NIKESHA BREEZE
EARTHSEED BLACK ARTS ALLIANCE
group of Black Santa Fe artists is creating an interactive sculpture for Burning Man, the festival of art and community created every Labor Day weekend in the Black Rock Desert east of Reno. Facing the Fear Beast is 37 feet long and 16 feet tall. A small child stands in front of a scaly monster as a soundtrack voices a litany of fears. As witnesses approach the sculpture, sensors react, the child lights up as if in connection to other people, and another frightened child is revealed in the mouth of the beast — that child is the beast.
“The story is about the ways we connect with each other. The fears we have around us are often a projection of our own pain and fears. We need connection with other people to see the truth,” says Nikesha Breeze, one of the artists working on the project.
Earthseed Black Arts Alliance has a guiding philosophy borrowed from the writings of Octavia Butler, a Black MacArthur Fellowship-winning science-fiction writer who died in 2006. The word “Earthseed” comes from the idea that the seeds of all life on Earth can be transplanted and through adaptation will grow in many different types of situations or places. Such is the hope of every Black artist struggling to thrive in New Mexico.
Earthseed will present Free to Move, a two-day mini-festival at SITE Santa Fe on July 2 and 3, part of the larger Moving Southwest Festival. In a state already rich in diversity, Earthseed artists remind us — as they proclaim on their website — that “representation matters.” The sheer variety of dance classes, performances, lectures, and films offered during Free to Move is a reminder that Black New Mexicans are here and have a lot to contribute to the dialogue around issues that all New Mexicans face. “Here we are — Energy, Mass, Life, Shaping Life, Mind, Shaping Mind, God, Shaping God. Consider — We are born Not with purpose, But with potential,” wrote Butler.
Breeze, an interdisciplinary artist and one of the founders of Earthseed, has her hands full at the moment. In addition to Facing the Fear Beast and her own work as a gallery artist (her recent Four Sites of Return installation was a 5,000-square foot exhibition in the University Gallery at New Mexico State in Las Cruces), Earthseed brought together Black artists and speakers on the Santa Fe Plaza for the second
A“Here we are — Energy, Mass, Life, Shaping Life, Mind, Shaping Mind, God, Shaping God. Consider — We are born Not with purpose, But with potential.” — Author Octavia Butler
annual Juneteenth Celebration, celebrating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans on June 19, 1865.
Sista Circle is a two-week summer camp for Black and biracial girls from across the state, also initiated by Earthseed last year. Breeze, who grew up in Oregon and was always the only African American student in her classes, says the experience of being a Black child in New Mexico can be isolating. “A recurring theme with our Sista Circle campers is that they have never sat in a room with 10 other people who look just like them.” The campers go rafting, visit museums, and take art and dance classes, all led by Black female counselors. “These kids are starving for role models,” Breeze says.
Along with Raashan Ahmad, an emcee, producer, DJ, label owner, and internationally touring musician, and Tigre Mashaal-Lively, a creator of large-scale installations, sculptures, murals, and immersive performance, Breeze is also coordinating the speakers and events at Free to Move.
“It’s a two-day sampling of Black dance in New Mexico, which most people have no idea exists,” she says. “We have a full series of morning workshops taught by Black artists, from African diasporic dance to organic movement practices. I’m teaching a class about authentic gesture, how to develop communication in a more poetic way.”
The DJs involved in the Earthseed festival will offer the opportunity to, as Breeze put it, “show up and get your booty shaking.” Panel discussions will touch on Afro Futurist performance art, she says, “the way contemporary artists are using ancestral and ritual practices and bridging into futurist landscapes.” A film festival and spoken word event will highlight evening programming.
One film, Stages of Tectonic Blackness, highlights the history of Blackdom, New Mexico, a 150-member, all-Black homestead community founded near Roswell in the early 1900s. The community disappeared by the 1930s after lack of rainfall, poor crop prices, and the encroachment of oil speculators. Breeze not only created a film, but also an 8-to-12-hour dance performance which took place at the site. Her research led to the discovery that her great-grandmother was one of the residents of Blackdom.
“We’re honoring the past and calling in the future,” Breeze says. — M.W.S.