the story in the skies
Part 3
Introduction idle women addresses the urgent need for women’s space – for a radical redress of power, acknowledgement and voice. the story in the skies is the third part of the idle women on the water journey. We celebrate Mojisola Adebayo who spent the Summer with women in Church, Accrington, she bought with her the inspirational Dr Mae Jemison who is introduced to us in this publication by Sonya Dyer. Raksha Patel lead the creation of a mural with over 40 women on the side of a derelict factory wall. For a summer, together, we understood that we could create a powerful moment, a passageway, a parallel universe. “To understand the cosmos we must also understand the self, that each person is a universe in miniature” The knot in time, Lindsay Rover and Sally Gillespie The historical witch-trials lasted for approximately 300 years, our resistance began then, our roots are deep. The legacies of male violence established during the times of the trials are embedded in the architecture of our global state today, the witch-hunts never ended; they became the everyday. We imagine one women who bares the weight of all the crimes committed against women, when one is harmed we are all harmed. In spite of everything she still has the power to see beyond the horizon just as those who began our movement saw. This is what we must do. This is for all women who see beyond the limits. idle women is a place for all women and girls to belong, a growing network of connections, friendships and co-creation. May it continue. Cis O’Boyle and Rachel Anderson idle women caretakers 2017
Mae Jemison by Sonya Dyer
Mae Jemison Sonya Dyer
How the Future is Made
1) An extremely bright young Black Girl child grows up in a house full of opportunity, in a country full of contradictions, in a world full of promise for the few. She carries the future within her. On the television, she watches a Black woman from the future, in deep Space. She does not say much, mainly: “Aye captain, Hailing Frequencies Open” But she is beautiful and exciting and there, a part of it all, in the corner of the frame, at the back looking busy and sometimes – joy! – at the centre. On rare occasions she dances and sings and kisses. She is intelligent and determined and scared and brave and feminine and strong. She translates and connects. She is not a servant or maid; this is important. There is nothing wrong with maids; they are as great as any other woman. But this woman is not a maid, and she is Black (or Negro or Colored, most likely at this time) and she is on TV. The Girl comes to believe she too can be a part of it all.
2) Dr King tells the Woman from the future that she cannot quit. The Woman experiences the pain and frustration familiar to many Black women in the West then and now, of only being able to use a fraction of her brilliance in her chosen field. All that training, practicing and sacrifice for a few lines here and there. She knows she deserves better, can do better. (Imagine being the only part of the ensemble without an actors contract, a glorified day player.) The Woman is in the process of being iconic, although perhaps she doesn’t quite realise it yet. Little Black girls are watching.
Mae Jemison
Mae Jemison
3) The dichotomy between the reduced circumstances of her work environment and the outlandishly expansive fictional adventures this labour produces are astonishing, when you think about it. With limited opportunities for character –led adventure on screen, the Woman – now an Icon - creates the possibility of adventure for others in ‘real’ life. The Icon proposes an initiative building towards a possible future that more acutely resembles the Planet we live on and specifically her country of birth, creating greater possibilities for the underrepresented – the women of all colours, the men of colour. The Space agency agrees, and from this shared endeavour we get astronauts and Space scientists and the image of who represents the Earth is forever changed.
We Float
1) I would have been 16 when I saw the future that was promised. Do you remember the image as I do? Yellow shirt, blue trousers, black wristwatch, brown arms and face, short black hair and perfect eyebrows, smiling. Was it a lack of gravity or levitation that caused her to float? Her physical environment is the stuff of hardware fetishism; knobs, dials, wires, yellow, white, grey, black, circular, square, rectangular. A camcorder floats by the side of her waist. How long have I spent looking at this image? The little Black Girl, now a woman, becomes a Black First. Black Firsts are necessary not only as events in themselves, but also because they herald the promise of Black seconds, thirds, fourths, fifths and the potential for Black unremarkable. I mean, no one gets excited about the Blackness of Black footballers anymore. To go to Space, and then to become the first astronaut to appear on the TV show that inspired you and generations of nerds, wearing that famous, androgynous uniform - black stripe across the top, mustard yellow middle, then black again. The insignia on the left chest, one tap and then, ‘beam me up.’ In the lexicon of Black First’s, the image of a woman who looks like family floating in Space lingers on the retina like the aftermath of staring at the sun.
2) The Mother came before the First and the Icon. When the cancer that took her life was ravaging her body, her cells were removed with neither her knowledge nor consent. Those cells reproduced over and over in ways hitherto unseen, creating treatments for untold illnesses, materials for the human genome project, and making millions for Big Pharma. All of this was unknown to her family. Consider the violence. The Mother’s cells were sent into Space, the first human materials to reach beyond the Earth. I imagine they are still out there, reproducing over and over. We should consider The Mother as the genesis of all Space travel, like Dinkinesh*, the progenitor, the original. When I think of those cells in Space – floating - I am reminded of all those diasporic water deities and the various cosmologies surrounding water and the elements. The stolen people whose spirits were said to have swam back to Africa, Mami Wata, Yemoja, the myth that our bones are to heavy to float.
3) Let us call our foremothers by their names – Henrietta Lacks (HeLa), Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nicols), Dr Mae Jemison. There is a queer intergenerationality at play here, each giving birth to the next, expanding the range of possibilities in the material world and in the imagination. Stolen cells from a young Black mother sent into Space; an under utilised, iconic actress on a TV show set in Space, who then creates a programme to generate and encourage astronauts; the first Black woman astronaut to reach Space, who appears in the fictional Universe in which the actress made her name. There is such beauty in this circulation and reproduction.
*
The Amharic name for Lucy Australopithecus aka AL 288-1. It means ‘you are marvellous.’
Henrietta Lacks
This is How the Future is Made Dr Jemison has assembled a team for the ‘100 Year Star Ship’ project, aiming to make human interstellar travel possible within 100 years. I think back to Nichelle Nicols’ struggles with not even having a real contract or her role, of Dr King’s insistence on her persistence, and I laugh. This is how humanity leaps towards making the world of Star Trek possible. This is how the future is made.
Nyota Uhura
Biography Sonya Dyer is a London-based artist, writer and occasional curator. Her practice currently manifests itself through the …And Beyond Institute for Future Research, a peripatetic think tank concerned with the construction of possible futures. Dyer is a previous artsadmin Artist Bursary Scheme recipient and was a 2011–12 Whitney Museum of American Art: Independent Study Program Fellow. She is currently a PhD candidate at Middlesex University. https://www.andbeyondinstitute.com/
Footnotes Mae Jemison Dr Mae Carol Jemison is an engineer, physician and retired NASA astronaut from the USA. She was the first woman of African descent to travel to Space, aboard the Space Shuttle ‘Endeavour,’ in 1992. A keen dancer, she has appeared on many TV shows including Star Trek: The Next Generation. She is currently the principle of the ‘100 Year Star Ship’ http://100yss.org Henrietta Lacks Henrietta Lacks was an African American mother and farmer from Virginia. In 1951, she was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive form of cervical cancer and treated at Johns Hopkins, the only hospital in the area to receive Black patients at that time. During her treatment, cells were taken from her body without her knowledge or permission. These cells – now referred to as the HeLa immortal cell line – have been used and monetised for decades in biomedical research. They were the first human materials sent into Space. Lacks’ story has inspired a book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and a forthcoming television drama. Nyota Uhura Nyota Uhura is a communications expert, translator and linguist from the United States of Africa. She began her professional life aboard the ‘USS Enterprise,’ eventually working her way up from lieutenant, to lieutenant commander, to full commander of her own ship. In the original Star Trek universe, Uhura was portrayed by actor, singer and SF icon Nichelle Nicols, who also initiated and lead a project to encourage and develop NASA astronauts from underrepresented communities.
STARS
By Mojisola Adebayo This extract from STARS by Mojisola Adebayo was developed during the Summer 2016 idle women residency
(A very old lady reads a newspaper, alone in her kitchen…) ‘Government plans to send refugees into space 10 years after Brexit Project Spexit – Space exit’ ‘Immigrants on Mars! Asylum on Saturn! Aliens meet the aliens… Whether you are an exile or an expat from Earth, you can apply for Project Spexit in civil partnership with Virgin’s space travel programme. Budget no frills migrant planet relocation (one way) or luxury touring space holiday (return). Terms and conditions… apply online now!’ Wow. There is three things they don’t tell you about going into space One: It is extremely painful Up there, your body is a blissful skin bag of sinews and bones Floating freeeeee…. But when you land home The force Is like a car crash I’m not talking whip-lash I mean every part of you feels crushed And you spend the rest of your life killing pain with tablets and injections Gravity is a grave No one is supposed to know Returning astronauts are silent heroes There’s grimaces behind those white teethy smiles Cos they reckon kids don’t want disabled space men on their bedroom walls That ain’t the poster NASA wants to sell ya. But that don’t bother me… Cos the other thing they don’t tell you about travelling to space is… When you’re up there, the orgasms are out of this world! Hahahahahahaha… Now that could be an ‘alternative fact’ But it is one I am prepared to believe Cos think about it Don’t people say ‘the earth moved’, ‘it was out-of-this-world’ ‘I saw stars…’ Make sense naaaah?...
Sometimes to have an orgasm you have to go that far So I Never having had one Am going to apply! And I ain’t bothered about the pain coming back cos I plan to stay in space With all the other castaways I’ve had a life-time of pain I spent my whole life fighting Give me one last pleasure For all the trauma Let me fly!!! I am going to apply… (A movement sequence. Animation). And then came the reply… (Reading a letter) ‘Dear Mrs… As you are only a second generation immigrant you are not eligible to apply for the government’s ‘Spexit’: relocation space flight. Priority is given to migrants, asylum seekers and refugees from majority Muslim countries’ Charming! And to Trump it all, Richard Branson wouldn’t have me either: ‘Sorry we know this will come a s a disappointment but the Virgin commercial space travel return programme is only eligible for children and young people under the age of 25. (Pause. Disappointment. She smokes). I missed number three. The third thing they don’t tell you about space travel is… There’s more technology in a modern day washing machine than the Sputnik that took that little rocket dog into heaven All on his tod in 1957 And I got a washing machine and a kettle and a fridge! Me? I ain’t beat. I’ll get there under my own HEAT!
THE WITCH RISES By Mojisola Adebayo
This poem was written on the idle women residency in Church, Accrington, 2016
The Witch Rises by Mojisola Adebayo
A pinch of yeast was all I asked Of lord and lady land For to bake my bread. A pinch of yeast For my loaf to rise For my loaf to rise A snatch of salt A slither of fat A ladle of water A fist of flour All that I had But yeast I missed For to make a crust Just a butterless crust But “lust” they cried! “Curses!” they said Lay at the heart of my yeast quest And lies fermented lies Why?... Kindling unkind Branches at my feet Logs at my thighs Sparks in my eyes My body baked In a beggars bowl Traitors all How I howled! Frothy mouthed And I had done that foul couple bowel healing With my herbs but nine moons before But ‘cause that lady land still could not stand to fill a cradle
For want of laying orderly with her lord and master Me they blamed me for their stagnant baby water And I was fetched from my bitched kitchen for a bed of fire Witch lynched, stake licked, hot flames of man’s cruel laughter All for their relentless pleasure! But, now this weirded sister has returned On a long boat invisible In full view of the hills On which thousands of us stood accused Burnt Cross-legged For 300 years‌ Whatever they said, I rode no broomstick then But now I rise above all your heads You can keep your yeast With bats for friends And justice gust beneath me Now I do fly Through the buttery moon light And all I ask For my life to rise, For my life to rise.
Church Mural
Created in August 2016 at St James Road, Church, Accrington by idle women and friends. Led by artist Raksha Patel, with Mojisola Adebayo, Anisah, Natalie, Lynn, Chloe, April, Candice, Carol, Judith, women from the Lancashire Womens Centre and Humraaz Support Services. With thanks to Gleeson Homes for their kind permission.
Church Mural, idle women, 2016
Church Mural, idle women, 2016 (detail)
Church Mural, idle women, 2016 (detail)
Church Mural, idle women, 2016
Design Laura Salisbury laurasalisburygraphicdesign.com
www.idlewomen.org