People like to believe every human being is born with the right to prosper, to self-identify, to live without shame amongst others without the threat of annihilation. However, Western imperialism and its rippling effect on the globe produces a reality where these rights, in any instant, can be confiscated and refused in the name of profit, expansion, bigotry, racism, etc. The world continues to shift further away from the universal and divinely granted dignity embedded in every soul. How do we understand or, when necessary, reclaim our human rights (or the human rights of others) in the wake of war? How is global disarmament achievable without a universal understanding of dignity?

Making an impact means moving intentionally as we straddle the line between “craft” and the hard truth. Fargo Nissim Tbakhi says that “craft…is a counter revolutionary machine” which reproduces ethical failures. I plan to cultivate a conversation with this work and subsequent programming (readings, guided meditation for mindfulness, community therapy) which address disarmament, dismantling the counter revolutionary machine, and being unflinchingly radical, armed with the truth, in the wake of converging humanitarian catastrophes. As artists and writers, we must not let the imperial core reduce our offerings to “craft” – defanged and apolitical. 

Dignity materializes when it’s evoked and rooted in a visual language people can identify with. People understand and perform transactions at an exponential rate – those transactions are all embedded with a visual language based on magic and alchemy. Poetry, the hijacking and rearranging of language, may disrupt the cycle of ceaseless transactions, which turn people into commodities, digits, and instead, help us arrive at a universal understanding of human worth. Growing up under the leadership of critically engaged elders grounded us in storytelling/public speaking, grassroots organizing and cooperative economics which taught me that words and how you share them with others can shake people to their cores, in everlasting ways. Throughout my practice, I’ve collaged symbols and language through mixed media sculpture, performance, screenprinting and community activism.