i wanna read tarot
i wanna smoke some hookah
i wanna write a poem like dunbar or sonia sanchez or
i wanna read a poem
i wanna write an essay like baldwin or wright or
i wanna paint a picture
i wanna ‘nother tattoo, maybe the wings of isis or the magician tarot
i wanna spend time at my altar
i wanna sit at my great-grandmother’s feet and listen to her speak
i wanna wash some greens n snap some peas
i wanna listen to baduizm ‘n steep some tea
i wanna sing along to tyrone and feel like im in a 90s soul lounge (again)
i wanna sing along to certainly, cause the world is mine when i wake up
i wanna stretch in the morning
i wanna pray in the predawn hour
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“The cerebral cortex is a liberation [. . . ] No longer at the mercy of the reptile brain, we can change ourselves.” –Carl Sagan
The cerebral cortex is the most evolutionarily recent part of our brains. It governs reasoning, memory, empathy, and other forms of higher thought. It also contains the bulk of the brain’s grey matter, which is the mass that allows for new neural pathways to be built — and thus new ways of receiving stimuli and perceiving reality.
The cerebral cortex is in direct contrast with the limbic system, or reptile brain, in both age and function. The amygdala, located in the limbic system, is the first of the brain to process sensory input. It triages stimuli into one of two categories: threatening and nonthreatening. If stimuli is deemed as threatening, a defense mechanism is triggered. This defense may be an extreme one, such as fight of flight; or, it may be more benign, such as cognitive dissonance. If the incoming stimuli is read as nonthreatening, it is passed onto the cerebral cortex to be further processed.
I often wonder what these physiological facts and neurological binaries mean for the world-at-large as we grapple with so many sociopolitical indictments and undoings. How does the amygdala decide what is and what isn’t threatening? What does the amygdala of, say, George Zimmerman look like?
The brain processes visual stimuli first. When you see something in the corner of your eye and flinch without first knowing what the visual is, that’s the amygdala in action. When I read this neurological fact, I immediately thought of representation in the media: who do we see most? Who are we most acclimated to? What populations have been inured to the neurons of the masses? What races, gender identities, languages? Who receives neurological dominance?
Further, I wonder what this means in terms of the meanings we attach to these images and their corresponding social facts. Despite growing diversity in the media industry, the roles being filled by marginalized people are roles of marginalized lives: slave, murderer, criminal, impoverished family. Rarely do we see roles with a strong lead from a colonized nationality engaged in life’s day-to-day and expected successes.
But we are not trapped or forever indebted to our current perceptions. As neuroscience reveals to us, any oppressive sentiment can be reduced to a few localized neuronal firings. These neurochemical sequences do not exist in permanence; they can be changed, refined, rewired.
What could the world look like if we attached new meanings to the images of marginalized people? If we reworked the forms these images took, or even reconceptualized what is even worthy of fearful response?
All these revolutions are not only possible, but waiting for us with our cerebral cortices and grey matter. Within us is the power to rewire a thousand realities into something more wholesome and conducive to the flowering of all. Yes; the cerebral cortex is a liberation — a portal toward new new ways of functioning — both individually and collectively; physiologically and socially; culturally and politically.
ADDITIONAL READING
https://www.brainscape.com/blog/2012/03/facts-about-your-gray-matter/
http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/d/d_04/d_04_cr/d_04_cr_peu/d_04_cr_peu.html#2
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I believe in living.
I believe in the spectrum
of Beta days and Gamma people.
I believe in sunshine.
In windmills and waterfalls,
tricycles and rocking chairs.
And i believe that seeds grow into sprouts.
And sprouts grow into trees.
I believe in the magic of the hands.
And in the wisdom of the eyes.
I believe in rain and tears.
And in the blood of infinity.
I believe in life.
And i have seen the death parade
march through the torso of the earth,
sculpting mud bodies in its path.
I have seen the destruction of the daylight,
and seen bloodthirsty maggots
prayed to and saluted.
I have seen the kind become the blind
and the blind become the bind
in one easy lesson.
I have walked on cut glass.
I have eaten crow and blunder bread
and breathed the stench of indifference.
I have been locked by the lawless.
Handcuffed by the haters.
Gagged by the greedy.
And, if i know any thing at all,
it’s that a wall is just a wall
and nothing more at all.
It can be broken down.
I believe in living.
I believe in birth.
I believe in the sweat of love
and in the fire of truth.
And i believe that a lost ship,
steered by tired, seasick sailors,
can still be guided home
to port.
IMAGES FROM A TWELVE MINUTE SOLO PERFORMANCE WORK I SHOWCASED IN MARCH OF 2017. THE WORKING THEME WAS ANCESTRY, TRAUMA, AND THE TRIUMPH WAITING TO BE ACTIVATED IN THE FORMER TWO ITEMS. ASSATA SHAKUR’S AFFIRMATION WAS INCORPORATED INTO THE SOLO WORK.
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HOW TO ATTAIN PROPRIETY OVER YOUR FREQUENCY
The human body is an electric entity. Beyond being comprised of atoms and elements with their respective charges, our nervous system and accompanying neurology is an electric body. Thoughts and other synapses are all electric firings within. The heart possesses and simultaneously projects its own measurable electromagnetic field; this field fluxes in size, width, and frequency.
Every phenomena in our experience carries an energetic signature — thoughts, speech, and even food. Cymatics and Kirlian photography are two examples of this:
CYMATICS is the study of the interactions between sound waves and matter. Certain frequencies produce geometric patterns in matter.
KIRLIAN PHOTOGRAPHY is a form of contact-print photography. Named after Semyon Kirlian, the method hints at an existence of quantifiable auras and life forces of matter. This idea, when contextualized with the debate on ‘live-food’ versus ‘dead-food’ is particularly compelling:
The above are just a few examples of the subtle energies that exist and interact with ours. Though government funded science wouldn’t overtly tell us this, our electric fields shift in respect to our mood, thoughts, actions, diet, etc. This is why a vitamin-rich diet is not only important for digestive health, but energetic health as well.
These octaves of wellness can also be viewed as octaves of illness. Think about the havoc food desserts, fast food, and factory-produced food wreak on the human body and energetic field. Diet, among other things, can either strengthen or weaken frequency.
Propriety over our frequency is an agent of both resistance and liberation. Reclaiming energetic autonomy is a reclamation of all other forms of autonomy — the energetic wellness fractals out into other forms of wellness, or at least prompts the native to foster wellness in other areas of his/her/their life.
Shifting our vibrational pattern into a higher, more stable frequency can be as simple as a cup of tea — among other things. Here are some ways I stabilize my frequency:
A GLASS OF WATER.
Water is memory, nutriment, and the key to life. Our bodies are 90% water; the Earth, a macrocosm of the human body, is also predominantly composed of water. Weather systems shift primarily due to the interactions of water with the surrounding environments and elements. Water is not created or destroyed; the water we drink is the same water that was on Earth eons ago. Water is power; it flushes out our systems, erodes mountains, restores bodies, and destroys lands. Meditating on this dynamism while hydrating my body is a quick and pleasurable practice — that also grounds and centers me. Try it.
ABOVE: CYMATICS EXPERIMENT ON WATER
DEEP BREATHING.
Water is life and so is breath. The human body can survive for weeks without food, days without water, but only minutes without air. Oxygen molecules in the air function as food + fuel for our brains. Taking a few seconds to take intentional breaths aligns all other systems of the body — heart rate, thought processing, and even eye movement. When I am stressed, I take a moment to breathe and recenter before re-engaging with the stimuli that initially triggered me out of cohesion.
A CIGARETTE.
A cigarette, for me, is the surrogate breathing meditation. Pulling out my papers, unscrewing my tobacco jar, and rolling a cigarette is a more tactile form of meditation. Inhaling the herb also requires deep breathing. Additionally, to smoke a cigarette, I also must reduce proximity between myself and whatever stimuli I am engaged with so not as to upset an asthmatic or a smoke alarm. I remove myself, I focus on the rolling, I smoke, I breathe.
A CUP OF TEA.
Boiling water and steeping tea that resonates with my frequency is very therapeutic. My tea of choice is a strong Jasmine. Taking cautious sips right after the steep is complete, but the mug is too hot, is a way to calm myself and my nervous system down.
DANCING.
Dancing, or any somatic work, dislodges any latent stress or traumas lurking in the body. This website goes in depth about the process of accruing trauma, where it is stored, and how to release it. Wild animals don’t store trauma. Immediately after a traumatic event, they shake until their body has processed the trigger and ensuing situation. Humans, however, tuck away the weight of the experience until a more opportune time to process arises. Moving my body to Fela Kuti or Beyonce gets me sweating — and in that release, the fat cells that also held memory and other material, are dislodged forever from my body. It is a catharsis.
These tactics are not shared with the guarantee of liberating all who read and employ from the systems that oppress them; rather, I share these tactics so that those oppressed by various systems can find clarity before they engage with or are engaged by what oppresses them / interferes with their frequency.
We are living in an unnatural world that contorts our needs to fit the aims of the capitalist, colonial state. This is something we can combat in intentional, microscopic ways and trust our efforts will fractal into something larger. It is the birthright of us all to not only have strong, stable frequencies; but also to amplify and interact with other frequencies and waveforms at will. The frequency, and thus experience, of wellness is our natural state.
subatomic thoughts 