Emma Dabiri
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Round up of the week !
🕑 Added 2020-10-09 13:10:48 +0000 UTCI was thinking that a round up of the week every Friday might be nice. A brief reflection on current affairs / what I've been up to, something of that nature.
This week has been an incredibly busy one for me. Black History Month is in full swing and I don't think I've ever seen one that has been as big as it this year, it's also worth noting that we now have Black History Month in Ireland. MY GOD! TIMES HAVE CHANGED!
I got home late last night, was making a cup of tea and suddenly felt overcome by a wave of sadness and something else more unspeakable thinking about the brutal death of George Floyd, and the fact that despicable action has been in many ways the catalyst for the increased visibility of Black History Month this year. I hope we are on the threshold of a new era in which the lynching of black people becomes a far distant memory rather then an everyday occurrence. I hope we can create a world in which people aren't forced by poverty, war and violence to flee their homes, to languish in camps or indeed Direct Provision centres at the margins of society, forced to seek to appeal to the humanity of forces that seem entirely disconnected from any.
How can we bring about change? it feels like we are far too deep into the abyss for the placards and protests of the past to bring about the deep structural change that is required in order to save us all from the excesses of late stage neoliberal capitalism and its cannibalisation of human being.
One of my favourite thinkers Fred Moten (who this week has been announced as a recipient of the 2020 MacArthur Genius award - so I'm in good company) reminds us that “we must change things or die. All of us. We must all change the things that are fucked up, and change cannot come in the form that we think of as “revolutionary” – not as a masculinist surge or an armed confrontation. Revolution will come in a form we cannot yet imagine”.
What does change look like?
Rest, slowing down, embodiment, altered consciousness, refusal of all the terms on offer , are all ideas of great interest to me at the moment. Not as a cop out, not out of laziness, but because we seem out of time and I'm not sure relying solely on "Protest" (with a capital P) diversity, inclusivity while remaining entrenched in our current systems /behaviours is enough, not even electoral politics, is enough to save us, we need something more then reform, we need something new (possibly ancient)
Do any of you follow the Nap Ministry? Her work about the radical power of rest is extraordinary.
I'm also really looking forward to starting the We Will Dance With Mountains course next week and exploring some of these themes more deeply.
Spk soon
Much love x
