4 images
Black Breath(e)
on ti rasanblaj[i] for the people
To define ourselves by social death
does not define how we make breath
Robin D. G. Kelley[ii]
MAGUA. MARIEN. XARAGUA.
MAGUANA. HIGüEY.[iii]
Yeah, the revolution worked
But it didn’t fix everything
Yeah, the revolution worked
But it didn’t fix everything
Yeahhh the revolution worked
But it couldn’t fix everything
IT could NOT
fix
E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G
[i] Rasanblaj Kreyòl translation gathering of things, ideas, people and spirits.
[ii] From the UCHRI (University of California Humanities Research Institute) “The Fire This Time: Race at Boiling Point” conversation held on June 5, 2020. https://uchri.org/events/the-fire-this-time-race-at-boiling-point/
[iii] Ayiti or Quisqueya was inhabited by the Guanahatabey, the Arawaks or Tainos, and the Caribs people. The names cited are of the indigenous kingdoms that ruled the island before 1492. Columbus called the island Hispaniola.
“Divination” Photo Credit: Gina Athena Ulysse, 2020
“5 Generations” Photo Credit: Gina Athena Ulysse, 2020
“Tet Gridap” Photo Credit: Gina Athena Ulysse, 2020
“New Rules of Engagement: A Remix” Photo Credit: Gina Athena Ulysse, 2020
Dr. Gina Athena Ulysse is a professor of Feminist Studies at UC Santa Cruz. With her creative practice of rasanblaj (gathering of ideas, things, people and spirits), her multidisciplinary art projects (texts, performance, photographs, and installations) on Black diasporic conditions seek to engage the visceral deeply embedded in the structural. Her work has been published in Feminist Studies, Journal of Haitian Studies, Gastronomica, KERB Journal of Landscape Architecture, Souls, Third Text, and Transition among other venues. ginaathenaulysse.com