#marcus garvey

"We must canonize our own saints, create our own martyrs, and elevate positions of leadership in our own image. We must inspire literature and promulgate a doctrine of our own without any apologies to the powers that be. That is our divine responsibility."

Chronicles Of The Most Honorable...👑🧠✊🏿📚🌍❤️🖤💚✨🔥🔥🔥🙏🏿

BLKNWS was amazing and poignant for me in the way it didn’t feel voyeuristic or commodifying of Black ppl the way most media featuring us does. It artfully interspersed cuts of talks and readings from Saidiya Haartman, Fred Moten, Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Dubois, with afro futuristic visuals and a sub-narrative of Black ppl remembering the future & past selves simultaneously in the present.

The use of sounds from the perspective of a stolen African person chained in the cargo hold on a transatlantic slave trading ship on the sea was visceral. The cuts of interviews and essays with a Ghanian man talking about confronting the legacy of his great grandfather who made his family’s wealth selling Africans into slavery to first the Portuguese and then to the Americans. The sci-fi and speculative imaginings of a transatlantic cruise ship solely ran and owned by Black diasporic ppl. Ancient African art as data centers and power cells connected to the land. The normalizing and casual showcasing of Black queer love along with heteronormative Black couples. Hope Giselle was one of the leading roles. it def had some points to say about the inherent lie of whiteness and liberalism in general. also tumblr made a prominent cameo! Kahlil has one!

There was a particular scene/quote that felt very affirming for me in regards to how i choose to feel proud about my Black unconventional family structure and my grandmother’s life & legacy that society constantly tells me i should be ashamed of. I teared up at that part lol. it hit deep.

I learned a lot from the film as well as I was affirmed by it, particularly bc my best friend is very familiar with Hartman’s literature and the Black historical figures mentioned, quoted, and featured throughout. i left feeling introspective and “full”.

It was ironic for me that it was shown to a mostly white & nonblack UC Berkeley student audience that almost turned me away at the ticket line saying they “sold out” despite the showing being advertised as free and my friend already waiting in the theater with a seat for me. 🫩 authentic Blackness behind an ivory tower paywall and antiblack white academic institutions as the guards.

it comes out in theaters soon and i recommend everyone, especially Black ppl of the diaspora, see it.