Ashé 2022 Artistic Vision:
Reckoning & Release
Ashé’s 2022 Vision is an open reckoning of our past and a focused release of that which never served us. It is a call to action to dream up new ways of collective being, because normal was never good enough.
A reckoning.
Over the past two years, while struggling to meet the ever-shifting demands of a global pandemic, we have often found ourselves aching for things to “go back to normal.”
As we watched the world erupt in righteous resistance against police brutality without the ability to engage in our usual methods of community care, we began to more deeply examine what it means to "go back to normal." Going back to normal means continued widespread injustice against Black, Brown, and Indigenous bodies. Going back to normal means the destruction of the natural environment in service of corporate and industrial greed. Going back to normal means poverty, hunger, and oppression.
A release.
So we release our minds from the grips of the status quo and instead, manifest a new way:
We are healthy.
We live long and well. Health disparities along racial lines do not exist. Our pain is believed. Our healthcare is thorough and exemplary.
We are prosperous.
Our worth is defined by us, not by the racist systems designed to oppress us, and we earn what we are worth. We have equitable access to education, jobs, housing, and leisure.
We are safe.
We walk without fear in our neighborhoods and everywhere else. We are not victims of state-sanctioned violence. We are not in jail. We are liberated.
We are connected.
We celebrate our expansive identities and experiences. We are pro Black, we are not divided nor diminished by labels designed to marginalize us. We lead with love.
We are valued.
We are seen. We are heard. We exist and create without fear of exploitation or erasure. We are enough.