Project You're Not Ni**as
14 April 2023
The Artist's Statement:
What is a ni___?
When is the first time you heard that “word”; how did it make you feel?
History (and origin) shows us that any one or one deemed to be a ni___ is deserving and destined to be unloved, cursed, made poor, tortured, killed by other non-white people but especially those people who crafted and benefit the most from the concept and use of it. You are being dared to come into knowledge and overstand: You’re not ni___s.
How does a person "come into knowledge"? One way is by old fashioned reading... Books are micro-universes replete of principles and morals that have been shunned by modernity, convenience, and societal standards of cruelty and crudeness. Since reading more about Kemet, the Laws of Ma'at, and West Africa prior to the Maafa–and also seeing images in these books of unbothered living among Africa's indigenous then and (somewhat) now, more than feelings of esteem and ownership came over me. I know this insight was planned for people like me to see and understand, even though it took thousands of years to make it to my eyes– I found it/it found me. I am more than happy to alert my kindred of this inner glow and to share this ambition to resurrect our consciousness from the daily brain-trashing we endure from systematic mistreatment and propaganda.
Way two, and more impactful, is spending time & listening to older family members. Please, listen to learn–not merely placate. The generations of The Great Migration, World Wars 1 & 2, Reconstruction are just about all gone! I was blessed, fortunate, honored and well thought of by the Universe to be in the care of my Grandmother for all my life until 2014. She "learned" me so much that remembrance of her lessons are done as I live and breathe. The humble times she had wearing the same dress to school for months, milking cows in the mornings and laboring in cotton fields AS A CHILD, and then her later triumphs of finishing business school and rearing daughters after an awful divorce also instilled the knowledge that anything is possible because the possibility begins in the MIND. Therefore, it was that much simpler for me to stand tall against any deformation of our character.
You're not ni__as. Not now, not ever. Even on your worst day–you're not ni__as.
Ankh • Udja • Seneb
R.P.
The Artist's Statement:
What is a ni___?
When is the first time you heard that “word”; how did it make you feel?
History (and origin) shows us that any one or one deemed to be a ni___ is deserving and destined to be unloved, cursed, made poor, tortured, killed by other non-white people but especially those people who crafted and benefit the most from the concept and use of it. You are being dared to come into knowledge and overstand: You’re not ni___s.
How does a person "come into knowledge"? One way is by old fashioned reading... Books are micro-universes replete of principles and morals that have been shunned by modernity, convenience, and societal standards of cruelty and crudeness. Since reading more about Kemet, the Laws of Ma'at, and West Africa prior to the Maafa–and also seeing images in these books of unbothered living among Africa's indigenous then and (somewhat) now, more than feelings of esteem and ownership came over me. I know this insight was planned for people like me to see and understand, even though it took thousands of years to make it to my eyes– I found it/it found me. I am more than happy to alert my kindred of this inner glow and to share this ambition to resurrect our consciousness from the daily brain-trashing we endure from systematic mistreatment and propaganda.
Way two, and more impactful, is spending time & listening to older family members. Please, listen to learn–not merely placate. The generations of The Great Migration, World Wars 1 & 2, Reconstruction are just about all gone! I was blessed, fortunate, honored and well thought of by the Universe to be in the care of my Grandmother for all my life until 2014. She "learned" me so much that remembrance of her lessons are done as I live and breathe. The humble times she had wearing the same dress to school for months, milking cows in the mornings and laboring in cotton fields AS A CHILD, and then her later triumphs of finishing business school and rearing daughters after an awful divorce also instilled the knowledge that anything is possible because the possibility begins in the MIND. Therefore, it was that much simpler for me to stand tall against any deformation of our character.
You're not ni__as. Not now, not ever. Even on your worst day–you're not ni__as.
Ankh • Udja • Seneb
R.P.
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