Returning Queer: Curating a Memory of Space Making
<p>I spent six days on Kindred on the Rock in Point Hill Jamaica, a part of the first cohort of artist / Jamaican kin / queer / community to experience the experiment that <a href="https://www.staceyannchin.net/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank"><strong>Staceyann Chin</strong></a><strong> </strong>cultivated during her return back to Jamaica. As I came back home to Philadelphia, PA and my body started maneuvering a form of reentry into the place I call home that was somewhat overwhelming, I walked to Clark Park in West Philly and was reminded by Lenne (@dopegirlfresh) that I had time traveled. Kindred on the Rock was built in Jamaica by a lesbian Jamaican renowned poet, for queer people to convene in Jamaica, made up of large acres of land to breathe free. It felt like a queer future however with current place and space realities that can be uncomfortable to maneuver. I needed Lenne’s reminder and phrasing to synthesize an experience of my body archiving a memory related to time, land, and space making.</p>
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<p>Artists whose work stems from the field of afrofuturism, might turn to Samuel R. Delany’s “The Necessity of Tomorrow(s)” to make sense of consorting time. I think it is appropriate here:</p>
<p>“We need images of tomorrow, and our people need them more than most. Without an image of tomorrow, one is trapped by blind history, economics, and politics beyond our control. One is tied up in a web, in a net with no clear way to struggle free. Only by having clear and vital images of the many alternatives, good and bad, of where one can go, will we have any control over the way we may actually get there in a reality tomorrow will bring all too quickly,”</p>
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<p>I returned back to Jamaica after years of feeling removed / during American Pride month June 2023 / and queer. What I found was that my body needed new soil. A soil that allowed my body room to grow new roots. The thing about time traveling for me is that my body gets nauseous and my thoughts get blurred, but when settled I am new.</p>
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