Since 2010, the number of people sleeping rough in England has more than doubled and all other forms of homelessness (for instance, families living in temporary accommodation) are at record highs. Around eight hundred libraries have closed (a fifth of all libraries in the UK, most of them in deprived areas) and more than two hundred museums. In many cases, surviving institutions have reduced their hours and cut staff. More than a thousand publicly accessible swimming pools have been closed, and nearly 60 per cent of public toilets. So many bus routes have been cancelled that buses now cover 14 per cent fewer miles than in 2010. Councils face an estimated £14 billion backlog in road maintenance, with up to 50 per cent of roads judged to be at risk of complete deterioration within fifteen years.
[…]
Why,? with this record, did the Tories keep on winning?
These experiences shaped my understanding of what Quijano meant by ‘delinking’ (desenganche). Delinking from what – from the assumptions, principles and accumulations of meaning built upon the promises of modernity. 11
The second step of delinking is relinking. Relinking with what? According to Afro-Colombian thinker, activist and artist, Adolfo Alban Achinte to relink means to re-exist: not just in the sense of resistance but fundamental re-existence, for which there is no blueprint. It would be imperial to think that the necessary creativity once you delink from conceptual and emotional frameworks has been already mapped. It is up to the delinkers, so to speak, to work on their own relinking through their own memories, trajectories and forms of domination. However, I would say today that it is of the essence to relink with earth, with Pachamama (mother earth) as it is voiced in the South American Andes.
This exchange makes clear that decolonisation (as decoloniality) in the twenty-first century is not a master plan for liberation but a myriad of delinkings to re-emerge and re-exists in whatever communal we (each of us) find ourselves wounded by coloniality, which again are not the same for everyone.
Also, On Decoloniality, a series edited by Walter Mignolo & Catherine Walsh. 2018. “… constructing paths and praxis toward an otherwise of thinking, sensing, believing, doing, and living.”
The Practice of Diaspora is nothing short of a masterpiece. By looking at the way black life, thought, struggles and quite literally, words, are translated across the black Francophone and Anglophone worlds, Edwards reveals how Paris became a locus for the development of black modernism and internationalism during the crucial interwar years. Rather than search for some essential unity, he explores difference, creative tensions, misapprehensions and misunderstandings between key black intellectuals. The result is a spectacular interdisciplinary study that will profoundly change the way we think about the African diaspora.–Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
—just an ache that grew
until she knew she’d already lost everything
except desire, the red heft of it
warming her outstretched palm.
I Have Been a Stranger in a Strange Land, Rita Dove
“Kwè m si ou vle mwen pa konn ki sa ou ye Yon lonbrit ki pèdi kòd li nan mitan liv pwezi Yon flè choublak ki gen malozye Yon zwazo ak zèl li mare dèyè do l Mwen pantan sou ou san m pa t konnen kilès ou ye Jodi a bouch ou tètanba Rèl sa a pi gwo pase doulè w”
Ogun’s Return (Once Again… Statues Never Die), 2022 Inkjet print on Canson Platine Fibre Rag Framed: 60 1/4 x 79 7/8 x 2 1/4 inches / 153 x 203 x 5.6 cm Edition of 6 + 2 APs
One of the edition is in the Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, museum purchase with funds provided by Jorge M. Pérez, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the PAMM Ambassadors for Black Art.
Sculpture at Maurice A. Ferré Park managed by by the Bayfront Park Management Trust.
“Mais soudain il te tient le poème Comme si ta volonté n’importait pas Il te tient il est plus fort que toi Il est sous ta peau Il se cache dans ton sang”
Nicolas Niarchos on Manono, Congo and its extractive mining operations for ‘cassiterite, coltan, … wolframite, lithium, quartz, tourmalines, emeralds, copper.’ Granta.
“Manono’s cathedral still bears a plaque with the Latin legend Géomines Aedificavit 1942.
[…]
The mines beneath Manono were first mapped out in 1906. Congo was still officially the private property of King Leopold II, which he had seized in 1885. By the time Manono’s mines were being studied, Belgian colonists had already brutally exploited the land for its ivory and then its rubber, killing an estimated 10 million people. As Congo came under state control from Brussels in 1908, a new generation began to exploit the riches beneath its soil. Part of this new wave of exploration was the creation, in 1910, of the Compagnie Géologique et Minière des Ingénieurs et Industriels Belges, or Géomines. On the company’s share certificates, the firm’s ‘Social Seat’ was listed as Manono, Belgian Congo, but the ‘Administrative Seat’ – head office – was in Brussels.”
The concept of power encompasses various meanings yet remains fundamentally consistent across different contexts. Power is the driving force in shaping historical events, influencing societal frameworks, and currently defines our daily existence. Its multifaceted nature extends across societal hierarchies, political landscapes, and individual realities. Although it has many definitions, at its core power can be defined as the capacity to exert influence or control over others.
Power has the capacity to mobilize communities, amplify the voices of marginalized groups who challenge oppressive systems, and can hold personal significance, symbolizing strength, control, and the courage to instigate change within one’s own life or community.
Religious and spiritual powers are seen as a source of strength, guidance, and protection for many people who have faith in forces that can shape their lives. Accessing these powers through practice, prayer and meditation offers wisdom and direction. This connection to a higher entity emphasizes humility, compassion, and service to others, providing strength and guidance in challenging times.
Access to electrical power is a privilege that not only provides convenience but also the ability to unify as a society, enabling people to exert influence, obtain resources, and organize civil services which provide protection and safety. Collective power playing a crucial role in shaping one’s personal power.
Artists play an essential role in society by presenting diverse viewpoints, challenging established norms, and fostering critical discourse. Artistic representations of power can spark reflection, evoke emotions, and prompt viewers to contemplate their own positions within the broader spectrum of power dynamics.
For the fourth edition of Green Space Miami’s open call, artists are encouraged to delve into myriad dimensions of power, unravel its intricacies, question its structures, challenge its assumptions, or celebrate its potential for transformative change. The aim is to inspire a deeper understanding of this fundamental aspect of the human condition and provoke new insights into the complexities of power.
[…] l’écologie politique veut se reconstruire en force de changement social qui compte aux yeux des habitant·e·s de ce pays, elle doit le faire sur la base d’un projet antiraciste. L’enjeu n’est pas la survie d’un parti politique – ses idées trouveront leur place dans d’autres mouvements. La question est la constitution d’un antidote à la xénophobie et au repli nationaliste. Il pourrait être puissant à condition de travailler dans cette direction.
Car en écologie, « on » n’est jamais « chez soi ». On est toujours chez les autres : chez les hirondelles qui laissent tomber les graines qui font pousser les forêts, chez les vers de terre qui font respirer les sols et permettent l’agriculture, chez les rivières qui entretiennent le cycle de l’eau et hydrate le monde.
Mais aussi chez les peuples du désert qui nous apportent le savoir de la culture des sols arides, chez les avocats nigérians qui assignent Shell en justice contre les ravages de ses marées noires, chez les cultivatrices indiennes qui réactivent des semences anciennes pour défendre la biodiversité du monde, chez les peuples autochtones qui nous font comprendre que la modernité occidentale est une vision tronquée du monde.
[…]
L’écologie est une culture du souci du monde et de l’attention à celles et ceux qui l’habitent, humains ou non-humains. Elle est par essence contre les frontières et les assignations identitaires. Elle est la pensée du lien entre les espèces, de l’interdépendance, de la vulnérabilité partagée et de la nécessaire solidarité. Elle est métisse, hybride, vagabonde, internationaliste, décoloniale et no border.
