ME, I AM A BUILDING develops a dialogue of how to heal or deconstruct site-specific intergenerational traumas by employing modernist (architecture and literature) methodologies that are equally Black American. Imagine a future where Black people can exist in an open state of joy. For communities like the Black community where the racial pandemic (criminalization, surveillance, and white supremacy) is equally as lethal as the viral pandemic being able to imagine yourself in the future where you can experience freedom is crucial. The fundamental ideological principles of the Bauhaus school and the European modernist movement can become blueprints for marginalized communities that are reimaging how they exist in the present and how they want to live in the future. As activists call for the dismantling of oppressive institutions and historical structures to create a more inclusive and liberating future, I am suggesting that marginal groups turn to the progressive ideologies embedded in modernist buildings and use them as sites to activate their narratives. Accessibility plays a major role in who can afford to physically manifest the future they want to live in.  

ME, I AM A BUILDING invites Black femmes to construct a new reality in the moment by using forms that are already built and extending their meaning to fulfill an emancipatory project. Much like the teaching of the Bauhaus, this isn’t the end of the mission but more of an opening of a dialogue. This project will allow me to investigate the histories of the structures and create rituals of movement to bridge the frequencies of freedom for the communities of Black folx that live in Germany and beyond. Modernist architecture created a diaspora of builders as its founders were forced to flee and seek utopia elsewhere. Since these forms of buildings are everywhere it gives folx around the Diaspora a way to reimagine the structures that surround us.

Just as there are costs in building a utopian structure, there are hidden costs related to the exclusion that Black people feel within and around institutional spaces which most of the modernist buildings in the U.S. have become. Although there have been discussions about the role structures play in impacting the collective psyche of a community in terms of white supremist monuments, the impact of modernist architecture on Black communities is under researched and discussed. ME, I AM A BUILDING plans to change that. --

On Friday, February 26th at 10 AM PST (1 PM EST / 6 PM GMT), Join #RadicalBlackFemme artist-in-residence, Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi, a.k.a. crazinisT artisT, for an immersive virtual workshop.

Blacksitioning is a reclamation ritual and a transitional rite exploring Blackness, human mortality, and our sense of belonging. The workshop is primarily open to Black identifying persons and allies who are interested in experimenting performance rituals while investigating the horrors of gender queerness, Blackness, white supremacy etc. Although the workshop is not a literal representation of our struggles it aims at allowing the participants to reflect on our vulnerabilities, fears, the powers we possess and the essence of our reclamation. 

LIMITED TO 20 PARTICIPANTS

Participants should come prepared with the following natural non-toxic household materials that will not be harmful if ingested. 

*Herbs with medicinal properties
*Salt is used to cleanse physically & spiritually and can replace the herbs
*The "mat" should be large enough to lay your entire body on