A Note To the Viewer
Since I asked the artists I worked with to share a bit about themselves, I will do the same.
My name is Mikala Jones. My preferred pronouns are she/her/hers. I currently identify with Black feminist thought which believes all forms of oppression are connected, and therefore our approach to liberation must be from a place of love and intersectionality (inspired by "What Sistas Want, What Sistas Believe: Black Feminist Twelve Point Plan"). I was born and raised in Silver Spring, Maryland, and I am graduating from Sidwell Friends School this spring (a private school in Washington DC). I will attend Oberlin College in the fall of 2018. (Side note: When I was drafting the questions to ask the artists, I hesitated to ask them "Where are you from?" because the wording, similar to the question "What are you?," seemed to "other" the individual in question. I eventually settled on this wording because I wanted to make an intentional distinction between the place you reside and the place that you feel a connection to despite your current location.)
The responsibilities I assume as CORE creator are to work with the artists to share their truth and actively seek new participants who are willing to add to CORE's mission. Although difficult to hear, especially when I care so deeply about this project, I readily accept and urge everyone to send me respectful feedback and criticism (click here to get in contact with me). I want to continually grow as an activist, accomplice (a term inspired by Treva Lindsey whom I paraphrase explaining that an accomplice has something to lose whereas an ally can dip in-and-out) and global citizen with this platform. The only way I know how to grow is by learning from the people around me.
As a Black biracial woman, I sometimes struggle to find my place in a world that is so eager to place individuals in boxes and set rigid definitions for what it means to be Black, what it means to be a woman and what it means to be a Black woman. Earlier in the school year, I read Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldúa. She taught me how to “transform the small 'I' into the total Self" which is her poetic way of welcoming the messiness of identity. I am whole because of my contradictions, and I hope this project and the work I want to do in the future will continue to embrace the beautiful complexity of identity.
Below are some book, music, movie, and TV show recommendations. Enjoy!
Books:
1. Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
2. Electric Arches by Eve L. Ewing
3. The Burden of Memory, The Muse of Forgiveness by Wole Soyinka
Music: (This list could get very long so I'll only list ten)
1. Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe
2. Telefone by Noname
3. by Jamila WoodsHEAVN
4. Sink by Sudan Archives
5. Choose Your Weapon by Hiatus Kaiyote
6. Musas (Un Homenaje al Folclore Latinoamericano en Manos de Los Macorinos, Vol. 1) by Natalia Lafourcade
7. Bon Iver by Bon Iver
8. Aromanticism by Moses Sumney
9. An Awesome Wave by alt-J
10. Church by Kelsey Lu
Movies/TV:
1. Chef's Table
2. F For Fake
*This was written on May 30th, 2018*