rootbound autumn newsletter • november 1st 2020
rüt-baūnd - having roots formed into a dense, tangled mass that allows little or no space for further growth. these plants have a natural tendency to become rootbound, with their roots growing in a spiraling mass.
rootbound is an ever-growing concept—currently, rootbound acts as a digital space for black queer people, but we hope to expand into a physical space within the next few years. this seasonal newsletter serves as an introduction to who we are: a black queer organization that centers black life, art, relations, and issues at the forefront.
autumn 2020
welcome to our seasonal newsletter! autumn—spooky! we hope you enjoy our specially curated fall newsletter that features a host of music, art, and writings by black people. if you like us, be sure to spread the word to others and we look forward to connecting again with you for our next seasonal newsletter.
@ggggrimes artist’s spotlight
Dazed
Gabriella Grimes, 25 (they, them, theirs)
Enby Magic
Sun and Moon
Gabriella Grimes is a Black digital artist based in Philadelphia, PA. Their colorful artwork portrays Queer people of color living happy, beautiful, and sexy lives. I discovered Gabriella’s art last semester when a friend recommended their prints to me. When I was scrolling through their Instagram page I was so excited and grateful to find an artist with such incredible talent and style that drew people that I could identify with. We were lucky enough to have been able to ask them a couple questions for this spotlight. Q: There is a great deal of variety and vibrancy to all of the individuals that you illustrate—from tattoos and clothing to ethnicity and gender identity. Where do you draw inspiration from when you are creating a new piece? Do you draw from outside sources or from your imagination? A: My inspiration for my subjects and what they’re doing comes from lots of different things. Sometimes I’ll see someone beautiful with a feature I really like when I’m just living my life and I decide I want to paint someone with that feature. Other times, my partner might say something random to me (or fully make a request that I really like) and I’ll go with it. Sometimes I’ll paint things from my dreams. Sometimes, I like to pick a pose reference, draw it, and see where it takes me. Most times, I don’t know what I’m going to paint until I’m staring at my blank medibang canvas. Q: What do you want to see change in the art world if anything? A: I want to see more Black artists creating more original work more than anything else. The Black creators I’ve met in smaller NYC scenes have been really talented and brilliant. They have incredible ideas and I want to keep seeing more of that. I want them to be given more opportunities, and I want the art world to accept them with more open arms. You can follow and support Gabriella @ggggrimes on Instagram and check out their website https://www.ggggrimes.com/ to purchase prints and learn more about them and their work.
nook
a collection of poetry, film & video, fiction & non-fiction pieces that we love.
“Good Boy” - fiction by Eloghosa Osunde cw: death/depression
“How to Love a Jamaican” fiction by Alexia Arthurs
“How It Feels to Be Colored Me” - non-fiction by Zora Neale Hurston
“The Disturbances of the Garden” non-fiction by Jamaica Kincaid
“yasmeen” - poem by Safia Elhillo
“Intimacy in Isolation” - non-fiction by Akwaeke Emezi
Sarah M. Broom: The Yellow House - video converstaion with Saidiya Hartman
“On Witness and Respair: A Personal Tragedy Followed by Pandemic” - non-fiction by Jesmyn Ward cw: death/depression
“Pa Amadu Kamara” and “The Dead” - two poems by Romeo Oriogun cw: death
music
songs to add to your playlists and playlists to enjoy
“music is a spiritual thing, you don’t play with music.” fela kuti
some songs we really love rn BITE ME - Kilo Kish I Put a Spell on You - Nina Simone fubu - Ambré Irrational - Shay Lia creator’s playlists & listening instructions oh you scared, huh? by angel fall, and let the music catch you. this playlist operates best when listened to chronologically. press play and allow the music to entice you. the playlist features a curation of an eclectic blend of sounds; from bbymutha, a masterful lyricist, to ruby.wav, a north jersey based artist creating vivid soundscapes, ‘oh u scared, huh?’ features music that will mesmerize you—the type of music that will slip you into motion. a sway, a head nod. inspired by my morning runs, join me in listening to some of the music that has guided me this fall. enjoy! <3 spotify apple music youtube fall too soon by keza for the first listen, PAPA by ALA.NI is to be played first - then shuffle or go in order, whichever you choose! this playlist for me, captures the feeling of my favorite seasonal shift crunchy leaves, chai, looong walks, burnt sienna gouache, to list a few things that inspired this playlist. this can be a soundtrack to whatever activities or sensations make you feel or think of autumn. relax & enjoy! spotify
apple music
youtube
what is going on
featured GoFundMe’s
(domestically + internationally)
#AfricaIsBleeding - Throughout the past few weeks, we have observed an uptick in global recognition of the problems that are plaguing Africa and the Black diaspora. From the United States to Congo, we have seen Black people around the globe gather together in solidarity to defy the systems that attempt to oppress us. For a brief rundown of what is occurring on a global scale, please read the bulleted points along with a selection of curated readings that offer more insight. United States: #SayHerName #BlackTransLivesMatter #JusticeForWalterWallaceJr key points: a call for the abolishment of oppressive forces such as the police and white supremacy as well as the acknowledgment and care for lost queer black lives at the hands of oppressive forces. recently, in Philadelphia, a black disabled man named Walter Wallace Jr. was murdered by the police. in light of these murders orchestrated by the police, black people in the U.S have begun the conversation of what safety looks like when we exist at an intersection of identities. Nigeria: #EndSARS #QueerNigerianLivesMatter key points: a call for the ending of police brutality in Nigeria as well as an ending to violence against queer Nigerians by both the government and its nonqueer citizens.
Support an Incredible Black Chef ’s Startup!! Tamara is a New Jersey based culinary artist developing her freelance catering business. Check out what she’s cooking @chef.adjacent on Instagram. “I’m honestly just having fun with my skills. When I was in school, the endgame was always your own restaurant. Maybe that’ll be the case for me in the future but as of now I’m just learning every day and sharing what I’ve perfected for those who want to try.” Tamara Lively
Cameroon: #AnglophoneCrisis key points: English speaking Cameroonians are marginalized under the French-speaking Cameroon sector, an obvious after-effect of colonization. Namibia: #ShutItAllDown key points: sexual and gender-based violence against women and nonmen. South Africa: #AmINext key points: sexual and gender-based violence against women and nonmen. While these name a few of the problems that are occurring across the diaspora, it is important to note that whether in Western, latinidad, or African countries, there is an echoing of issues that are being experienced by Black people globally—a consequence of white supremacy and colonization on our homes.
Black Trans Futures in Nigeria “Nigeria is the most populous Black country in the world and houses a large population of trans people. Unfortunately, transphobia deprives many Black trans people from getting their needs met.”
further readings
“From Lagos to Atlanta, Black Leadership Won’t Save Us While Anti-Blackness Maintains its Grip” article by Da’Shaun Harrison
“Nigeria’s Millennials Are Battling a Gerontocracy” - article by Bolu Babalola
here are some important IG accounts to follow documenting the #EndSARS movement:
“Why #ENDSARS Is Also A Defining Moment For Nigeria’s Queer Community ” - article by Vincent Desmond
@djswitch_
@yagazieemezi
@feminist.co
“Everything Worthwhile Is Done With Other People” converstaion with Mariame Kaba by Eve L. Ewing Our 13 Demands by Black Philly Radical Collective
for more study on black feminist thought: Check out Black Women Radicals, a feminist organization aimed to increase political activism among marginalized genders within the diaspora and their education initiative, The School for Black Feminist Politics.
Philly Bail Fund
what we are up to keza recently, i’ve begun to practice visual journaling in an effort to encourage more creative freedom from myself and do away with the pressure to draw something “good” every time i open my sketchbook. when i write in my diary, i’m never trying to impress myself or w rite something profound and i wanted to try to mirror that process with doodles & drawing exercises. and it feels good! i keep telling myself the uglier the better!! ha! even as i say that i did not include the “worst” of my visual journaling in this collage :) but i don’t think this is anything i would feel comfortable or justified in sharing if i had not started doing this semiregularly which makes me happy & hopeful for how this practice will evolve. i’m hoping to grow to love the illegible ones more since it feels like those are only possible when i fully ~let go~
some of my fave exercises • self portrait(s) without looking at the paper • small compositions based on lyrics that resonates with you • mind map showing how you are feeling in that moment & how you got there these are fun! give them a try and share them with me if you want. make something ugly and be proud of it :)
angel lately, i have felt like too much of myself. i have become too much of myself—a bloated gathering of thoughts swelling my body. ask me seven months ago, i would have smiled that slow smile, the type that pulls at my face, i would have looked at you with clear eyes and told you, i am ok. ask me now and perhaps the answer would remain the same— the same breathless “ok” released from my mouth. perhaps the smile might be gone. the clear eyes now replaced with something more clouded. the thing is, i have spent too much time with myself. i am growing tired of me. i used to believe I preferred solitude; i relished in it. now, i am not so sure because when being forced into aloneness rather than solitude as an option against the other, socialization, i find myself aching for the other. i wonder to myself: do i truly like to be alone, or rather, do i like to choose aloneness when the other is present? now that i am forced to be alone, to truly sit in that feeling of loneliness rather than loneliness as a means of avoidance, what does it mean to feel too much of myself ? did loneliness arrive in my life as a necessary option? the pandemic is challenging me to redefine what i understand as reclusiveness. i find myself wanting something—a touch, a smile, a few conversations in order to understand what it then means to want the opposite—my thoughts, myself, my aloneness. i fear i might not desire that again. perhaps this is change. perhaps it is not a bad thing.
when being alone
becomes too much.
Bona, Charlottesville, Zanele Muholi, 2015
about the creators keza, 22 (she/her) hello! i’m a self-taught artist from new jersey with a degree in packaging engineering & africana studies. usually i am drawing with blue ballpoint or black rollerball pens—most of my work is inspired by self-image, color theory, and my experiences as a queer black girl. i have too many hobbies to list! but recently what has been making me really happy has been practicing yoga, doodling, looking at & caring for my plants, reading, making playlists, biking, dancing, and, spending time with my friends & family. you can find me in my local craft store being indecisive! angel, 22 (they/them) i am a writer from new jersey. oh, what to be said about me—so many things that could be said, so many things i want to avoid saying but to be brief: i am a writer influenced by the african folklore tradition with hobbies that include anything that can be done sitting down or running—listening to music, reading, trying to strengthen my igbo, thinking. two very different activities, yet so similar. you can’t find me outside, but i will be inside on a couch probably binge-watching something, or maybe even reading. who knows!
thank you so much for joining us! watch out for updates on our upcoming instagram account & for release dates for upcoming zines, newsletters & more. we would love to hear what you have been reading, watching, and listening to! if you have any pieces you love and want to share, feel free to submit your recommendations or your own art here: link to submit work: https://forms.gle/84Wnan1CeUhq69zQA link to sign up to mailing list: https://forms.gle/J9E315Qk2cieHiLn6
hold space for us, our voices, our pain, our creations.
check us out on IG! @r.ootbound
refrences newsletter cover art Kerry James Marshall, Untitled (Nude), 1982 nook covers Intimacy in Isolation - Texas Isaiah, Cat Jones and Turay Turay, intertwined Good Boy - David Uzochukwu, Pluton - Tectonic Shift, 2019 On Witness & Respair - Kerry James Marshall, Nude (Spotlight), 2009 Romeo Oriogun poems - Toyin Ojih Odutola, The story of the hunt glorifies no one (homage to Chinua Achebe), 2013 The Disturbances of the Garden - Untitled Illustration by Diana Ejaita yasmeen - Kehinde Wiley, Princess Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, 2012 How It Feels to Be Colored Me - Carl Van Vetchen, Portrait of Zora Neal Hurston, 1935 Sarah M. Broom conversation with Saidiya Hartman - Abe Odedina, Birds of Paradise, 2018 How to Love a Jamiacan Cover - Ebony G. Patterson, ....love....(when they grow up), detail, 2016 further readings covers Everything Worthwhile Is Done With Other People - Chioma Ebinama, Untitled Why #ENDSARS Is Also A Defining Moment For Nigeria’s Queer Community - Iyesogie Ogieriakhi, 2020 music covers keza’s playlist cover - Kerry James Marshall, Untitled (Nude), 1982 angel’s playlist cover - Eman Deng and Yacine Diop by Rafael Pavarotti for Matches Fashion, 2020 about the creators portraits by keza ruranga