“The material accusations of this pandemic explosion turned many of us into fugitives… unable to fit neatly into the room along with the other furniture pieces of modern arrangements. Unable to keep walking forward.
“Where do monsters and fugitives go when they are chased and accused by the surface? Where do they go when the flatness of the human has already purged the world of its bumps and grooves and sacred places? They descend to the underworld. They go through the cracks of their broken landscapes... They take on new shapes. They make sanctuary.” - Bayo Akomolafe.
From October to January 2021, I will be participating in We Will Dance With Mountains, a course hosted by Bayo Akomolafe and teachers: Woman Stands Shining - Pat Mccabe, Akilah S. Richards and David Abram.
The quote above is from the course's website. I registered on the last day of what for a while was my ideal job (until last month, Liberation Works was my side project). The weeks before leaving that job, I had found myself shaking from my belly, as if to shed off skin - though parts of me insisted on holding on to the falling pieces. It's been a slow process of wrestling with notions of responsibility and grieving ideas of change, purpose and urgency, in the context of the climate crisis. In the end, I found myself feeling grateful for the experience and opportunities I was granted in this part of my journey, and stating that "it was time for me to offer my skills, in collaboration with others, to the creative exploration and recognition of 'other spaces of power'".
This course feels like a timely and clear opportunity for me to act on that intention.
Now, as I prepare to start the course, I find myself asking these questions:
- How is being a fugitive not escaping?
- What is the difference between letting go and giving up?
- Can we leave the highway, without being complicit in the terrible crash that is underway?
- Where can we find conviction, outside of ideologies?
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May we embrace the invitation to fugitivity, freeing ourselves from rigidity, opening up to possibilities.
