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courageous daughter

your mother sees you shining

hears you still, smiles wide

 

 ~Bekezela Mguni

Founder of Black Unicorn Library

Response to love letters #3

What does it smell like?

What does it taste like?

What does it feel like?

What does it look like?

What does it sound like?

What is the embodiment of Love?

Loving the way that I move...

 ~Leslie Parker

Response to love letters #4

 

To be in exile leads to understanding how we can be more welcoming; and how not to live within our wounding from inhabiting spaces that recreate non-belonging as part of an environment.

 

~Leslie & Bekezela

Call for love letters #5

 

A Palestine Statement

2.15.24

 

I dedicate breath and spirit to the people of Palestine

 

Palestine—unceded homelands

Palestine – land of ancient abundance

 

I move in solidarity with anticolonial struggle from Palestine, to the Congo, to Turtle island. 

 

We are witnessing a genocide, the desecration of life and land across generations---past and future. 

 

For generations Palestinian have endured brutal regimes of occupation and ethnic cleansing and the fall of 2023 marks a terrifying moment of escalation and permanent entrenchment of Israel’s violence against millions.  

 

Palestine has sent love to us here in Minnesota, in 2020, in the form of rubber bullets and tear gas survival tactics – gifts of knowledge passed down during times of occupation

 

See, we have always been connected. We witness each other’s dead. We rage.

 

Palestinian people are fighting one of the most colonial, white supremacist, militarized state powers in our modern era. 

 

Each passing day we stand witness to the full-scale destruction of Palestinian life. The bombing of hospitals. The execution of children. The entrapment of millions. 

 

The violence of occupation, dispossession, collective punishment, and starvation are ceaseless. 

 

Beyond a ceasefire, freedom and liberation for Palestine. 

 

The life and liberation of all of us is entangled with global solidarity movements for Palestinain freedom. 

 

Palestine will be free. Until then we are being called upon by Palestinian people to resist colonial rule in each and every way we can---boycotting, divesting, teaching, artmaking, dancing, protesting, writing, striking….

 

~ Naimah Petigny 

LoveRoots

Rooting Love #1:

Ingredients

1 Tbsp spearmint

1 Tbsp lemon balm

1 Tbsp chamomile

1 tsp hawthorn leaf and flower

1 tsp meadowsweet

1 tsp rose hips

Large Teapot

2 Fancy Teacups

Sugar or honey (optional)

 ~Anonymous

Call for love letters #1

 

“Oh my, it was so nice to spend time with you. Our time together in a few words, swimming in black, dancing — a love letter in the making.” 

 ~Janera Solomon, Founder of Fieldwork

Call for love letters #3

What does it smell like?

What does it taste like?

What does it feel like?

What does it look like?

What does it sound like?

What is the embodiment of Love?

Loving the way that I move…

What is its magnitude?

Loving my attitude?

What are you putting down

when I wake up?

In the morning 

holding you

glowing like the sunshine above my rain,

any ways I love you still just the same.

Even with the scale of their affective quake, shaken awake

with multiple phrases.

  taken. us. over.

We always recover,

after all sirens cease,

we hear kettles hiss

to remind us of the wetness from a lover’s kiss.

Above the influence 

her epileptic episodes,

implode.

Don't stop,

she speaks in tongues

with the rootwork and magic wand.

No more trauma bonds!

He is the revolutionary to my calm.

Loosen wildly,

loosely,

returning rooted.

My forbidden fruit juice

dripping,

Aim your sight higher.

You'll find her

high

above you and resting beyond

his studied gaze.

Living inside truth they are reborn.

Unto you these words live

signed with love we forgive.

Remembering,

blue magic makes waves

steeped in vastness.

Who follows who?

Moving the way that I move.

 Don't you hesitate,

 we can't lose,

This too matters.

The pressing

of what we choose.

Tensions stop folding. 

No more looking over shoulders.

It's

Your Time

Now

Divine

Sent

To

You 

So Into Me

The soul,

losing all logic,

 no more control,

gotta get outta that bowl!

Yes, more love

to be

continued…

 

       ~Leslie P.

PhT Event Info

Join Us

Leslie Parker, creating from the intersection of dance, pedagogy, conjuring, experimentation, and activism, kicks off Pillsbury House + Theatre's Makers Series with LoverRoot.

The solo dance work-in-process explores Black popular culture(s), Hoodoo, and notions of revolution. Parker utilizes poetry collected from Black femmes, sound by DJ DeVante Jackson, and digital media by Leslie Parker and edited by Christian Jensen.

McKnight Artist

Communities Alliance

 

BOOM Concepts Residency

Pittsburgh, PA

January 2024

Maker Series Residency

 

Pillsbury House + Theatre

Minneapolis, MN

February 2024

 

Performance Dates

Friday February 23, 7:00pm

Saturday February 24, 7:00pm

LoverRoot PhT Maker Series.jpeg

 Response to love letter #5

Remember. 

You, me, we, I n’I seen it too.

It's the way Out, 

 the way In.

Don't doubt it.

Deep into the cellular memory our worlds,

colliding, 

making it anew.

No matter

the sense that it costs you.

 ~ Leslie & Naimah

Call for love letters #4

How can we as a people collectively increase awareness of and add to the collection of Black love poetry?

 

Let's create multiple entry points to experiencing love,

 

For  imagining our own keys to the future, igniting a renewal of sensuality,

 

Cultivating passion for the sake of tomorrow,

 

Where vulnerability is found within our strength and then translated with our nuanced love languages.

~Leslie & Janera

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