Fishtrap/A’we deh ya STX gears up

The last of two study groups dedicated to the relaunch of Building a Better Fishtrap/A’we deh ya took place on Sunday, May 19th 2024.

Angela’s Pulse’s Executive Artistic Director, Paloma McGregor, was joined by six of the program’s collaborators to continue exploring the direction for the next iteration of the performance project dedicated to honoring the vanishing fishing tradition of her father.

This season, Angela’s Pulse will be expanding its exploration and connection to Paloma’s ancestral home, St. Croix. The study group spent its time sharing practices inspired by excerpts from Alexis Pauline Gumb’s M Archive: After the End of the World. The exercises were meant to prepare the group for their travels to the island of St.Croix where they will engage with local artists, culture bearers and the community to bring A’we deh ya to the next level.

St. Croix-based collaborator Monica Marin shared an interview in which Audre Lorde discusses her experience of “blackfullness” in St. Croix, then Paloma led the group in a free write that resulted in a series of poems, including:

“Blackfullness is…Speaking myself into existence from the cosmological dust of my grandmother’s grandmother grandmother’s mother mother mother….” 

Oceana James (St. Croix/NYC)

“Blackfullness is that man is wearing an oil, like frankincense or something so intoxicating,  I can see it applied behind his ear and on his wrists, making his black skin shine so much more convincingly.”

Sayeeda Carter (St. Croix)

Blackfullness is …

The soul clap in the house cypher

How it sends me into sweat, revery, and trance

In the shrine, meeting

My ancestors soul deep

Blackfullness is.

Nina Angela Mercer (Washington, D.C.)

---

Reflection contributed by

Angela's Pulse's Project Manager, Sesheta Tanya Holder.