We Can Always Start Again.

>>Submitted for Social Foundations <<

• Sharpe, In the Wake: On Blackness and Being.

Passages to inform the revision: 

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​As I sit here reflecting on what transpired during the Artists’ Talk at Elsewhere (READ Portfolio Piece), I am comforted by Christina Sharpe’s In the Wake.  The following passages form the foundation of my revision:

• pg. 10 - “The power of and in sitting with someone as they die, the important work of sitting (together) in the pain and sorrow of death as a way of marking, remembering, and celebrating a life.”
• pg. 13 - “…I am interested in plotting, mapping, and collecting the archives of the everyday of Black immanent and imminent death, and in tracking the ways we resist, rupture, and disrupt the immanence and imminence aesthetically and materially. “

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Revision I

​Before arriving in Greensboro, NC., I knew EXACTLY what my research topic was going to be. I identified my question over the summer - “how is nature experienced as a site of  learning and self-restoration among Black womxn?” I had a theoretical framework - Luxocracy by Dr. Layli Maparyan. And, I even knew my primary methodology - photo-elicitation interviewing. I just knew! Come to find out, all I knew was about to be revised.

​After the encounter at the Artists’ Talk and the serendipitous reading of Christina Sharpe, I realized that what I do IS “engage in the important work of sitting.” I take time to sit with self, I invite others to sit with me, and I sit with Mother Earth (nature). All of this speaks to my divine assignment of “creating and holding spaces of self-restoration and healing.” 

Monday, Sept. 13 2021

Rationale

The Universe had a lesson for me on this day. A deeply transformative and emotional lesson in isolation as well as her distant cousins “invitation” and “inclusion.”

​The day before, I read Sharpe and learned about the work of sitting. Although Sharpe referenced sitting (together) in the “pain and sorrow of death,” I took that passage literally and thought about what it meant to sit with someone. To be present. To be inclusive.

On the night of the 13th, I found myself sitting with people and still feeling alone. There was a singles, conversational ping pong match that dominated the space. Additionally, I, as the oldest person at the table, just could not connect with some of the references. I have kids that are nearly the ages of those around the table.

While walking back to the residency, I knew something had shifted. I knew that my scholar identity had shifted to address feelings of isolation among Black womxn and how sitting (together) can represent a form of wake work. I felt my artist identity being birthed. And I felt that this new awakening and subsequent revision would cost me an extra semester in the PhD program at Florida State University.

Even with all of that occurring, the exposure to Sharpe is becoming instrumental to my identities. I would go as far as to say that it is even instrumental to my spiritual development. 

Change Log

*rationale listed above

Pre-

• I was considering eco-spirituality as part of my research
• My theoretical framework was Dr. Layli Maparyan’s Luxocracy.
• I enjoy breathwork and include it in my workshops, but I never saw a connection to my research.
• I did not have an artist agenda or identity prior to Elsewhere and Sharpe’s reading.​
• ​I read Sharpe through her original lens of “Black immanent and imminent death.”

Post

• Eco-spirituality is no longer part of my research interest for my dissertation.
• My theoretical framework is now Sharpe’s wake work.
• Thanks to Rachel’s feedforward, I am now looking at how breathwork, an exercise in stillness, is a form of resistance. It also speaks to Sharpe’s call to “rupture.”
• My art focuses on a conversation of isolation, invitation, and inclusion and I use chairs and a mannequin for this work.
• I am now looking at ways to reimagine wake work. My example in class was the space of barbershops. For me, the space of breathwork/chakra workshops
  • ​Moving forward, I will expand my vision to look at stillness as a way to “disrupt the immanence and imminence”
  • The use of chairs in my performances and visual art speak to “sitting (together).” This is how I choose to address the aesthetics and materiality.

Bonus passages for future use

• pg 2 - “the conceptual frame of and living blackness”
  • What is MY conceptual frame?
    
  • These words came to me - “Breathing, Becoming, and Being.” Just now, I’m feeling a vibration around “Belonging.
• pg. 9 - “In the wake, the past that is not past reappears, always, to rupture the present.
  • In the wake of becoming an artist, my past of public health appears. The conversation of ‘becoming’ is becoming more intriguing!!
  • Becoming a Daddy’s girl (Is this what the garden space is really about with my Dad?