Considering current events around the world with widespread protests against anti-black violence and racism, we think its important to use our platform to share information to help educate and show solidarity with this cause. Therefore we now present a conversation with interdisciplinary artist and musician E. Jane from Rewire 2018 as the first in a series going through our archives. We urgently need to acknowledge that black artists, black art and black music – black people full stop – should not only be culturally valuable to us. We need to create an environment, a world in which black people are listened to, they are heard, they are protected, and they are seen and treated as equals.

In this talk, artist E. Jane discusses their alter ego MHYSA, the soft, feminine black diva, and asks; “why wouldn’t the symbol of liberation look more like me?” We were lucky enough to have MHYSA perform at Rewire 2018, where she also performed as part of SCRAAATCH and participated in this talk as E. Jane. In the talk E. Jane defines ‘futurity’ as “thinking about the future and bringing the future into being.” Listen to the talk in full here:

→ https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?visual=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F550713897&show_artwork=true&maxwidth=500&maxheight=750&dnt=1

Below we have linked some resources including a talk with feminist academic Tina Campt which uses futurity as a practice of performing a future that hasn’t happened yet, but must. This future which we must all practice today and everyday is – and must be – anti-racist.

Stream MHYSA’s excellent album ‘NEVAEH’, released on Hyperdub in February, here:

Listen on bandcamp

Talk with Tina Campt on Black Feminist Futures and The Practice Of Fugitivity:

→ https://www.youtube.com/embed/2ozhqw840PU?feature=oembed

Legacy Russell talk: Technology Now. Blackness On The Internet:

→ https://player.vimeo.com/video/196206409?dnt=1&app_id=122963

Legacy Russell’s #glitchfeminism:

https://www.legacyrussell.com/GLITCHFEMINISM

Artnews interview with E. Jane:

https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/interviews/wayward-potential-in-conversation-with-e-jane-56474/

E Jane’s Lavendra/Recovery:

http://www.e-jane.net/lavendrarecovery.html

http://www.e-jane.net/black-joy-panel.html

TLC – Waterfalls (mentioned by E Jane):

→ https://www.youtube.com/embed/8WEtxJ4-sh4?feature=oembed

We also urge you to donate to the Louisville Community Bail Fund, as protestors need support in seeking justice for the murder of Breonna Taylor by Kentucky Police. We have included a link to this fund here:

https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/louisville-community-bail-fund?source=twitter&