“The stories begin from the premise that liberation is an already existing and unfinished and unmet possibility, laced with creative labor, that emerges from the ongoing collaborative expression of black humanity and black livingness.”
Excerpt From
Dear Science and Other Stories
Katherine McKittrick
I’m not smiling. I’m not making eye contact. I’m going about my business.
I’m taking up space. My space. Nobody else’s. Mine.
There’s something that’s been happening. I’ve been noticing a shift in the way I’ve been operating.
I’d say it’s since I went on the Black Women’s Creative Retreat at the end of August. probably it’s been rumbling in the background. But this experience crystallised it for me.
It was me with 3 other black women camping in a field in Hamsterley Forest. I need to write further about this experience. But for now, I’d say that for a short time we existed in our own timespace. For a short time, we built our own world. A world in which we were centred and celebrated. Seen and heard. And loved unconditionally.
And then we had to return to ‘civilisation’. What a shock to the system! People are rude. Period.
And I’m no longer giving them the time. My time. My attention. Because they do not see me. They look right through me or they be ignorant towards me.
The image above is part of a new series I’m playing with.
i ain’t smiling.
More to follow.
Living Wild Studios 