed (with the core principles being developed by d’bi young of) anitafrika! dub theatre, nourished by our ancestral memories, nurtured with the legacies of indigenUS en pan-afrikan warriors]
Dis’ is us, no apologies or excuses, jus’ as is, on a journey of healing(selves) en re/claiming our destinies.
So like we’ve blogged en said before, dis’ documentary/series is a work in progress: like we have a summer’s worth of footage, yet we’re still developing the storyboard, still deciding (the rest of) our core characters from the 32 (and then some) stories we collected, still trying to get another camera, laptop and editing software, funding, jus’ to start….the bigger point is we hustling to manifest our dreams of a video project and (going) back-to afrika movement/s
Kesho (kutwa) on the Q/t werd, F n’ G en people we’re learning from, who’re educating others in the practice of freedom and reclaiming indigenous afrikan knowledge systems.
[B is forbredrin en dadas in solidarity: our (vision) quest is to implement queer/trans youth arts collective/programs & circles for healing and self recovery in East & South Afrika in collaboration with anitafrika! dub theatre: an intersection of radical creativity, activity, and thought, human positive and moyo wa afrika: a coalition of Afrikans on the continent and in the diaspora who are committed to the reclamation of Indigenous Afrikan spiritualities, knowledge systems, economic praxis, and resources as the only viable means of addressing the colonially-induced dis-ease and dysfunction plaguing our peoples….
Lakini kwanza….]
A is foranitafrika! dub theatre: founded by artistic director d’bi.young in spring 2008 under the mentorship of visionary dub artist ahdri zhina mandiela, adt is a radical arts initiative rooted in the orplusi principles of storytelling, being developed by d’bi.young.
The 7 living/en/working principles are
language, orality,
political context (or protext),
rhythm, urgency, sacredness, and integrity:
fundamental tools in the (re)emerging genre of bio-myth-solo-performance storytelling or ‘dubbin solo’,
according to artistic director d’bi.young.
[en between the lines: the Q_t werd is a documentary series/work in progress, charting the evolution of these principles en reclaiming ancestral legacies……]
Through the intersection of these principles, the theatre seeks to explore and expand the relationship between the storyteller, their village(s), and transformation.
herstory
adt! is inspired by the seminal work of dubpoetry visionaries anita stewart and ahdri zhina mandiela. trained during the early to mid eighties at the jamaica school of drama (now the edna manley college of visual and performing arts), anita stewart wrote her thesis dubbin theatre: dub poetry as a theatre form on the progressive movement of dubpoetry into a theatrical realm which radically dramatized both the socio-economic tribulations of the jamaican people, as well as their potential for rebellion against their oppressors.
in her unpublished manuscript stewart identifies four major elements of the then emerging artform of dubpoetry — music, language, politics and performance — as bridges between the personal and the political and vice versa. stewart’s early documentation and analysis of dubpoetry as a working people’s socio-political movement, provide the primary lens through which adt! focuses.
in the late eighties early nineties, ahdri zhina mandiela coined and further developed the term dub theatre in reference to her own evolving work as a dub aatist. in the prelude to her dark diaspora… in dub: a dub theatre piece she defines dubtheatre as dramatized stage presentation comprised of varying performance component, including an indispensable/uniquely tailored dance language threading thru oral/choral work proliferating with endemic musical elements.
d’bi.young is a second generation dubpoet who learnt the artform from her her mother anita stewart and her mentor ahdri zhina mandiela. young is building on the foundational work of stewart and mandiela by developing dubpoetry/dubtheatre theory and practice through anitafrika! dub theatre: a launch pad of artistic training that locates itself within art for social change.
En A is for the legacies ofaudre lorde, that’s wassup!
Dream/songs from the moon of Beulah land I-V
I
How much love can I pour into you I said
Before it runs out of you
Like undigested spinach
Or shall i stuff you
Like a ritual goose
With whatever you think
You want of me
And for whose killing
Shall I grow you up
To leave me
To mourn
In the broken potsherds
Upon my doorstep
In silent tears of the empty morning?
But I’m not going anywhere you said
Why is there always
Another question
Beyond the last question
Answered
Out of your mouth
Another storm?
It’s happening
I said
II
Whenever I look for you the wind
Howls with danger
Beware the tree arms scream
What you are seeking
Will find you
In the night
In the fist of your dreaming
And in my mouth
The words became sabers
Cutting my boundaries
To ribbons
Of merciless light
IV.
You say I yam
Sound as a drum
But that’s very hard to be
As you covers your ears with academic parchment
Be careful
You might rip the cover
With your sharp nails
And then I will not sound at all.
To put us another way
What I come wrapped in
Should be familiar to you
As hate is
What I come wrapped in
Is close to you
As love is
Close
To death
Or your lying tongue
Surveying the countries of our mouths.
If I were drum
You would beat me
Listening for the echo
Of your own touch
Not seeking
The voice of the spirit
Inside the drum
Only the spreading out shape
Of your own hand on my skin
Cover.
If I ever really sounded
I would rupture your eardrums
Or your heart.
V.
Learning to say goodbye
Is finding a new tomorrow
On some cooler planet
Barren and unfamiliar
And guiltless.
It costs the journey
To learn
Letting go
Of the burn-out rockets
To learn how
To light up space
With the quick fiya of refusal
Then drift gently down
To the dead surface of the moon.
Kesho……The (A, B, en C’s Of the) Q_t werd in dub video
Molisa wa NyaKale 