Give as a gift
Content Notes: brief nudity, loud sound
About the film: The first movement of, "More Must Know the Wonder of my body in Pleasure", "of my body", is an exploration of grief and self through relationship and ritual with red burgundy okra.
Film Synopsis: Okra is a plant many generations removed from the palates of my folks (on both sides). When I decided to start the nigga garden, I knew I wanted to include okra as a means of re-opening possibility in our generations-severed relationship.
By harvest, I had learned so much about this new kin, her patterns, needs, beauty, abundance, flavors, textures and ecosystem. It felt important to find a way to honor the relationship we had built that continued to honor the deaths and transformations we had seen each other through. So, I learned how to make paper from the leaves, bast fibers, pods and seeds of the okra plant.
In every step of the process, a call for ritualization of grief rang clearly and consistently: breaking the plant down to its constitutive parts (reminiscent of preparing green beans or collards over a large pot for Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years), cooking and blending the okra to bring forth the fibers, handcrafting the mould and deckle, preparing the vat with the pulps and okra fibers, adding to the mixture, flowers, envelopes and other artifacts from lovers past, the viscerally-embodied action of couching the paper with my feet supported by the generous weight of my fat body, gently releasing the dried paper from the fabric. And, even in the
In "of my body", I weave together several interdependent elements of my art practice: distorted excerpts of several improvisationally-composed songs, an improvised narration recorded in a silent review of the film and footage from my time in residence at Hambidge making the paper and footage of my ritual processing practices.
gratitude to Grounded Possibilities for prioritizing black folks and our relationships to the land in ways that FUND our work to reflect and create.
Want to know more about the nigga garden? Here ya go: https://www.instagram.com/niggagarden
Interested in supporting the acquisition of land and property in Charlotte, NC for a black queer and trans cooperative project? One of Play Church's current projects is a year-long pilot of The Nigga Garden Retreat, a 5 day retreat for black queer and trans artists. The retreat serves as one half of what we envision as a dual-site model: a home for land-based rest, creative retreat & food justice and a gathering space (a church) to serve as a cultural altar and co-op stewarded space for ritual, performance, mutual aid and black queer and trans-led community infrastructure.
foster weems is the steward and founder of Play Church, a community art and gathering space for black queer and trans folks in the south. Learn more about our work on Instagram at instagram.com/churchofplay or email us at playchurchllc@gmail.com.
Artist Bio: foster JANAE weems is a fat black queer and trans interdependent-disciplinary artist whose life and work takes cues from the black baptist church, black queer kink community and an ever-expanding adoration of the audacity of black imaginative embodiment. foster is a dancer of the black improvisational dance tradition, a painter, musician and photographer who works to create care-driven spaces for ushering fat black queer and trans folks into experimentation that facilitats a deepened intimacy with- and trust of themselves, their desires and vision(s). foster is a 2024 Grounded Possibilities Fellow and 2024 BLK Transcendence SEEDS Writing Fellow. they are the facilitator of Black Intimacy Practice (a body laboratory for fat black queer and trans artists, healers and dancers) and the steward of Play Church (a community art space for black queer and trans folks in the south based in Charlotte, NC).
Content Notes: brief nudity, loud sound
About the film: The first movement of, "More Must Know the Wonder of my body in Pleasure", "of my body", is an exploration of grief and self through relationship and ritual with red burgundy okra.
Film Synopsis: Okra is a plant many generations removed from the palates of my folks (on both sides). When I decided to start the nigga garden, I knew I wanted to include okra as a means of re-opening possibility in our generations-severed relationship.
By harvest, I had learned so much about this new kin, her patterns, needs, beauty, abundance, flavors, textures and ecosystem. It felt important to find a way to honor the relationship we had built that continued to honor the deaths and transformations we had seen each other through. So, I learned how to make paper from the leaves, bast fibers, pods and seeds of the okra plant.
In every step of the process, a call for ritualization of grief rang clearly and consistently: breaking the plant down to its constitutive parts (reminiscent of preparing green beans or collards over a large pot for Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years), cooking and blending the okra to bring forth the fibers, handcrafting the mould and deckle, preparing the vat with the pulps and okra fibers, adding to the mixture, flowers, envelopes and other artifacts from lovers past, the viscerally-embodied action of couching the paper with my feet supported by the generous weight of my fat body, gently releasing the dried paper from the fabric. And, even in the
In "of my body", I weave together several interdependent elements of my art practice: distorted excerpts of several improvisationally-composed songs, an improvised narration recorded in a silent review of the film and footage from my time in residence at Hambidge making the paper and footage of my ritual processing practices.
gratitude to Grounded Possibilities for prioritizing black folks and our relationships to the land in ways that FUND our work to reflect and create.
Want to know more about the nigga garden? Here ya go: https://www.instagram.com/niggagarden
Interested in supporting the acquisition of land and property in Charlotte, NC for a black queer and trans cooperative project? One of Play Church's current projects is a year-long pilot of The Nigga Garden Retreat, a 5 day retreat for black queer and trans artists. The retreat serves as one half of what we envision as a dual-site model: a home for land-based rest, creative retreat & food justice and a gathering space (a church) to serve as a cultural altar and co-op stewarded space for ritual, performance, mutual aid and black queer and trans-led community infrastructure.
foster weems is the steward and founder of Play Church, a community art and gathering space for black queer and trans folks in the south. Learn more about our work on Instagram at instagram.com/churchofplay or email us at playchurchllc@gmail.com.
Artist Bio: foster JANAE weems is a fat black queer and trans interdependent-disciplinary artist whose life and work takes cues from the black baptist church, black queer kink community and an ever-expanding adoration of the audacity of black imaginative embodiment. foster is a dancer of the black improvisational dance tradition, a painter, musician and photographer who works to create care-driven spaces for ushering fat black queer and trans folks into experimentation that facilitats a deepened intimacy with- and trust of themselves, their desires and vision(s). foster is a 2024 Grounded Possibilities Fellow and 2024 BLK Transcendence SEEDS Writing Fellow. they are the facilitator of Black Intimacy Practice (a body laboratory for fat black queer and trans artists, healers and dancers) and the steward of Play Church (a community art space for black queer and trans folks in the south based in Charlotte, NC).
