Afrofuturism A Practice of Radical Self Love

in the spring

of 2013 i was in a near fatal encounter

with a black new orleans police officer

in an instant i went from sitting in a

parked car

having a close conversation with a dear

friend

to suddenly and violently being taken

from the car

with my hands cuffed behind my back my

knees pressed into the ground

my face pressed into the door of the car

and with a loaded gun placed at my

temple

by a law enforcement agent hi

my name is jamil paulin and i’m a

survivor

of the american police state more than

that

however i’m a visual artist

and as traumatic as that experience was

it was also transformative igniting me

with a passion and a commitment to the

work of black liberation

and the story that i like to share

tonight is my journey

to making black lives matter a fully

integrated

way of life as well as an art practice

now to set the stage i like to first

talk about

anti-black violence as a visual language

and as such it is a way of communicating

power

from those who are dominant to those who

are subordinate

now as a student of art history and as

someone raised in the catholic church

i was keenly aware of the power that

religious imagery has

in transforming suffering and

subordination

to strength and salvation after all

from the perspective of state-sanctioned

violence

against unarmed and innocent civilians

what truly distinguishes the murder of

brianna taylor

from the passion of jesus christ

and with that perspective in mind in

2017 i produced this painting

titled community oriented policing

which depicts the murder of brother

alton sterling

by two white baton rouge police officers

the idea being that if we the viewer

could see alton sterling’s death in the

same light

and with the same reverence that we look

at the crucifixion

for example perhaps brother sterling

could

assume some power in death that he was

denied in his life

but in the wake of making this painting

i came to two troubling realizations

the first was that perpetuating these

images

even in an art context and even in a

religious context

reinforced and reproduces the narrative

of the black body and the black person

as suffering

as subordinate and as powerless

and the second troubling realization was

that the process of making this work was

deeply re-traumatizing for myself

forcing me to relive my own near-death

experience

over the course of several months which

begged the question

how do i confront anti-black violence in

a way that offers healing

and strength to the black viewer as well

as to myself

luckily i would find my answer in

afrofuturism

now to me afrofuturism represents much

more than simply

a subgenre of science fiction literature

or music rather i see afrofuturism as a

multi-generational project

where artists writers thinkers and

musicians

have transformed the very way that we

see and experience the world around us

simply by making descendants of the

african diaspora

the center of their world view

and in my daily life i use afrofuturism

as a practice of radical self-love

a way of living and working where i

consistently

and intentionally affirm my blackness

and my africanness

from the inside out and this journey to

becoming an afrofuturist

yielded most recently my project

congo square an audio visual album

that i produced and developed for

virtual reality

and the scene from that project that

most vividly expresses my understanding

and application of afrofuturism

is sankofa now at times

this symbol which derives its name from

the

adinkra symbols of the akan peoples

is presented in this orientation

at other times it is presented as a bird

with two heads facing forwards and

backwards simultaneously

and this symbol is used to illustrate

the proverb

go back to one’s past and bring forward

that which is useful

and in sankofa in particular and in

congo square more generally what i

sought to create were expansive

liberated virtual worlds with a ground

beneath you

the sky above you and everything in

between

are manifestations and expressions of

radical black love

so how can you practice afrofuturism

in your daily life allow me to offer

four suggestions first

fall in love with your blackness and

your africanness

connecting to them both on a consistent

basis as sources of strength

and meaning and in this scene

titled black christ i created a sacred

space

fashioned from the digitized

representation of a kikongo power figure

and placed a monumental black body in

the center of that world

to demonstrate this theme

second honor your ancestors and learn

from their wisdom

now i’m a firm believer that our

ancestors live on through us

through the memories that we carry of

who they were

through the interpretations that we make

of interactions and experiences that we

shared with them

and most importantly in how we

incorporate those memories

and interpretations into our waking life

and in this scene circle dance i pay

homage

to my ancestor john t scott and i

contribute

to his non-linear and afrocentric

approach to art making

by introducing the hip-hop techniques of

sampling

and visual and digital immersion as

tools and techniques for experiencing

and expressing afrocentric and

afrofuturist concepts

third practice meditation and other

forms of self-care

to heal from trauma i myself

still experience heightened stress

responses whenever i see

police cars in my field of view and

especially

when i see new cases of brothers and

sisters being killed by police

but over time and through diligent

practice of mindfulness meditation i’m

learning

to improve my quality of life by

lessening my general anxiety and

reprogramming those trauma responses

and i would offer comedic yoga reiki

and other forms of energy healing as

well as aromatherapy

as other avenues of self-care

and finally support black artists

art and the artists who make them

often help us process and make meaning

out of experiences that are too profound

to put into words

artists like april tsunami david michael

scott woods mark lomax fiores west

just to name a few of the brilliant

black artists who live right here in

columbus ohio

so my hope and my invitation is that

we as the black community can affirm

uplift and amplify these voices who are

working in our midst

so that together in love and in

solidarity

we can transform this world into a place

where all

black lives matter all the time

thank you

you