finding the dead: another kind of fugitive map
I have spent most of my life being afraid of the the dead, death, and dying
Maybe this is in part due to the reality that much of being black + death isn't peaceful. Death conjures state-sanctioned violence, terror, pain, and, even commodification. Dying, death, and the dead rarely feel like the natural outcomes of life. instead, they often occur prematurely in black folks lives, underscoring the desired end goal of an anti-black world.
This reality of the living leaves my spirit drained, my soul depleted, and my emotional exhausted. But as I am learning, to fight against these attacks on the body, mind, soul, and spirit requires that I shed my fear of the dead because of they are my weapons against the living.
I am begging to talk to the dead.
so how does a fugitive do so?
a fugitive finds portals such as altars, Graveyards, swamps, praise houses, and, bibles to connect the physical world and spiritual realms. These liminal spaces are maps to ourselves.
Grave of two children, Flea Town Cemetery, Paul Kwilecki, 1979 Feb
In his description of “grave of two Children, Flea Town Cemetery,” Photographer Kwilecki asked “What are the fruit jars for? Flowers? If so, why some lids?" Although misnaming the jars left on the graves of Alma and Ford Jr. Carroll, Kwilecki Captured evidence of an African American tradition—Memory jugs. Filled with water, Memory jugs help facilitate the dead’s spirit Through to the afterlife. In this case, the family of 4-year-old Alma and the 3-month-old Ford Jr. To the spiritual realm.
This photo begs A different question: What Does it mean to remember that some of our ancestors are children?
Wooden grave marker with old glass pitcher in abandoned cemetery, Paul Kwilecki, 1983 Dec.
The Burial Ground is sacred. Left Untouched.
Untitled, by Gary Monroe, 1994
“Many conjurors used particular verses of the Songs of Solomon, Leviticus, the Book of Psalms and even the Book of Matthew for spell work.” —Glenville Ashby, ‘Religion & Culture: Hoodoo: The Life-Saving Magic of Southern Slaves.”
Swamp around Attapulgus Creek, Paul Kwilecki, 1982 Jan
Swamps, Forested wetlands, are undoubtedly spiritual places. The finda (kongo word for forest) and the Kalunga (kongo word for sea) represented key domains for the living to interact with the simbi and other nature spirits. —African-Atlantic Cultures and the South Carolina Lowcountry, Ras Michael Brown
to communicate with the dead is to nurture them while also protecting the fugitive self.
One might ask ‘How do you escape?’ I Would reply with “SURRENDER DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN THE PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL WORLD.” A FUGITIVE IN THE BLACK SOUTH RETURNS TO FOLK EPISTEMOLOGIES ROOTED IN THE KONGO COSMOGRAM. THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN LIVING AND DEAD IS BLURRED. INSTEAD, LIFE AND DEATH REPRESENTS RISING AND SETTING, “THE CIRCULAR MOTION OF HUMAN SOULS”
PLACE YOUR TRUST IN THE ANCESTORS, CONNECT WITH THE DEAD, EMBRACE (IM)MORTALITY TO GUIDANCE.
Woman in Her Bedroom, Halifax County, North Carolina, Alex Harris