black beyond presents _origins ✨👁 a virtual, collaborative experience reimagining #blackfemmefutures

NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 22, 2021 – In the midst of both Juneteenth and Pride 2021, black beyond _origins launched on June 17, 2021 as an XR experience and new media art exhibition reimagining black femme futures. The exhibition showcases work by Zainab Aliyu, Vitoria Cribb, Mika Gadsden, Asha Hassan Nooli, JAZSALYN, Kiara Kalinda, Amirah, Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Mputu, Maliyamungu Muhande, Olivia M. Ross, Terri Wright and Akeema Zane, and was accompanied by a series of virtual activations, talks, and performances by Kennedi Carter, Marcella Zigbuo, JOJO ABOT, Ahya Simone, Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley, kamra of Activation Residency and more.

Now _origins in reprise opens on October 22nd, 2021 and will showcase the work of it’s twelve original artists. The exhibition features an installment of recorded performances and artist talks with Brooklyn-based DJ TYGAPAW, organizer and herbalist Yves B Golden, founder of the Charleston Activist Network Mika Gadsden and The Heaux History Project on New Art City's 3D game environment platform.

_origins is a prelude to black beyond's upcoming exhibition _assembly, alchemy, ascension in the Kellen Gallery at The New School for February 2022.

CURATORIAL STATEMENT
_origins serves an ode to black femmes, women, gender non-conforming individuals and beyond. It is a projection of our more ideal futures through art as community and practice. A liminal space of restoration. Envisioning a non-linear orbit, resisting violent erasure.
In reference to Legacy Russell's Glitch Feminism, failure (or glitch) can be a potent site for survival, transformation, and growth. Through _origins we exercise our right to survive, “we choose to stay alive, against all odds, because our lives matter. We choose to support one another in living, as an act of world-building.”

_origins asks what is preservation? Where is restoration? How do we uplift black femmes and queer individuals alike? How do we find collective healing amidst the apocalypse? How do we reimagine mythologies to redefine our state of being? An alternate reality to reclaim our sacred energy? Where is the black femme paradise?

_origins reorganizes time within the virtual space to reclaim our power through conversations, workshops, art, and sound rituals. Activating portals of embodied thinking, healing, and world-building. We explore themes such as ancestral knowledge and memory, black trans power, birthing doulaship, and erotic radical resitance within the digital realm of _origins.

black beyond _origins is organized in partnership with New Art City (@newart.city), Olamina Faction at Parsons School of Design, The New School USS (@tns_uss), Decoding Stigma (@decodingstigma) and Beverly's NYC (@beverlysnyc) Pique Records, Murmur, and Shipping Media.