Beauty Breaks: Session 9 | Photos
How do we make our mark? Beauty Breaks, Session 9, Mark Making fell on another new moon. We came to sift and evolve through different forms of language, the language of physical action, written language and the language of collaborative action.
Haydee Souffrant started us off with the physical language of yoga, a physical, mental and spiritual practice that originated in ancient India. Haydee is a Chicago based multimedia artist who brought us into our bodies, minds and spirits, focusing our breaths away from the external world. In a world where black bodies move through invisibility, dishonest visibility, violence, and objectification. The practice of self ownership of Black bodies, especially Black femme bodies is necessary. This act of re emergence into the self is both powerful and political. Haydee guided us through deep breathing and yoga positions as we moved through a collective act of reclaiming.
After we all moved further into our bodies we were excited to move into discussion with Imani Jackson about written language in regards to found poetry. Imani, a writer and maker from Chicago led us into a discussion about the extensions of poetry throughout fragments of written language. We talked about what it means to find words in contextualized texts outside of the dictionary, using sources such as novels, the news, poetic texts and our own written words. The results that came from collaging such text to tell our own stories and to move through language as found objects were wonderful, complex and moving.
As we transitioned from borrowed language we moved into performative action and exchanges with Gabrielle Civil. Gabrielle literally elevated us as we divided into groups of two, half of us standing on chairs, while the other half of us visually scanned those uplifted. How do we look upon one another in ascension? How do we levitate ourselves through reverence? After taking time to appreciate one another’s physical presences we took the time to create a movement/scene for ourselves individually in connection to an intimate memory. We then combined our actions with 2-3 other participants and performed for the larger group. The final collaborations were passionately felt, vulnerably freeing and intricately connected.
By the late evening we all had the privilege to bond through language, movement and inventive storytelling. How we share and carry one another’s stories can be how we lift one another during collective change.
