What is your everday revolution?

I saw both of Helina Metaferia’s exhibitions on their final day - and I am so grateful to have witnessed these mighty exhibitions in person and to be asked to consider my everyday revolution. I came to listen to the stories, to be with the objects, to read the collages, to look at signs yelling the voices - voices to be heard, to be reckoned with, to be opened to, to be moved by, to ponder reconciliation and the ceaseless resilience of the human spirit in the face of silence, censorship, violence, racism, repression and genocide. 

The stories being told are those of BIPOC woman-identifying individuals, inclusive of trans and non binary people. Metaferia’s process is one of unearthing. Tilling our collective ground to set free those who may be buried and to assure each is heard and claimed a living part of now. 

In her video, (Middle) Passage for Dreams, Metaferia reflects on the power of the arts to heed, to heal. She states in an interview;”...our role as artists is to be able to be in space with, and in proximity to many different relationships to power. And if we can maneuver that, we can also influence the hearts and minds of many different people through our work, which is incredibly powerful.”

Metaferia animates and activates the power each of us possess. Offering a way into the future. Into her ancestors prescient vision of collective and radical imagination. Willing, dancing, and shaking us awake. To lead us to the anthem written by poet and singer, Patti Smith.

“Listen

I believe everything we dream

Can come to pass through our union

We can turn the world around

We can turn the earth's revolution

We have the power

People have the power”