citing lineage, calling power
speaking to our lineage – acknowledging it, calling to it, being called from it – is an act of integrity.
we acknowledge who we are + where we come from.
we speak to the soil in which we plant ourselves.
and to the medicine that grows in the land we call home.
it says we know we didn’t come to this moment, this self, in a wholly self-generated sense.
we didn’t create ourselves purely on our own.
because we can't.
we are part of a line that shaped-and-shapes us.
we hono{u}r that by speaking to it.
which also roots us more firmly in it.
citing lineage is also an act of gratitude.
of giving thanks to the medicine in that soil, in our soul.
to the people + places + things that pass that medicine to us.
of acknowledging the meaning of that.
and the gift + beauty + power + poignancy of that.
when, for example, i speak about my Elder, the late Oba Bolu Fatunmise, i’m giving thanks for all he taught me.
both as a practitioner of the Ifa’Orisa tradition.
and, also, as a human.
the knowledge he gave me.
the family he extended to me.
and the access he granted me.
when i speak to Jean-Michel Basquiat, i’m giving thanks for the way he changed what i understood art to be.
how i understood the role of artist.
and the possibilities i saw for making marks.
when i say their names, i'm saying thank you.
and, at still deeper levels, i’m invoking their presence + the goodness they’ve given in that moment, across all moments.
and, with that, to speak to lineage is to both call forth power + to coherently orient ourselves in relationship with that power.
to bring it fully into present time, present self, in a way that lifts + makes you more in the ways you want.
to vitalize the power of your lineage.
a power that doesn't exist in the same way anywhere else in all the worlds.
and this invocation is generative.
it fundamentally amplifies the power you’ve called forth.
in the moment.
and in the always.
we speak to lineage because lineage is always speaking through us.
