Image by S. Ez’rom Williams
Songs of Ascent
Opening Prayer: Lord, hear my cry. Our species is dying. Our earth is dying alongside it. Mainstream attempts at solving the problems of people and the planet are not working and the genocides occur with more frequency and environmental destruction rages rapidly. Our children are suffocating in political insurrection, climate change, infant and maternal mortality, an ever-expanding prison industry, rising sea levels, and natural resource shortages. Lord, we need the new earth of John’s apocalyptic vision. Show us the way there, today.
Mom, Archival Imaage
Memories in Playback
The history that is constituted within these tapes is accurate even though everyone involved is continuously excluded from it. The diva from California, California 1999 goes back to being a working mother with three children after the three-hour, thirty-minute recording stops. The don from Willie Hoggart Boat Ride moved from Jungle to the Bronx and has a restaurant on Gun Hill Road. The videographer who won numerous awards from members of the dancehall community is now married and living in Bermuda. What remains of them are the characters they acted out on tape, roles that are permanent even beyond the videos collecting dust on the top shelf of the closet. In the end, the memories are constantly in playback and through these memories, which live longer that people do, dancehall culture and its community continues to exist.
