Puerto Rico

Support the Vision here: https://app.moonclerk.com/pay/aqpfk9bm1 Video Transcript "Hello, hello. I'm Toi, aka Afro-Genderqueer/philosophactivist. I’m a storyteller, an artivist (art activist), and an afro- visionary, Resistencia: Sangre is my second community play and novel that will take you, the co-authors, deep into exploration of Afro-Boricua and Taino identity and spirituality while also exploring liberation- Puerto Rican independence and anarchy. We follow a group of radical, queer independentistas involved in Puerto Rico's underground movement and music scene who are dismantling the current system and working steadily toward collective liberation of the island's People. The group find out that their current story is the continuation of a much older story told in parallel by their ancestors and radical predecessors. Resistencia: Sangre is important because it is all about reclamation and resistance. For far too long, we've been denied our histories and forced to forget our roots and expected to assimilate. Afro-Boricuas and Tainos, especially those inhabiting queer bodies, have a rich history of political and cultural radicalism that is seldom told. Weaving together the stories of characters that embody countercultures, feminist and anti-authoritarian historical figures, and African and Taino ancestry, Resistencia: Sangre will help us uncover the more hidden side of the Island's rich culture of dissent." Reclamation is healing. Healing is resistance. Resistencia: Sangre isn't for broadway or fancy, inaccessible bookstores with coffeeshops in fast gentrifying areas. This is for the People. I want to bring this to queer communities of color, our families, friends and allies. Resistencia: Sangre is meant to inspire dialogue that recognizes the significance of incorporating our spiritual roots, cultural ancestry and political heritage into our collective struggles to create a world free from exploitation. While Resistencia: Sangre focuses on a specific group of Puerto Ricans, the themes addressed within: Themes on • Liberation, • Independence/Interdependence, • Autonomy/Sovereignty, • Trans and Queer identity and injustice, • LGBT/Queer Rights, Land rights, • Environmental and Food Justice, • Economic justice and Gender justice. • Suppressed Afro-Puerto Rican and Taino histories • the history of our anti-authoritarian predecessors are relevant to peoples of all racial/ethnic identities who are engaged in a struggle to dismantle oppressive hierarchies of power and reclaim their humanity. Indigenous, Australian (Murri) artist and activist Lilla Watson once said: "If you have come here to help me, you are wasting our time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together." Our liberation is bound up together. And as Martin Luther King, Jr. said: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." When we listen to each others' stories we begin to understand the complexities that have led to our oppression, our roles in the oppression of others, and what it will take as a larger community to heal from and transform a system based on suppression, invisibilizing, and invalidation. Just as it took hundreds of years of careful crafting for this ridiculous system to dominate the world, it will be a slow process to dismantle it. It starts with compassionate and transformational dialogue and blossoms into strategic action. But this is not just about the community’s healing. It is also about my own personal healing.Writing Resistencia: Sangre is like medicine. Writing this story is deep spiritual work and ancestral healing. I’m healing ancestral wounds by answering their calls to remember all that has been suppressed, erased and forgotten. As I do this research, I’m learning what connects me to our predecessors and my ancestors. Once I know who they were, I can know who I am and what I’m here to do as an artivist. Extended version: At Patio Taller I will do further research and write our histories as black Boricua, queer, radical, anti-authoritarian, feminists, etc. back into existence. I will do readings of the scenes from the play/novella in progress and begin developing a workshop that concentrates on creating social change through our art, sharing suppressed Afro-Boricua and Taino histories, sharing dialogue and/or creating pieces on healing from internalized oppression and addressing systemic oppression through writing/visual media. The workshops will discuss main themes of the play mentioned earlier. It’s about time we started talking about the roots of our radical history so we can begin healing individually and collectively and rise up to transform society by ending oppression and exploitation and creating the society we can all thrive in together peacefully and autonomously, honoring each other's differences.

• published: 31 May 2014
• views: 48