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