When a system demands that you work twice as hard to be accepted, then rest, sleep, and dreaming become important tools for shutting out every restriction, particularly in environments where role models have been hidden away from one’s view. This is where one’s healing begins. The need to let go of all that pressure causes one to retreat to a hidden place. This is also where one finds the strength to push beyond all the obstacles in the waking world. One's avatar is unbound, soaring- in dreaming, in dislocating reality. Nowadays it is more needful to look beyond the surface of popular narratives sold on the cheap. His/herstory keeps being buried, and education/miseducation is used as a weapon against the future of others. The idea of care and rest becomes important when the toxicity of the present pushes one to try to be more, beyond human capabilities. The tale of the hunt is usually told by the hunter. History has been buried and remade in versions to promote the conqueror.
Waking to watch, I often wondered where my people found the strength to sleep. Through my work, I ponder the vulnerability of the moment. I contemplate the place of power where the mind roams unfettered by these physical chains around- Education, miseducation, history, and the suppression of narratives, and burying certain histories that efface black models to inspire future generations. Those in power don’t want us to know, to remember that we are descendants of kings and queens. That a glorious past can be replicated. That we can excel and exceed.
Thanks to the curator and artist Adam Odomore for putting up this inspiring show. Make the time to go see the exhibition "To Harvest a Dream Buried in Dust- On Care and Blackness at IA&A at Hillyer, Washington DC. The exhibition is open till October 1.
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