(5 of 5) edition xxvi | vol. iii
We are here on Edition XXVI of The Brown Pages!
On these virtual pages we believe in gettin’ our dopamine on our own terms! Consider this your official invitation to ditch the scroll and get around on the wings of a boll weevil, aka the beetle. There’ll always be one nearby to guide you back to the snazzy buttons below where you can select your next section. Now get outta here and go exploring.
Ma says, thick and teary.
It is August 28, 2021.
We are sitting in her car, parked on the lot that used to be my grandparents’ home.
14 years to the day since Grandad transitioned and just one year since Aunt Lisa.
Ma points past the cinder blocks that outline the long gone house’s foundation,
“over there used to be a big ol’ plum tree that Daddy planted.”
Knees held by the earth,
she'd plait blades of grass into
a little Black girl’s circle of protection.
“Yelp, that’s how I learned how to braid. I would spend all day circling this house...braiding grass.”
Not long after Grandad transitioned,
the house became a pile of black ash.
Remembering is a painful resurrection.
We ask Ma about Grandad’s time as the first Black police officer in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.
She grows quiet, folds her hands into a fence across her lap,
“That’s not the first time that house caught on fire.”
She remembers escaping as flames swelled behind her.
We have many questions about our family history but don’t wanna press Ma.
Instead we spent a few August afternoons at the Poplar Bluff Municipal Library where we microfiched for articles connected to Grandad’s time serving and protecting.
Eyes blurry from the screen and the tiny print, we’d take breaks by sitting at Grandad’s lot.
Eating lunches Ma had made, we rolled down the windows and allowed our memories to sprout Grandad’s house back into existence.
This edition dives into the final chapter of LITANY, DYNAMITE.
If you’ve been reading The Brown Pages/following our work then you might know that DYNAMITE began as a live solo work wrestling with Grandad's legacy
in this edition you'll find a section entitled Notes on Dynamite.
a glimpse inside our dramaturgy file
in this digital manila folder
we share what we uncovered researching in our birth town,
photos and memorabilia that Ma salvaged from the second fire,
and a bit of Missouri history.
Let’s get into it.
We invite you to grab a treat. a snack. some coffee. a joint. a cozy sweater and comfy seat. slow down and savor these meticulously crafted pages.
Thank you for being here with our work in this virtual meeting ground.
love and gratitude
Have you witnessed Dynamite??
Click on the newspaper clipping, Missouri's Bootheel and the union stamp for a deeper look into Grandad's life and the history of where we're from.
this land was almost
Arkansas.
Until a white planter, John Walker, spoke up
claiming the region shared far more in common with river towns such as St. Louis than the
then untamed, inhabitable land found in Arkansas.
The Bootheel is drained swamp
pillaged for it’s most valued lumber.
Rich land,
white violence.
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built all of his barbershops from the ground up.
We remember calling him and he'd be laying down the floor or installing chairs, exhaustion heavy in his voice.
When the news landed in May 2021, that we were being recognized as a FY21 Illinois Council Art Fellow, it felt like a push to step into manifesting one of our dreams, a space.
In August, just before heading to Missouri, we signed the lease to our space. The first physical home of House of the Lorde, a business/church/dance studio started by us and our partner, Tiff Beatty.
from Late July - September we built a beautiful sprung dance floor alongside Bryan Saner.
Since completing the floor we've been wandering back into our movement practice & settling into House of the Lorde.
Being in the space fills us with deep appreciation, joy and love. Being here makes us feel closer to our brother, to Lorde and the ancestors.
There is so much more we want to share about House of the Lorde but for now mark those calendars. February 18, 2022 will be the opening/house blessing.
Feel free to thumb through the stack of polaroids to see the space's transformation. We are even including a video of one of our first dances with the brown bags after they were installed.
That concludes the LITANY editions! A year in the making.
We have a full-length version of LITANY coming your way in 2022 with some intimate screenings at House of the Lorde planned. In preparation, we'll be scrubbing the internet of the individual short films in January 30, 2022. Feel free to enjoy em' before they are removed. Here's a playlist.
Thank you so much for reading. If you enjoyed this edition consider sharing with a friend, ya momma, a cousin or neighbor and SUBSCRIBE.
Until then be easy with ya self.
Try to find some stillness.
send a love offering
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