SOSO ADAE, L3C - Fiction Matters

07/14/2024

Poems, songs, and shouts around the upcoming title, Buibui (The Spider), a collection of short stories about "all of the things we cannot tell."

Artist note: I am sequencing these poems, songs, and shouts in a style that I call African dramatic form (ADF), which understands story as ritual space and intentional movement that is generally all of informative, entertaining, and transformative. 

Central to ADF design is the ritual movement through a problem to its solution and afterlife (this is, defining the problem, solving the problem, and then developing the story beyond that solution). 

These shouts will begin among what are authentically some of the heaviest places of the heart. I suppose we shall see how they arrive, individually and together.

07/14/2024

Black Aesthetic (Cont.)*

To fully "see" poetry and other art from this time (The Black Arts Movement), you must appreciate how revolutionary it was to call oneself "Black" because Black was ugly, criminal, and symbolic of what is unnatural and "other."

To be "Black and Beautiful' and "Black and Proud" were juxtapositions.

When art is using "Black" identity, calling on "Black" people, or using African imagery in a way intended to elevate and normalize the aesthetic, it is an invocation to self-determination—And it must have worked, to some extent, since to be Black was for my generation, nearly synonymous with African-American (now no longer hyphenated) and is even more casually used today.

In understanding this art we absolutely mustt, must remember that to call oneself "Black" was heretical in the time of BAM.

It is also important to note that the BAM Aesthetic was a call to Black people globally in much the way that The New Negro Movement was multi-linguistic so that Negroes worldwide could understand the message and apply it to their unique circumstances under the universal identifier "Black."

I have mentioned "invocation" —What other Black aesthetic devices can you identify in James Brown's popular anthem, "Say It Loud"? (Hint: see my previous reel if needed)

Can you hear his use of "call-and-response"?

*This is a reflection on my experience and the material presented in the BAM & Black aesthetics seminar taught by Marguerite Harrold via The photo is relevant to SOSOADAE and terms of African dramatic form.

07/14/2024

I took a refreshing seminar on Black aesthetics and the BAM (Black Arts Movement) this morning with Marguerite Harrold via

Poets, academics, and those new to creative writing were in attendance. 

It was a nice return to fundamentals as I return to SOSOADAE and African dramatic form. 

Here are some poetic forms & devices of the Black Aesthetic as presented:

-Personification
-Call and response 
-Jazz
-Syncopation 
-Rhyme
-Repetition
-Litany
-Invocation 
-Prayers 
-Battle cries 

Look for how YOU are using these devices in your creative writing. 

-SOSOADAE 

12/20/2023

🥳👏❄️🎂🧁🍨🎈🎁🎉

09/18/2022

09/18/2022

07/11/2021

The other day, I just happened to be dressed as I was when the Border Patrol pulled me over, so thought I would revisit the scene and take a photo.

At least two pickups and four officers because I was “a woman” driving Old Hwy 80 “alone at night” and “far from home” (32 miles, which is close to home in Phoenix).

Of course, the irony of me being accused of smuggling people out of Gila Bend is that Gila Bend has recently become a “dumping ground” for the US Border Patrol. They’ve made a habit of fulfilling their charge to relieve overcrowded detention centers by simply dropping and leaving processed migrants in the town square of “more interior” border towns, such as Gila Bend, without resources; so it’s more likely that I would have been shuttling documented asylum seekers awaiting trial to shelters in Phoenix or Tucson than smuggling undocumented people in a tiny Prius hatch.

So, in addition to not making illegal stops, the CBP should mind the “no-dumping” signs.

07/11/2021

Which color scheme should I use for this petition?

…….

For too long, we’ve been told that anti-Black hate is free speech, demanding empathy, or not to be confused with some other intent. …

1. The Dark Is Not Evil; Women Are People; The Storyteller Is The Master.

2. Follow the link in bio; scroll down to “End Anti-Blackness in Our Time.”

07/06/2021

I was pulled over by the U.S. Border Patrol last week on the random suspicion of human smuggling and drug trafficking simply because a woman driving at night was considered suspicious.

In New Hampshire, I was told by a police officer to empathize with a white woman (who had called me in as suspicious) for her being “a woman alone at night.” Now, in Arizona, I am told that because I am a woman, driving alone at night is suspicious and I should have the hatch on my tiny Prius checked for undocumented people.

The stop occurred about 32 miles outside of the Phoenix suburb where I live, on a road I and others travel often, as it grants access to viewpoints, fishing, camping, and off-roading, and the matter got me again thinking about the safest cities on Earth for single Black women.

Phoenix ranks average to just above average on the livability index for Black women in the U.S.

“Of course, no ranking should obscure the fact that there is no city doing complete justice to black women’s lives. [...] So the question of where black women move is often a matter of which city will fleece them the least. CityLab worked with urban sociologist Junia Howell to analyze where best metros for black women are located based on a ranked livability index.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-09/the-best-and-worst-cities-for-black-women

Tell Congress to End Anti-Blackness in Our Time —> http://chng.it/hLBKsr9z

07/04/2021

Chicago is projected to become a more livable destination for Black women and girls.

According to Bloomberg’s CityLab, which worked with urban sociologist Junia Howell to determine the livability of urban centers for Black women nationwide, the city has historically ranked middle to low relevant to health, education, and wealth outcomes for Black women.

However, with the recent election of Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the city’s first Black woman mayor, prospects are projected to improve for Black women in Chicago, unlike other midwestern cities.

As a Black woman yet on the periphery of the Chicago story, I am encouraged by what appears to be a rising culture around the personhood of Black women and girls built on an unflinching stand to bring awareness to our virtual invisibility in “collective” Black Justice narratives.

For example, in 2019, the youth organization Girl/Friends marched with Indigenous girls and women in Minnesota for the 5th Annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s March both in solidarity with Indigenous sisters and to call attention to the plight of Black women and girls.

The Weinberg-Newton gallery’s recent exhibition, A Long Walk Home —an art installation by a community organization of the same name for missing and murdered Black women and girls— includes an altar to the healing of Black womanhood and girlhood as well as an expressed need for language that captures the intersectional experience of women and girls in Black community.

On a recent visit to Chicago over the Juneteenth weekend, a search for Bronzeville neighborhood walks brought me to a photo scavenger hunt hosted by the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana. A diverse group of girls and their families participated in the event, following a two page guide that led them to historic touch points in the neighborhood once called Chicago’s “Black Metropolis,”

Key to Chicago’s transformation into a mecca of sorts for safe Black girlhood and womanhood, will be orgs that center and value the agency and personhood of Black women and develop the personhood of Black girls.

07/03/2021

For too long, we have been told that anti-Black hate is freedom of speech or not to be confused with some other “intent”.

Join this virtual march for legislation that targets legacy systems of anti-Black oppression and tell Congress that anti-Blackness will not be fundamental.

99 signatures are needed! Tell Congress That Anti-Blackness Will Not Be Fundamental.

07/03/2021

“I Have A Dream Mural”- East side of 40th and S. King Dr.

Paislee attended the event with her mom and dad. They toured on bicycles and had delicious African food at the end. What she enjoyed most about the photo hunt are the murals and learning more about the history of her community.

Paislee’s mother, Jelisa, is a native of Englewood; the family has resided in Bronzeville now for about 4 years. “I have always known Bronzeville as the Black Music Mecca,” said her mom. “So she [Paislee] was mildly aware that her neighborhood was ‘famous.’”

Of her own connection to the community and event, Jelisa added, “I knew Bronzeville was a historical place. Walking around and actually learning and seeing it was a powerful feeling for me as I live Black history.”

Prior to this event, Mom and daughter regularly shared summer walks through their neighborhood, during which Jelisa introduced Paislee to Bronzeville’s “rich history,” so it was a point of pride to have others see the neighborhood through this cultural lens, but most importantly, she enjoyed sharing a unique experience with her daughter that allowed them another opportunity to explore and grow together.

Paislee is a Girl Scout Cadet and has been scouting since age 5. What she loves best about Girl Scouts is making new friends, earning badges, and learning new skills. Her favorite type of fiction is fantasy, and she’s currently reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

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On June 19th, the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana hosted a Bronzeville photo scavenger hunt to teach girls about Chicago’s historic Black Metropolis. Girls who completed the activity earned a Bronzeville cultural merit badge.

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06/25/2021

Girls on a photo scavenger hunt in 2021 can walk past a group of girls in mural playing double dutch and notice the beanie of a fellow Girl Scout set briefly aside while she jumps rope (I too found the beanie! 😊🙌🏿).

The “Stations” series features photos of everyday life from the history (or family photo album) of Bronzeville. Simply walking down the street, the past can easily intersect with the present.

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On June 19th, the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana hosted a Bronzeville photo scavenger hunt to teach girls about Chicago’s historic Black Metropolis. Girls who completed the activity earned a Bronzeville cultural merit badge.

**

06/25/2021

Walking in Bronzeville: Past Meets Present.

The “Stations” series features photos of everyday life from the history (or family photo album) of Bronzeville . Simply walking down the street, the past can easily intersect with the present as it did when this Girl Scout mother and daughter passed a ‘mother and daughter’ in mural about their business in mid -century Bronzeville.

**
On June 19th, the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana hosted a Bronzeville photo scavenger hunt to teach girls about Chicago’s historic Black Metropolis. Girls who completed the activity earned a Bronzeville cultural merit badge.

**

06/25/2021

Chicago muralist Chris Devins gave a pop-up talk about his series “Stations: Scenes from Bronzeville’s Family Photo Album.”

Being Black and White biracial, a defining fiction Devins was told as a boy was that his blackness made him “inferior.”

This fiction informed his drive to uplift Black stories and build Black imagery and memory into the walls of neighborhoods such as Bronzeville, so that such imagery forms the foundations of a place and cannot not be diminished, instead elevating the spaces where they were installed.

**
On June 19th, the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana hosted a Bronzeville photo scavenger hunt to teach girls about Chicago’s historic Black Metropolis. Girls who completed the activity earned a Bronzeville cultural merit badge.

**

06/25/2021

“Without commonly held memories, community ceases to exist.”

At our sixth stop on the scavenger hunt, Chicago Muralist Chris Devins gives a pop-up talk about his 2020 series, “Stations: Scenes from Bronzeville’s Family Photo Album” and discusses the importance of “placemaking” in Bronzeville and Black communities.

Placemaking builds art into the environment in order to remember, protect, and make immortal the identity of a place.

**
On June 19th, the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana hosted a Bronzeville photo scavenger hunt to teach girls about Chicago’s historic Black Metropolis. Girls who completed the activity earned a Bronzeville cultural merit badge.

**

06/25/2021

“I Have A Dream Mural”- East side of 40th and S. King Dr.

Paislee is a Girl Scout Cadet, and she attended the event with her mom and dad. They toured on bicycles and had delicious African food at the end. What she enjoyed most about the photo hunt are the murals and learning more about the history of her community.

Paislee’s mother, Jelisa, is a native of Englewood; the family has resided in Bronzeville now for about 4 years. “I have always known Bronzeville as the Black Music Mecca,” said her mom. “So she [Paislee] was mildly aware that her neighborhood was ‘famous.’”

Of her own connection to the community and event, Jelisa added, “I knew Bronzeville was a historical place. Walking around and actually learning and seeing it was a powerful feeling for me as I live Black history.”

Prior to this event, Mom and daughter regularly shared summer walks through their neighborhood, during which Jelisa introduced Paislee to Bronzeville’s “rich history,” so it was a point of pride to have others see the neighborhood through this cultural lens, but most importantly, she enjoyed sharing a unique experience with her daughter that allowed them another opportunity to explore and grow together.

Paislee has been a scout since age 5. What she loves best about Girl Scouts is making new friends, earning badges, and learning new skills. Her favorite type of fiction is fantasy, and she’s currently reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

**
On June 19th, the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana hosted a Bronzeville photo scavenger hunt to teach girls about Chicago’s historic Black Metropolis. Girls who completed the activity earned a Bronzeville cultural merit badge.

**

06/25/2021

The Juneteenth photo scavenger hunt began at the Walgreens on MLK Jr BLVD. Over 300 girls assembled with their families to check in, get their green pom poms, and learn about Bronzeville —Chicago’s historic Black metropolis.

**
On June 19th, the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana hosted a Bronzeville photo scavenger hunt to teach girls about Chicago’s historic Black Metropolis. Girls who completed the activity earned a Bronzeville cultural merit badge.

**