#indigenx

[kny111]

Hatuey, Vodun and the Haitian Revolution

Paraphrasing Hatuey the Quisqueyan Taino Cacique that was burned at the stake for being one of the first to defend against the evils of colonialism:

“Are there people like you in heaven? If there are I’d rather go to hell so as to not be near the cruelness of Christians”

The Spirit of Hatuey has continued to make his presence known not only within his homeland of Haiti but across the Caribbean. We call him the Father of the Resurgence or more precisely the Father of the Resistance! Hatuey was a great Casike, whose name means “Certainty of the Sun”. He had been engaging guerilla warfare in Cuba against the invading Spanish and warning the Taino people of Cuba about the evil nature of the Christian invaders. He warned his people of the cruel and wicked nature of these Christians telling of their loyalty and love for THEIR god, Gold and Jewels (money), making a clear distinction between the object of the Christian’s worship and the Taino understanding of their own “Deities”. The Christians captured Hatuey (possibly it is said through a betrayal from one of his own), tied him to a stake and prepared to burn him alive. A monk attempted to convert Hatuey to Christianity, and told him that if he believed in Christianity he (Hatuey) would go to “heaven” where there would be glory and eternal rest or if he did not believe in Christianity he (Hatuey) would go to hell, where he would suffer torments and punishment. Hatuey was silent for a short time, then he asked the monk if the Christians went to heaven, and the monk said that the good Christians went to heaven. Hatuey immediately answered that he did not want to go to heaven, but would rather go to hell so as to not be in the same place as the cruel Christians. Hatuey was subsequently burnt at the stake and it is said that his Soul flew immediately to the Sun. Hatuey refused to submit to entrapment by the Christians, he maintained the integrity of his Soul and Spirit by refusing at a moment of intense torture to compromise with the Christian god whom he knew to be evil based on the actions of this god’s followers. Remember Hatuey had been witness to mass murder, genocide, rape, murder of unborn children and the total desecration of the sacredness of his Yukayekes by these Christians who said that they came in the name of God and Christ. He understood the true deity that these people were worshiping and refused any deals with this evil entity (the beast). After Hatuey’s death, the war between the Taino and the Spaniards continued. When the Spaniards began to import Africans in the chains of slavery they began with Black Muslims from Spain itself. These Muslims immediately rebelled escaping to the mountains and hills joining with the Taino and forming the first Maroon People. After this the Spainards became afraid to import more Muslims and began bringing Africans directly from Africa, most of whom were following various African Spiritual Traditions, these people also rebelled, many finding their ways to Maroon communities and also developing the tradition of Vodou within the communities and in secret upon the plantations. As the French gained control of Haiti they launched a massive exploitation of the Land itself and the people of the land, Haiti is still recovering from this exploitation, as well as more modern exploitations of the elite. Within the tradition of Vodou the Rada Cult is Dahomeyan in nature, more peaceful and sedate due to the influence from the nations of Africa which had solid social structures, cities, centralized authority and stable, peaceful (for the most part) kingdoms. However, the more violent and explosive Petro Cult is born from the synthesis of the tradition of the Taino-Arawak people and the traditions of the Congo and other African peoples. It was the Petro cult that was more rebellious and gave rise directly to the Haitian Revolution that put Fear in the heart of every slave-owner across the planet!

Full Article . . .

[latin-american-diversity]

The Guna (Kuna/Tule)

“Olo Tule – the gold people “Our parents told us we came from the stars and we are descended from beings from an other world.... “ This is part of a traditional Tule song about their history of their origin. The Tule (in Panama called Kuna) people in Chocó, Colombia have been one of first indigenous ethnic groups the Spanish conquistadors encountered in South America when they arrived at the coast of the Golf of Uraba. The Darien Gap in the Chocó of Colombia is one of the most humid places on earth. Malaria and parasitic diseases are as big of a threat to the people living there as left-wing guerilla, right-wing paramilitary or any other armed criminal group, who try to control the area as it is a important drug and arm route to Panama. There are only about 1.200 Tule left in Colombia.” - Alexander Rieser

[power-and-glitter]

[pow-pow-pow-power]

[molotov-tea-cosies]

If you're not actively working with Indigenous people in your organizing, and centering Indigenous people in leadership roles, esp the people whose lands ur on, Indigenous people with disabilities, and Two-Spirit/Indigenx/Muxe/LGBTQIA+ Indigenous people, then ur activism is staying at the level of active collusion with settler-colonial rhetoric and violence.

[unregisteredhypercam420]

being a central american indigena in america is weird because i constantly have to reaffirm my identity to people who don’t know that there are indigenous people in latin america and make it explicit that there’s a difference between mestix and indigenx

[melaniecervantes]

Look at this gorgeous design by @melissagovea_ and @indigenx. I snapped this pic while lurking around their beautiful workspace at Self Help Graphics. They are working on a streetwear line and I am really excited what emerges from their collaboration. Keep an eye out from this incredibly talented duo. 👀

[kny111]

@hollywood give us more movies with ppl recovering cultures, environments, their autonomy. the ingenuity of the people, blackness and indigenxness uninterrupted. less violent shit, less movies with defense and gun toting + military normalization. I'm not talking nonviolence from the oppressed groups. rather, less to no violence from killer governing systems. lot of these films be inviting whites to a world where theyre in charge of whether we get to live or die. y'all creating kill switches, no need to explicitly tell a blue lives matter 17 yr old not shoot protesters when media shows them to do it and be proud. this the world you wanna keep envisioning and supporting @hollywood?

[latin-american-diversity]

“Muxe: pronounced - (Mu-sha) is a Zapotec word for a third gender. I ran across the Muxe while doing research for another project and became fascinated by the elaborate traditional costumes. Everything I had seen of the Muxe was very journalistic in nature and I decided to travel down to the southern state of Oaxaca to do something beautiful for these women. I had full size paper flower frames created and asked the women to dress in their finest for this series of portraits.” - Mark Holthusen

[molotov-tea-cosies]

764 likes and rebloggs for my post about centering Indigenous/First Nations/Indigenx peoples, esp w/ disabilities and 2S/Muxe etc. peoples....ahhh. Of all the posts to get so much love, this one is completely perfect :D

[dcactorsofcolor]

GALita/Wit’s End Puppet’s MAYAN FABLES - 2015 Remounting

GALA Hispanic Theatre’s GALita & Wit’s End Puppets’ collaborative piece Mayan Fables opened this past Monday morning. DC Actors of Color would love to acknowledge and thank the Mestizx artists involved in the production. This production is something you beautiful brown people should be proud of! All of DC Theatre should support this Mestizx art being performed at the Tivoli in Columbia Heights.

(Photo: Marketing for MAYAN FABLES)

Despite the success of the production, there are still some issues that must be addressed: how were mestizx & indigenx artists used, how much of the art is authentic Mestizx/Indigenx art, among others. We will address some technical issues first, and then review the production itself.

One main concern is the misuse of Mestizx/Indigenx artists. One small example is Chema Pineda-Fernández. On Twitter, Wit’s End mentioned that they were working on the “script which we've been trying to improve with the help of @ActorChema”, yet Pineda-Fernández receives no credit past acting in the program. Which leads to the question, was Pineda-Fernández paid for their non-acting based work on Mayan Fables? Cecilia Cackley is a larger example for many reasons. 1) Why is Cackley a co-Director? She was one of the few female directors of color named as director of professional productions in the DC area for the 2014-2015 season. A co-Direction distinction minimizes Cackley’s accomplishment. Furthermore, co-Director David Lloyd Olson’s (also director of the two previous incarnations of Mayan Fables in 2013 and 2014) European life experience did not and continues to not benefit the well being of this piece of Indigenous art. Cackley’s voice as a Mestiza and experience as Artistic Director of Wit’s End Puppets, was a perfect combination for a Director for this show (only second best to a Maya Director). 2) Why is Cackley overworked? Overworked usually means underpaid. Cackley is Writer, Co-Director, Actor/Puppeteer, and leader of the puppet company that is producing the beautiful work. Why put the whole responsibility on Cackley’s shoulders? Why not let Cackley focus her work on being Wit’s End Artistic Director, and allow her to open up opportunities to other Indigenx artists?

Another concern is the redface in the production.  Over 65% of the credited artists are European-descendants. Furthermore, the more or less 35% of the non-European artists are all Mestizx (this continues the destructive narrative that only ‘whites and mestizos’ can tell Indigenx stories). There is zero Mayan influence on the production and so, Mayan Fables is not a proper title for the show. Mestizaje Fables more accurately describes what GALita/Wit’s End has accomplished with the piece. White Supremacy was not removed from Mayan Fables. Why could GALita not hire more Indigenous artists? Why not hire addition Indigenx/Mestizx actors and designers? Why not do the simplest thing: hire a Maya director? A Maya director would bring a unique voice no other director could ever provide. Indigenx people think about and interpret Indigenx art in unique ways. Giving Indigenx people a place at the table to tell Indigenx work should be a priority for GALA Hispanic Theatre; especially considering they are at an ideal place to serve severely underserved communities: the intersection between Latinx and Indigenx cultures and identities.

(Photo: Marketing for #DecolonizeMayanFables)

A huge concern is music in this production. In the program, a Virginia based musician, Alberto Ramirez (possibly Maya, if not, a Guatemalan Mestizx), was given a “special thanks” for the work they did. What work did this musician do to provide a ‘thanks’? Did they provide music? If so, how did they work with Musical Director Mariano Vales? Also, the two Yucatec song in the beginning and end of the show were not given any credit in the program. Did Ramirez help provide the songs sung, or the music played throughout the show such as Uncle Coyote’s dance? The opening song “Konex, Konex” is a classical Yucatec song. The second was a song I never heard, and sadly the program did not credit any Indigenx artist (classical or contemporary). Why aren’t these Indigenous artists being credited for their work?

(Video: Alberto Ramirez sings “America”)

The program itself contained great information about Classical Maya civilizations, though some contemporary Maya history would have helped tell Maya history better. Talking about contemporary accomplishments of Maya people: such as the anti-colonization efforts of the EZLN movement and Comandante Ramona’s involvement as a Zapatista leader; the winning of the Nobel Peace Prize by activist Rigoberta Menchú; the wide success of composer and singer Armando Manzanero, and many others. There was no credit given to the program/study guide creator. Alina Collins Maldonado is listed as the Education Program and Daphne Figuerero Gerig is listed as Playbill Design- but none is given credit for the educational content within the program. The program is well designed and contains fun and educational activities for children of varying ages. A problem with not specifically having an Indigenx person work on an Indigenx production’s playbill, is that non-Indigenx persons’ first thought is not proper representation of Indigenx works. An Indigenx playbill provider would be sure to include each Indigenx artists’ tribal/ethnic affiliation. The Indigenx and Mestizx artists involved in Mayan Fables were not given the opportunity to represent their Indigenous ethnic group in the program, and if they were, then no one took the opportunity to identify as such.

(Video: Rigoberta Menchú talks Indigenx American peoples & identity)

Why are only 12 performances of this production being offered? The minimum to be eligible for the Helen Hayes adjudication is 16 performances. GALA would be doing a huge service to the DC theatre community by letting Mayan Fables be eligible for Helen Hayes Awards. Mayan Fables is a gorgeous, unique, and refreshing production that could have done very well within the TYA and other Helen Hayes categories.

In enjoying the remounted version of Mayan Fables, I was able to see how far diversity in GALita theater has come and how much further it needs to go.  I have seen all three installments of the show and am pleased with the changes that this new show took in order to make the play more authentic.

To begin with, the opening of the show has revealed that the (Co-)Director, Cecilia Cackley has decided to go for more authenticity, by allowing the “Konex, Konex”, a revered Maya song, to open the show in a ritual sense. This is both a symbolic beginning for the children as they delved into the learning experience, and an homage to the Ancestors and Elders that would be adherent to the show.  In the show previous, there had been winds that blew the ensemble in and away at the beginning and end of the show. Though somewhat interesting, it is not specifically in keeping with Maya traditions. The concept of Indigenx performance being about more than music, dance, and theatre, was very strong in this production. Ritual and tradition played a large role in bringing authenticity into the production, and helping to #DecolonizeMayanFables.

(Video: Konex Konex performed by Raíces del Mayab al Reino Unido)

Another much appreciated change was with the Jaguar roles which was played previously by Pineda-Fernández and Bob Sheire. Pineda-Fernández reprises their role, and is joined by new Mayan Fables actor, Miguel Alejandro Amaguaña.  Immediately, children are engaged by the jaguars and their plight, being harangued by a playful shadow cricket, puppeteered by one of the actors backstage. What was cut, was the hip-hop skit, which veered heavily from the cultural music and setting of the play.  During previous mountings, the Jaguars enter with a beatbox beat that insinuates incorrectly that there are heavy African themes to emerge later in the play.  However, since that was never the intention of the play, it comes off as erroneous and somewhat offensive- bordering on Blackface, which raises the question: what was Co-Director David Lloyd Olson thinking? A drastic change was made and instead the relationship of the two formerly beatboxing Jaguar pals, becomes a more natural and caring relationship between gender neutral cat characters. The interaction was seamless and children's laughter and cooperation in the play continued without the awkward hitch from before.

(Photo: Amaguaña in GALita’s TUM TICA, with Karin Tovar... no photos of Amaguaña in MAYAN FABLES exists.)

Cackley did quite well in handling themes of diversity by also changing the relationship between the Shaper and Creator, and by reverting their names to the Classical Maya names, Xpiyacoc and Xmucane (the first father and the first mother of all Maya people).  Previous mountings had these two roles played by (a redface donning) Sheire and Pineda-Fernández. Admittedly, it was jarring to have Sheire play the role, not simply because it distracted from the authenticity but also because the show is heavily bilingual and his role seemed to be really Anglicized compared to the other three actor roles. Where Sheire only spoke a few Spanish words here and there, I am glad that his replacement, Amaguaña, is a bilingual actor and was able to fluidly communicate to the young children in both Spanish and English. It is very important that bilingual artists be used for bilingual works. Amaguaña and Pineda-Fernández cleverly drew away from the hyper masculine roles of before when it came to Xpiyacoc and Xmucane. In the first and second remounts Creator and Shaper were in competition, their voices emitted in bravado, and we see the beginning of the world almost like a game. Yet, now, Xpiyacoc and Xmucane have entered in as companions, partners, parents to creatures that they have created.  What I thought was especially beautiful was that this show presented an example of queer love without being gaudy, but in a guiltless and endearing way.  Watching the two characters leave the stage arms around one another in their last scene, moved me personally and I am positive that children in the audience felt the same. It is amazing that Cackley was able to provide children who come from “non-traditional” families, an opportunity to see that not all families look the same.

(Photo: Pineda-Fernández in the original production as Shaper/Xmucane)

Music plays an integral part of the show, and I am very pleased that it was made more present, through singing, dancing, and the instruments brought onstage.  Yet, it seemed that there was no one to credit for this change.  Musical director, Mariano Vales was credited as leading music for the production, but composers were not named. Did Vales write the second Yucatec song? It was an exceptional addition to the show and makes me wonder if perhaps there had been Indigenx musicians at work that did not get their due diligence. GALA should respect it’s Indigenx artists, pay them for their unique work, and give them full recognition of their accomplishments.

One change that I hope is fixed in the next remount, is the adherence to diverse, bilingual actors of color that have Native American roots.  Once again, in the show, actor Carol Spring, has taken a critical role away from a female/non-binary Native American actor.  In other remounts she had played the role of Mother, which had seemed doubly strange then as well because Sheire had played the Father, yet their child was Native American. When put into the contemporary context of national governments removing Native American children from Indigenous homes and putting them into non-Native homes, to reinforce the ideal of ‘kill the Indian, not the man” (meaning, Native children can have more success once their Indigeneity is taken away), it raises the question: what was Co-Director David Lloyd Olson thinking? While Cackley/GALita allotted Spring to the animal roles in the show, it would be better overall to avoid redface altogether and have another Native American actor fill that role.  Due to the nature of the play, as a learning and cultural emboldening tool for youth, having a multilingual Native American cast would also help with more beneficial talkbacks after the show.

After the show was also a treat because it gave the youth their own time in which to appreciate their backgrounds. The ensemble lead a talk back with the schools, where they were tasked with answering questions about the production, puppets, Indigenx identity, Maya history, and much more. The cast was able to communicate in both Spanish and English to their audience members, however, I also believe that this could be an opportunity to reiterate the important aspects of the show and to see what was learned overall. Many of the children admitted that this was their first theatrical experience. The little brown faces that filled the audience space, sported large smiles- possibly because they are able to see and hear people that look and sound like them. Representation is really important. #RepresentationMatters

(Photo: Cackley and Pineda-Fernández in the original production as the Disobedient Child and Chac.)

When previously DCActorsOfColor reached out to GALita & Wit’s End, only the puppet company responded. It would be a positive thing for everyone if GALita Artistic Director Laura Quiroga made a statement regarding the misrepresentation of Mayan art and Native American artists in Mayan Fables. GALA & GALita must take responsibility for their actions. After seeing Mayan Fables a third time, now in it’s newest form, I will say that I was quite pleased with how this remount turned out, both aesthetically and culturally. The need to involve more Indigenx artists in Indigenx works is quite important, and I hope that in the future that GALita will strive for an even more diverse cast, that more authentic music can be incorporated (it really was quite enchanting) and that any further redface can be avoided altogether.  Beautifully done, Cackley can definitely call this show a hit in every sense, and I hope to see more from her and Wit’s End in the future!

An Afro-Mestiza Writer

[lamonarca]

While we're at it, petition to stop using "indio" as an insult.

[kny111]

Basquiat exhibit: "Made in Japan"

Firstly I felt like an art student on a hunna the minute I stepped in. It was an exhibit I would have never afforded to be at if it weren't for my partner. As I approached the first piece I immidiately take out my notepad to write down methods Jean used, materials, and most importantly the energies received. Unbeknownst to me I ended up using a pen which wasn't allowed due to the high value in his art I imagine.

Not being all fixated on time prior to this but I check out of intuition, it was 11:27 am, a sacred number for myself (as it is, the full number 11:27, linked to my comic book about a cyborg from the future trying to figure out what happened to human civilization).

I felt as though before and even more so right then, Basquiat's spirit was with me, guiding me going "and this one bro, and peep what I meant with this". Beforr I go on I gotto let yall know I been getting in touch with (my often erased by colonialist and imperialist) Haitian side of being Quisqueyanx indigenx. This meant getting rid of my strictly catholic and anti Haitian conditioning that I still struggle with due to lack of familial support. It's been years now that I've been learning of this side of myself and realizing how intricately connected I am to the powerful spirits of Vodun be it West African or Haitian or Dominican aspects of it which often get demonized on my side of the island. So when I tell you I was looking at his work in a whole new way, I really mean it.

I worked my way back and forth taking notes and absorbing as much as possible. To be honest I was never quite into Basquiat before because I didn't know much about him nor did I have the understanding required to do so. A lot of our histories be deliberately erased or ignored to make way for what neocolonialism deems worthy. This, linked with my past internalized antiblackness that had me at one point being utterly dismissive of his work and importance would often make me miss the point of his work and the messages it has.

Moving forward to now and after conditioning myself to understand and empathize more with his work and its ties to our shared histories as a person and doubly so as a black artist of Haitian Dominican Tainx heritage like myself, his work took on a new light for me. So when I visited this exhibit all the way out in Japan (For the record I didn't even know this was going on until way after flight was booked - Afro diaspora linkage on a hunna) and learning it's the first of its kind to show how he immersed other cultures like those of Japan into his work I felt as if he was right there with me in spirit. Helping decode his language as much as I could so I could one day be able to express so freely and intutively prophetic as he once did for us in the Afro-Indigenous diaspora trying to piece together our story after the transatlantic slave trade and systems like it took us apart.

It felt like an honor I'll never have the right words to fully express that level of magic and creativity. But to bring this to yall who listen without the isms, feels like an attempt to honestly continue the narrative artist like him try bringing to a table that often denies us humanity and recognition unless we've passed away even though we built that table. Thank you Jean Michel Basquiat.

[kny111]

Yesterday, November 21 2019, a divination occurs by my altar. I’m walking and have one tab open in phone on the Navy’s encounter with what they call UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) near the staff that’s appointed to Papa Legba, the opener of roads, pathways, different outcomes. A little bit about this staff, I found it during a forest meditative walk and saw a bunch of sticks that belonged to mostly dumped christmas trees. The one I found had these cool lichen shapes on it that one end reading up, the bigger lichen towards the bottom resembles a person smoking and creating smoke signals, and the signals themselves I always said look like 80s, 8s, 808s.

I mistakingly stepped near the staff with enough force to make it move and when it did it slid over to the “Indigenous Interception“ painting which itself is part of my Indigenx/Afro-Indigenx/ Ancestral spirit altar. So this made me want to look deeper into these recently reported on events and read it differently with my spiritually perceptive side (I read it originally with that scientifically minded side more so than anything else) that considers numerology as a means of communicating. So up until yesterday (11/21/2019) I had no idea that months before, the Navy had reported on ‘pill shaped‘ UAPs showing up with technology never before seen or available. Down to describing its effect on the water as making it churn (an effect the craft in my painting had and I spent extra time making sure the effect of water churning was clearly visible). This stuff was reported on around 2017 of December, I did the painting on August 26 of 2017 (8/26[=8]/2017), 3 months before this UAP stuff was known to the public like myself. I had no knowledge of any of this when I painted that.

Here’s where it got weirder for me and I still donno what to make of it, you can fact check me on this and search up the days that it was my birthday right on here with the days these things were being posted up on my social media like when the paintings were posted and when the events with the UAP occurred. It got odd when I looked up when this stuff really happened and it turned out to be way further back but was reported on in late 2017 December, it occurred in 2004 on guess what day? November 10 = 11/10 (=21) my birthday! I must have been 17. So on this day in the west coast of San Diego, California, confirmed by military personale within the Navy as real footage showing several crafts from a fleet of giant pill shaped UAPs appearing to exhibit mindblowingly advanced technology that made our current airforce seem like toys - This happened from 11/10 to 11/16. And yesterday 11/21 that divination occurs with the staff and the “Indigenous Interception“ painting which had me reading about this incident more deeply and found these numbers that lead me to.. my birthday? Lol honestly I don’t even know.

[kny111]

I know I haven’t really updated on here. Fatherhood can be really tiring and time consuming as it is a blessing and will change who you are for the better, at least for me. I’ve been away from a lot of the subjects I used to normally post about until recently, that’s because I picked up the energy and interest for science journalism again. To say I went off to have a long waited talk with nature is to minimize greatly the kind of transformations I’ve undergone. The mysteries she’s shown me far greater than any cosmic unknown that I could have ever imagined of. I know a lot of the folks who used to follow this blog might be surprised to know that within that journey I’ve seen, experienced and have been in communion with some really influential spirits of old. Nature’s hidden variables. Whatever you want to call it. Something occurred when I decided to take more seriously the religions and spirituality of my ancestors. Something that only reinvigorated my love for science and the unknown, physics, art, and expression of these things for beneficial communal use. I’m from Quisqueya, the first testing grounds for colonialism and subsequently the evolution of neo-colonialism. Not too long after and we become one of the first pit stop for the trans-Atlantic slave trading markets to proliferate and spin the rest of the world off into the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy hell branch of a reality we know of today. Our little island has undergone so many transformations and inclusion of peoples, cultures, so many I only recently found out of like how Haitians took in Jewish refugees during the time of Hitler’s nazism. Because I still deal with mental health issues and depression being one I’ve had since childhood, I sometimes don’t have near enough energy to convey how have things been going since my last big update here. My spiritual and religious journey, finding comfort in myself and closure in ways I no longer adhere to. That said I found it beyond amazing how earlier today on October the 14th ‘Indigenous Peoples Day‘ I was drumming away to Tainx music without realizing what day today was without looking at my social media feeds yet. Here I was normally thinking I’m so tired, down and out of trying to keep these cultures alive and I was already doing so instinctively in the truest way I know how.

Like I mentioned, I decided to take more seriously my Afro-Indigenous roots and what it meant to be a Black Dominican Haitian Taino American. It took me on the wildest ride with the unlikeliest subject ranging from seeing quantum entanglement examples right before my eyes, seeing living breathing afrofuturism through my Vodun, Catholic, Christian roots and the functionality of Vodun to incorporate so many ancient parts of being Black into what intuitively led me down a road of self and outward knowledge on the cosmos around me. To then blend these epigenetically installed formulas of spirituality embededd in me by history and nature, incorporate them into my expression of art and self which is one has been like achieving a life long dream I didn’t even know I had. I did so much intuitive shit that was so clearly linked to my identity as an Afro-Indigenx American immigrant along the way that I had erected an altar without knowing it was an altar. I would section and compartmentalize this prototype altar so beautifully and had no clue I was paying respects to my ancestors and spirits of the world until more recently a few months back. When I realized this, it was like a Cambrian explosion occurred in me. I don’t want to get into the details of the abilities it brought out that I already had in me due to prying eyes (ahem surveillance capitalist patriarchy is still outchea at large) but to simply meditate and think on my folks has given me such a renewed and strengthened sense of intuition and appreciation for the past and future that I never knew existed. Sometimes I’ll legit write and prophesize shit out the ass like it’s a normal day it’s wild, shit I never believed in but the science seems to check out with quantum physics and what not. That’d be an explanation for another time. The altar has now evolved to a place I can really go to and express but at the same time it’s something I’ve learned to keep within my own self so that it’s not the altar that’s important, rather the changes I’ve gone through to get to such a place. I write, dream, visualize, laugh, act, improvise, predict based on science, meditate, heal, rehabilitate myself there. But conversely the world speaks to me there, the spirits of old, new, those to be. I know it sounds type wild but it’s gotten normal for me to experience something my old science nerd ass self woulda made fun of me for. But when you get into a connection with ya ancestors like I have and reach the conclusions and deductions I have on the systems that control the planet it gets clearer to see that the Indigenous were right all along on colonialism, it’s gotto go. There’s no place for it in the future if we’re to survive a planet seemingly becoming another Venus. I’d like to think we not gone be fighting each other while some catastrophe bop our asses one time like they did the dinos. That’s one of the main messages they keep tellin me and it’s hard to refute. I’ll try and continue this update on another day as there’s so much in between and concepts and ideas I wanna share about how to move forward on activism and using art to get our ideas about those movements across. The above images span from months, just small droplets of the cool ass journey I been on just trying to maintain some normalcy while playing my part in not helping oppressors of any kind continue proliferating their systems of domination and subjugation. So this first image is from the week not too long ago when I had 2 honey bees flying in and checking out the altar. Then I left an old jar of honey that still had some and they’d return and eat some for like a good week or so. At one point, this matrix-like moment happens when one of them goes into the jar and makes this cool sound I never heard before. The bee had gone in there before many times and never made that specific sound, it was like a lower frequency conch shell or something. When I checked the time it was like 1:23pm or 1:11pm one of those. I was like..... get Neo!! shit was so cool. This next image is really a culmination of my search to learn more about my Afro-Indigenousness which led me to learn more about my Haitianness and the spirituality and religion. From painting Papa Legba paintings before I even knew him, to giving respects to all types of 21 division spirits and Vodun loa before ever even knowing of them. It was as if each part of these religions was trying to show me how much of them was in me in how intuitively I’d gravitate towards these religions despite being still very devoted to science and scientific literacy worldwide. Idk it’s just been a really cool blending of a lot of things I never thought could come together. I found this moth around the time I was reading and thinking deeply on the creator entity in Vodun and some African religions, Gran Maitrex. I’ve always had an interest in creator stories and beings so  when this Golden Moth popped up in the altar (right on the mat I have laid in front of it, facing it, as if it came there to spend its last moments) I was like a little kid. To me it reminds me of those mysteries we’ve yet to discover that can help us in our path to heal ourselves and others if we chose to. The following two are from my walking meditating sessions by the river. They have slightly deeper stories to em about relaxation, overcoming obstacles, predictions I made that day about the sky that I wont get into on here cause it’s exhausting lol. The next image with the wooden branch I brought in from a forest walk is of one of the bees I spoke of flying around the Afro-Indigenx/ Ancient Egypt/ West Africa section of the altar. It did this several times enough for me to note that it liked that particular area. Following non repeating image is of the portrait I did a while back for the Heath Gallery in Harlem on Rein-visioning Brown and Black Bodies in Scifi: Story of 4 Tainx sisters calling for their descendants to help them from the demonic wrath of colonialism. This picture I took when I finally got to take my ass out to jog after a whole day of being a dad. I found a neat tree to try and climb at night and found this beautiful bright green grasshopper right by the branch I picked. Grasshoppers always remind me of giant leaps I could be taking forward. The following image I took during another forest walk when I looked up and saw this cool cross shape juxstapositioned among the trees. Last image I took during the Medieval festival they hold at Fort Tryon every year. It’s where I sold my awesome Medieval chicken paintings (which have now taken place at altar where I give em much love) last year dressed as Obi Wan Kenobi. This year I decided to just enjoy it with bae and did so dressed as Jedi Jesus posing as a Dominican Fryer. More pics on that to come. Just wanted to update yall on the spiritual in case anyone could use these words to benefit em. Yall take care. - Ken

[molotov-tea-cosies]

I just wanna send lots of love to all the First Nations/Indigenous/Indigenx folx sharing and liking my post on centering us in organizing (711 likes and shares!). Especially the 2S/Muxe/LGBTQIA+ folx. Ahhh you have been giving me life with your shares. It is everything to me...my blood, my spirit , are nourished. You are so necessary. You are everything. Tlazocamati