“the people who had been dancing in circles. charting the way back. opening their bodies to be inhabited by the elements. you can say they had an advantage. or that their africanness foreshadowed everything, just as it had overshadowed everything before the end.
their yellow and green meant they could predict a world. their yoruba and akan meant they could feel a world coming. which is different from preparation. they didn’t prepare. they practiced. they played. the difference is important.”
— Alexis Pauline Gumbs, M Archive: After the End of the World
The Codes: Self Reflection
December 2021
The Codes: Self Reflection is a musical and danced rendering of my journey exploring roots and routes; of being in conversation with elders, ancestors, and my highest self; and of gleaning necessary insights from African traditional and diasporic spiritual systems. All have been tools to increase my understanding and embodiment of my highest self while surviving white supremacist patriarchal capitalism. The movement depicted in the visual is both choreographed and improvised, and I created and arranged the music. The visual was created in collaboration with Breylon Jones of Brilliant Views Productions.