Souljourner Body Work

Fulbright Study and Exchange of African Indigenous Knowledge Systems Joburg South Africa 2025

In Solidarity!!!! Wepa!

Feeling whole as shadows and light are integral parts of my nature 🍂

Did a bit of “historical glamping” as I wanted to experience what my great great grandmother’s upbringing might have been. My family lineage is so powerful and protective. Like the fragrance of Jean Nate she has been permeating my dreams the past few years to comfort and awaken me. It is her voice that has called me back to her motherland. Her laughter came through my cousin as we sifted through photos and constructed our family tree, and through the light in my Tia’s eyes as she told us her story. I cried then cried some more until all that was left was supple.

The art in the walls in Ponce speak to Boriken’s complex past/present. The guerrilla farmers at took the pain of an abandoned, syringe infested former sugar cane plantation owned by the family the produces Don Q rum and in 5 years transformed it into a thriving food forest. Using indigenous syntropic techniques such as planting in concentric circles and spirals, using wild horses to graze and fertilize, a guppy-filled hydroponic rainwater collection system, they have shifted the legacy of this place into an abundant future. Majestic moringa trees, ceremonial to***co, castor, yucca, gandules whose seeds were brought by mirmadones (those Africans “who came prepared to fight” with seeds braided into their hair)…Here in the midst of a busy downtown and the ruins of the past, I sat next to the fire with these stewards of the earth and shared stories of transformation surrounded by the fragrance of night blooming flowers. Though we struggle and grow locally sometimes feeling disconnected in the Diaspora, this was a beautiful reminder that like the roots of trees our communion with each other thrives underground.