diasporic african dream anthology
CURATOR’S NOTE
Diasporic African Dream Anthology (DADA)
and Touring Exhibition.
From the mountains, rivers, seas, deserts, and woods, we welcome you to the Diasporic African Dream Anthology. We give gratitude and blessings to all of the lands and to all ancestors that have held us across time and brought us to this moment. We pray for blessings and abundance. We speak gratitude over the contributing artists and Cause Reign staff for the labor of love that they have brought to the birthing process of DADA.
In a waking dream or vision during the summer solstice of 2019, Tyrell Blacquemoss (TBN), DADA’s curator and editor, saw the prolific spread of DADA as a global event centering Indigenous African dream ways supporting the global collective through climate change shifts and healing from colonization. Beginning in January 2020, a call for submissions was released and 10 juried artists were accepted into the anthology's first volume. The artists' work has been curated into a digital anthology and the work will embark on a national touring exhibition that is both virtual and locally based. DADA reminds us ALL of the power of the African dreamers in diasporic communities who are still holding their/our connection to the continent of Africa, while simultaneously being immersed in the new lands where we have made home.
DADA is a digital exhibition and ceremony space of visual, literary, and oral history weaving of Indigenous African dream practices moving through time, space, and diaspora, offering refuge, solace, and solutions to our present experiences.
In Cause Reign’s DREAM School, students are taught to prepare themselves for Ceremony by cleaning, grounding, opening, listening, closing, reflecting, and resetting. We invite you to consider following this same process as you experience the DADA exhibition.
DADA is asking questions of what do we remember and what can we dream. How is DADA and DOULA, a person who supports a birther in giving birth to a child and all other stages of perinatal health, an overlapping concept? Tyrell was reminded of a story he heard that in an African culture the father dreams of the baby's arrival first. How can we re-frame the role of the father in diaspora to be that of a doula who ushers in future generations and nurtures dreams of paradigm shifts? What other paradigm shifts does DADA encourage us to pursue?
Remember that creating and birthing art is sacred. It is expected to credit the artist no matter what when sharing the artwork. If you would like to tip or invest in an artist, you may do so here: https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/cause-reign Contributions to artists will be distributed on August 1, 2020.
DADA is never whole without MAMA.
MAMA is an oral history preservation and intention of Matriarchal African Memory Apparatus. An ode to the mitochondrial DNA that tells of our roots. Oral history will be collected through writing and recordings from the audience members regarding their dream practices and responses to the exhibition. Be brave and join us in this remembering.
MAMA and DADA need ALL to support them in all their transitions.
ALL is a declaration of African Legacy Lingers. It is representative of the transitional space of diaspora that gives way to many fluid understandings of spacetime, gender, lineage, sustainability, and identity. The touring exhibitions events will facilitate round tables across socioeconomic strata and will also feature two regional performers. The exhibition events are free and open to the public.
After the conclusion of the tour, we will release a print version of the anthology, which will also include curated transcripts from MAMA. The print anthology will be available for purchase and to pass on to future generations.
ALL is a geographical mapping that is curated round tables across socioeconomic strata to create catalysts for climate change preparations, that is to say, healing from the effects of colonization. ALL is plots on the map where all participants have lived and where their families are from.
Ask your questions. What are your ancestors calling you to remember? What can they tell you about who you are?