A Liberatory Orientation to the Land: Affinity Space for BIPOC
Sunday, August 27, 9am-noon CST at A Studio In the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd, New Orleans, LA 70131
Bringing Indigenous land acknowledgement into practice, BIPOC resident artists, scholars, and Bvlbancha community are invited to this land-based ceremony to orient to the land's complex history of slavery, cultural resistance, and Indigenous stewardship. We will gather in circle on this former sugarcane plantation to engage decolonial liberatory praxis that ground us in relationship with the land and each other. Through Afro-Indigenous Gulf South healing folqways of ancestral ritual, storytelling, and freedom singing we address lineages of racist land-based trauma and cultivate a kinship network of support.
*Note: The work of decolonizing and cultivating relationship with land and each other is an ongoing process. BIPOC artists and scholars who have previously been in residence as well as the local Bvlbancha (New Orleans) community are absolutely welcome to attend our in-person land orientation on August 27th. Our intention is to grow a liberatory community over time and that is never a one time event.
*If you are a BIPOC artist or scholar in residence this year, and you are not able to attend the 27th, no worries! You are welcome to join our virtual BIPOC Liberatory Orientation to the Land on September 10th from 10am-12pm CT. Invitation to follow.
Preparing to enter the space:
An invitation to wear white clothing
Please park on the road and consider carpooling with a friend
Wear shoes for uneven terrain
You are invited to bring an item for our ancestral altar (which you will be able to take home with you
About this series:
This orientation series is emerging from A Studio in the Woods’ ongoing commitment to DEIA+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Justice). ASITW has partnered with former Adaptations Artist-in-Residence ChE (Xe/ they/ them), Founder of F R E E D O M L A N D : Liberatory Coaching, Consulting, & Rites-of-Passages to steward them through this process.
F R E E D O M L A N D embodies a commitment to healing transgenerational impacts of oppression and decolonizing our social justice movements to steward liberatory worlds into being. Learn more at wefreedom.land.