Today on the train a black woman three seats away offered me a seat next to her
Smiled
Nodded
Mouthing words of understanding
Kindred Spirits
Pleasing and appeasing the needs of others with less of an ancestral weight
of womaness
of blackness
The seat was left empty for stops
Emptiness filled with fear of black skin and
kindness for her likeness
Can I get a witness?
Can I get a witness?
To stand still, take note, connect
In love with new, in touch with old
Holland Cotter on Alma Thomas
My thoughts on my medium
Using a system mastered by masters to describe my life
Paint as descriptor
Index and personal history
Familial power
Blood and cells
Trauma on a cellular level
Joy on a cellular level
Passed down
My sister taught me of Henrietta Lacks
She wrote about connectedness
She had no idea how truly connected she was
Terroir
Terroir is the set of all environmental factors that affect a crop’s phenotype
Hamza Walker
Man as descriptor
Descriptor
Index
Finger and hand
Body and blood again
Transfer the weight
The joy
Hold it
Hold it there
Stand still, take note, connect
Can I get a witness?
born with a finite number
dissipating like jazz
on an inconsistent beat