MOTHER TONGUE: Healing+Liberation in Black Vernacular Art…a 4-day, online, mini-festival, that honors the everyday roots of Black culture scroll down for video replay and photos
Photo by Greg Irvin, Misty Sol, left, and Rahnda Rize, and Chester City educator interact as part of Mother Tongue: #GatherintheGarden for Juneteenth at the Colored Girls Museum. Friday, June 19, 2020
ver·nac·u·lar
/vərˈnakyələr/
adjective
1. spoken as one's mother tongue; not learned or imposed as a second language.
The purpose of the events is to identify, contextualize, and validate some of Black people’s ways of being, knowing, and creating in order to explore how that knowledge guided Black people through birth, revolution, and liberation. We seek to explore how our ‘magic’ can empower and heal us in the present and future. These events are composed of prayer, song, testimony, dream, story, idea, breath, feeling, thought, and imagination. And more…
MOTHER TONGUE Day 1: Reading Zora at the St. Paul’s Church in West Philadelphia
Featuring Readings and Song by Jaz, Rahnda Rize, and Misty Sol, Photos by Christian Hayden
“A people’s culture is inexorably linked to its language, and helping to raise public awareness of African American linguistic creativity, highlights a major aspect of black culture.
”
MOTHER TONGUE Day 2: Curated Conversation, the role of Black Vernacular art in Healing and Liberation
Featuring artists Muthi Reed, Misty Sol, and curator Akili Davis, Photo of Misty Sol by Monica Lyons
““Vernacular” is a way of meaning-making. It is the basis of how we see the world. Black Vernacular Art expresses what cannot be said in words. It represents a heritage, a people, a culture...provides a glimpse at Black innovation removed from the constraints of white supremacy. ”
MOTHER TONGUE Day 3: #GatherintheGarden at the Colored Girls Museum in Philadelphia
contemplating healing and liberation in bloom in the garden with curator and director of The Colored Girl’s Museum with curator Vashti Dubois, photos by Greg Irvin
“Real liberation requires literacy and land! ”
MOTHER TONGUE Day 4: Churchyard Dance,
Mask Off
Concept, visual art, installation, and video editing by Misty Sol. Choreography and movement by Rahnda Rize. Videography by Vision Video. Photography by Christian Hayden
“As a political weapon, it has helped me defend the rights of American blacks and third-world people all over the world, to defend them with protest songs. To move the audience to make them conscious of what has been done to my people around the world.”
