rasanblaj

I teach on the weekend but yesterday I needed a mental health day. On Friday I was thrilled to sit down with 7 other black women artists/scholars to talk about the richness and challenge of our hybrid lives in an affirming way. The rasanblaj, “defined as assembly, compilation, enlisting, regrouping, (of ideas, things, people, spirits),” was coordinated by Gina Athena Ulysse, a performance artist/scholar I met in Ghana last spring. Gina invited us “to symbolically break bread in the spirit of rasanblaj,” reminding us that, for Blacks in the Americas, “once upon a time gathering was a profound act of opposition and resistance.” We met at the Studio Museum of Harlem and sat at the table (above) installed by Theaster Gates; Glenn Ligon‘s illuminated artwork hung on the wall behind us and Nina Simone‘s voice drowned us out every few minutes, a song of hers I couldn’t name playing on a loop. At the table were playwrights, actors, performance artists, a sculptor, a poet, a figure skater (!), and a novelist. Some of us were old friends and some of us had never met before yet it didn’t take much for the words to flow. Something happens when people gather around a table. I hate mingling but I love dinner parties—it’s so much easier to get to know someone when you’re seated across from one another. There’s something automatically equitable about a table, especially when no one’s sitting “at the head.” You’re aware of who’s talking and who’s not, how each person is reacting to what’s being said. And for the most part, no one was checking her phone…We talked for two hours and then bundled up and walked over to The Cecil to continue the conversation. I didn’t end the night with an answer to my question: “Does art benefit or suffer from security?” But at least I left knowing that others are grappling with this question, too. Become an expatriate or never leave NYC? Stay in the academy or hustle to make art that sells? Go along to get along or put out-of-line people back in their place? We do it all, it seems. It’s rarely either/or. So I will finish this article for a UK website and then finish up my grading…