Meditations on Ancestral Care with Sannii Crespina-flores
Hi BWB fam,
We're rounding out this month with a trio of photographs and poems by multidisciplinary artist and advocate Sannii Crespina-flores. The following meditations reflect a deep well of love and gratitude for the Black maternal figure and her legacy of care that we, as her descendants, have inherited. In addition to sitting with and appreciating the following work, I would also encourage our readers to sit with their own family legacies and consider deeply how we may turn acts of sustaining and upholding black life into everyday practice, as our ancestors did. What rituals of care does your family keep? What practices haven't been kept and why? What practices of care have you invented through your own power, for your own needs? Let us remember that love is as innovative as it is sustaining, and to embrace our own creative power as we move through the wisdom of our foremothers.
-Courtney Hunter
Fruitful:
Tart lesson of life
sweetened by grandma's love song
seeds sown in light
a bountiful tree of precious fruit
cared for by momma's hands ~ Sannii Crespina-flores
Legacy:
Shake loose the ancestral cloth
gentle breeze marking their arrival
fiercely protected line ~ Sannii Crespina-flores
Flowers:
This singular love
will grow wild, free and unharmed
a black woman's love ~ Sannii Crespina-flores
Sannii Crespina-flores is the founder of the Un-Inhibited Muse Film Festival, the global youth initiative Do Remember Me and the art collaborative Yram Collective. She has screened work at the 60th Cannes and was awarded the grand prize for the short story challenge at the 15th Sundance Film Festivals. She advocates for women and youth through pose, life castings and film. Her work has been on exhibit in Budapest, Colombia, South Africa, London and Italy as well the U.S. She has received grants from the City of Philadelphia, AT&T and the Leeway Foundation to create works for independent television, cultural organizations and is the board chair of the Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation. She has also contributed to academic publications and created learning guides for TED Ed, National Geographic and the Hip Hop Education Center. To learn more, visit www.moonbeamsandholywater.com and check out her instagram @moonbeamsandholywater