The first part of “Blaxicana Futures” is now published in Ofrenda Magazine, a magazine dedicated to Xicanx and Latinx spirituality, Earth wisdoms, and healing arts. For this piece, I interweave ritual arts with a personal testimonio/testimonial about navigating space, place, and ancestor work as a Blaxicana (African-American and Xicana).
Read MoreOn Thursday, November 12, Naya co-facilitated an ancestor meditation called “Bodies, Breath, and Bone” with Ona McGovern at the National Young Farmers Coalition Annual Leadership Convergence. The Black, indigenous, and people of color-only space focused on reconnecting with ancestors and on reimagining the meaning of “ancestors.”
Read MoreMilwaukee, WI – Angela Smith, a long-time Milwaukee resident, rootworker, and fiber artist, has been awarded a Folk Arts Apprenticeship Grant from the Wisconsin State Arts Board for 2020-2021. The grant supports master artists as they pass down their craft to the next generation of cultural workers.
Read MoreFor this month’s e-letter, I wrote about “sweeping the yard”, a Black diaspora tradition of sweeping floors and the yard as household labor, ritual, and spiritual cleansing. Lately I’ve been inspired to sweep the ground beneath my feet – in a literal and figurative sense – with the busyness of spring. I must slow down. I must breathe.
As with so many old ways, “sweeping the yard” is practical and metaphysical. Sweeping the yard deters snakes. Sweeping keeps floors clean. And sweeping is a spiritual and energetic practice, one that removes negative, heavy, and repressed energy. One that tends to spirits who have stayed past their due.
Researchers have long connected swept yards of the American South and the Caribbean, with similar practices in West African yards and burial grounds. (See further reading below).
A Mini-Ritual
Though I don’t have a yard these days, I live in an apartment with an outdoor patio and an entryway. “Sweeping the yard” in my case is a bit more like sweeping the floors. Here’s a mini-ritual I practice in this smaller space, but it can apply just as well to larger homes with or without gardens.
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