HEAR OUR STORIES OF RESISTANCE AND SPIRIT

Still from excerpt of the To Move Mountains Film entitled " AFFIRMATIONS" 

Hello Friends, Family and Community: 

This fundraiser is to support my long-term,  project using film and visual art to celebrate Black radical womanhood. This project is designed and centered on Black women and girls and to make a positive impact  around New York  City and across the globe. 


My journey began over three years ago after recognizing a call to honor the lives of three extraordinary revolutionary Black women Nina Angela Mercer, dequi kioni sadiki and Chanel Porchia who I have been mentored and inspired by. It is important for me to share their stories. Having spent my life surrounded by many powerful and creative women of Color, I recognized that many of their stories were left out of important conversations. I wanted to bring their work to the conversation and dialogue about what is happening in our city. I wish to celebrate and honor such brilliance, majesty and power with visibility.  Please continue to read below for more details about the project and stay tuned for updates. 


TO MOVE MOUNTAINS

To Move Mountains is a documentary short film that highlights the lives of Nina Angela Mercer, dequi kioni sadiki and Chanel Porchia- Albert. The film aims to faithfully capture the work and lives of these important cultural organizers for liberation. It highlights each woman's connection to personal power, the land and the communities and lives that they impact.

In 2014, I began interviewing Nina, dequi and Chanel, to document their creative movement work taking place in New York. Each has their own journey, and so much of their individual work is what moves the collective  forward. It is incredible to watch them in action. From hearing their stories of purpose, family, triumphs, struggles and inspiration I am grateful to have experienced their work first hand.  Understanding the significance of their impact, I have been creating "multi-vocal" art works that explore and celebrate their lives.

With my findings, I am creating a visual "collage"in conversation with time, and its links to the current political climate, the past and the future. I am particularly excited about the experimental aspects of this project using the combination of visual art and media as a means of weaving the stories together.

COLLECTING STORIES INSPIRED BY THEIR LIVES ~ HEAR OUR VOICES OF RESISTANCE & SPIRIT

We are excited to share the stories of others inspired by the lives and work of Nina, Chanel & dequi





I BE YOUR WATER
I painted their portraits to utilize the message in their stories as a traveling piece. I completed it in September of 2017 and it will continue to travel in community and art spaces. The piece is intended to invite people to participate and ask ourselves, who are the important figures in our lives, whose stories could be amplified? How can we honor them?

After hearing a Sweet Honey In the Rock Song, called " I Be Your Water, I felt this title was most fitting for this process.




The portraits are the grounding element of my creative wellness workshops centered on Black/Brown girls and women that have taken place and will continue throughout the journey.


Lehna facilitated a Creative Arts Workshop at Meredith College with the Black Student Union. Workshops will continue and travel with the project. 


dequi, Nina and Chanel visit our highschool women's empowerment group that I work with at Sadie Nash Leadership Project to connect with our participants. They were inspired! Students shared their clapbacks to street harassment. I am thankful that Shelby their counselor provided the space for us to be together. Workshops and opportunities to bring women of all ages together through art and activism will continue. 





WHY NOW? 
In the wake of troubled times across the city, nation and globe, it is important for us to highlight the work of those dismantling harmful structures at play through their daily commitments to uplifting Black women and girls across the many identities we come in. From the #MeToo Movement to Black Lives Matter, we need to center voices of those unheard from wherever our voices cry out for freedom, justice and liberation.  This process opens up space to Free the imagination, the body and the mind from the constraints and limitations of societal ills, and embrace the power of our creativity, and roots- and for those who fight for our freedom through sharing their guidance and wisdom.  




PROJECT GOALS

1. To reach wide diverse and intergenerational communities looking to build together around arts
and education as a tool for liberation.

2. To honor dequi, Nina and Chanel as cultural workers and pioneers through creating a work of art -The "I Be Your Water" Project that supports the "To Move Mountains" media project.

3. To provide a visual art representation intended to jumpstart a participatory platform for people to respond and share personal stories of everyday women and also important cultural workers of Color.

4. To create a transformative visual art piece to be shared at public film screenings, community spaces and events dedicated to the cultural sharing and celebration of Black Women artists and activists.

5. To provide a creative space for women of Color of all ages to engage their authentic selves as critical voices in shaping this city (NYC and beyond) throughout time and in the present day.


Highlighting Stories of Women in Action


Nina Angela Mercer

Nina Angela Mercer photographed by Lehna Huie

Nina Angela Mercer
Nina Angela Mercer is a cultural worker. Her plays include GUTTA BEAUTIFUL; RACING MY GIRL, SALLY; ITAGUA MEJI: A Road & A Prayer; GYPSY & THE BULLY DOOR; and MOTHER WIT & WATER BORN, a trilogy, including the play she is currently developing, BETWEEN WHISPERED BLOOD-LINES. Her work has been shared at the Warehouse Theatre, The Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company for DC’s Fringe Festival, Rutgers University-Newark and New Brunswick, Wings Theatre, Brecht Forum, The Classical Theatre of Harlem, Dr. Barbara Ann Teer’s National Black Theatre, The Nuyorican Poets’ Café, Abrons Arts Center/Henry Street Settlement, Dumbo Sky, and The Little Carib Theatre. Her writing is published in The Killens Review of Arts & Letters, Black Renaissance Noire, Voices Magazine #SayHerName Edition, and Continuum: The Journal of African Diaspora Drama, Theatre, and Performance. She has performed in collaboration with Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative, Angela’s Pulse, BWA for BLM, and others. She is a co-founder and co-director of Ocean Ana Rising - www.oarinc.org, a non-profit arts education organization dedicated to incubating theatre, performance art and film projects by, for, and about women of color, as well as facilitating arts outreach workshops for communities in need. Nina holds an undergraduate degree from Howard University, and a MFA from American University. She has taught at American University, University of Maryland, Howard University, and Medgar Evers College. She is currently a doctoral fellow of Theatre and Performance at The Graduate Center-CUNY. She teaches at Brooklyn College. Through her work at the intersection of art, social justice, and education, Nina advocates for survivors of the culture of violence, reproductive justice, literacy, and civic engagement through cultural expression. She is also an initiate in Palo Mayombe, serving community as Yayi Nkisi Malongo. Nina is the proud mother of two daughters, Aya Imani and Raisa Selam. Find updates about Nina’s work at  http:// windowsdoorsclosetsanddrawers. blogspot.com



dequi kioni sadiki
        dequi kioni sadiki photographed by Lehna Huie

dequi kioni sadiki
déqui kioni-sadiki is a Black feminist, artist, educator for Liberation, human rights activist, poet, wife, Mother and Grandmother. She is a member of the National Council of Incarcerated & Formerly Incarcerated Girls & Women, chair of the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee, member of the Northeast Political Prisoner Coalition and the New York City chapter of the Jericho Movement for Amnesty Recognition of u.s. Political Prisoners & Prisoners of War (PPOWs), former member of the Black Panther Collective and co-coordinator of the Sekou Odinga Defense Committee, named for her husband and former Black Panther Party/Black Liberation Army POW. déqui currently serves as a life-skills counselor working with New York City high school students, and has taught in the Freshman Year Program at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York. She is co-host/co-producer of the weekly public affairs show, Where We Live, on listener-sponsored WBAI-NY radio focusing on the issues of political/mass imprisonment, families and survivors of police terror and murder, repressive legislation, Puerto Rico and other grassroots organizing. She is co-editor of the recently published "Look For Me in the Whirlwind: From the Panther 21 to 21st Century Revolutions." Her essays and articles have been published in the New York Amsterdam News, the Journal of Socialism & Democracy and the Huffington Post. déqui subscribes to the belief held by feminist writer, June Jordan that "we are the ones we been waiting for" to end the tidal wave of state violence, injustice, oppression and terror that is crushing the lives of poor and working-class people around the globe.


Chanel Porchia
Chanel Porchia photographed by Lehna Huie

Chanel Porchia
Chanel L. Porchia-Albert is the Founder and Executive Director of Ancient Song Doula Services. She is an activist, mother, speaker, certified labor & postpartum doula, certified lactation counselor, vegan chef, and certified holistic health counselor specializing in high risk mothers, multiples, survivors of sexual trauma and domestic violence. Her doula work includes serving familes with multiple needs including but not limted to: adoption, LGBTQP Families, special needs babies, relinquishing mothers,  surrogacy, waterbirth, cesarean birth, bed rest,  home birth, induced and high medical technology labor & birth, bereavement (pregnancy & infant loss),  miscarriage support (before, during or after),postpartum support, prematurity, stillbirth support, single parents support, addiction recovery, parenting consulting, assistance for special needs babies, education for healthy relationships/ prevention of intimate partner violence. Chanel is the mother of six beautiful children. She is also the co-trainer for Ancient Song Doula Services trainings. She has spoken at numerous colleges, conferences and continually rallied for women's issues. "I believe every woman has an "Ancient Song" and I am here to assist her with the keys she needs to sing." Chanel served as Lehna's doula in supporting the birth of her daughter Simone on January 16th, 2015.


Project Breakdown

Part 1- “I Be Your Water” is a large scale triptych  painting that captures the physical presence, essence and the story of three distinctive women Nina Angela Mercer, dequi kioni sadiki and Chanel Porchia - who are
committed to the global Black freedom struggle for survival in America.

The larger than life commemoration was completed in September of 2017. Each panel is measured at 8ftx5ft and the figures are applied with a collaging process using parachute cloth, felt, fabrics acrylic paint on canvas. 

About the Paintings

Each portrait depicts the women as mighty in their power and saint-like surrounded by multiple fabrics and textures. The project describes a unity, connecting these women to one another and the world. "I Be Your Water" is a commemoration and living altar reminding us to to celebrate the contributions  of our living sheroes. It represents the symbolic and expressive links to our past, present and future as Black women of the world. The piece is intended to be a transformative, traveling visual art piece that is simultaneously woven with Part 2 of this project. It is to be shared at public community spaces and events dedicated to the cultural sharing and celebration of Black Women artists and activists.



This triptych was exhibited for the first time at Meredith College in October of 2017 for my Solo Exhibition entitled, Path to Liberation- saint, sawdust, soul.  Including the pieces in the show of over 35 works, also celebrated the culmination of the painting process and the begiinning of the workshop series.   

I am grateful to witness them traveling with purpose and they will continue to move as the journey has begun! I  am grateful to have received funding from the Puffin Foundation at the early stages of this project in 2015. I did not know that it would grow in the ways that has.  






Part 2- " To Move Mountains" is a documentary series that highlights the lives of Nina Angela Mercer, dequi kioni sadiki and Chanel Porchia . The series consisting of intimate portraits, juxtoposed with African and Indigienous symbols of strength,  historical references  and images that celebrate creativity and imagination, aims to faithfully capture the work and lives of three important cultural organizers for liberation. It highlights each womans connection to personal power, the land and the communities and lives that they impact.  The  series will be completed by 2020. 

These women’s stories are not well known, but are important to the shaping of our American history. My goal is to document each woman's sense of purpose, spirit, essence and contributions through an artistic lens with the purpose of promoting dialogue as a tool for liberation.







Funds will Support

Documentary : production costs, Editor, Videographer assistance, research/archival assistance,  promotional material, camera rental/use, Hard Drives, Stipend for Assistant, transportation, community workshop supplies.

All those who make donations will receive a public thank you and will be credited for your support.  All who donated over 50$ will receive a handmade card and appreciations will range from choosing from a selection of prints by Lehnna to opportunities to receive an original artwork.




LEHNA HUIE

Lehna Huie (b.1988 NYC) is a multi-disciplinary artist, arts educator, curator,  mother and cultural worker exercising a belief in the power of multi-vocal art. She is an artist amplifying stories of love, loss, and remembrance. Huie is deeply committed to the fusion of arts and social change as a path to liberation: exploring the past, present and the future of struggle and freedom. Central to Huie's creative work is her utilization of artistic expression as a compass for healing our world. Her work embodies cultural critique, celebration, and transformation. Lehna is an advocate for artists rights, reproductive justice and for survivors of domestic violence and often does design work and workshops for organizations and grassroots communities. Collaboration and community are key components in her life's work.


Lehna utilizes a variety of mediums to practice arts based storytelling and uplifting cultural memory by  utilizing the vehicles of traditional painting, performance, film & photography. Huie’s studio practice makes use of various materials on canvas, paper, and wooden surfaces. Her portraits and figurative work are highly textured. Often layered with diverse materials: paint, plaster, sawdust, beads as well as found objects, her work brings forth a symphony of moods. Grounded by the global community, New York City life, womanism and the essence of her familial homeland in Jamaica, Huie is ever inspired by the African Diaspora.

You can learn more about her work at www.lehnahuie.com




portraits of Nina, dequi & Chanel



I was pregnant with my daughter Simone at the start of this project, and my journey into motherhood in connection with each of these women has been a vital component to the process. I want to thank my mother Janice Marie Johnson and my Auntie Hope Johnson for stretching and growing with me, my sister Jova Johnson & brother in love Reuben for their advice, my daughter Simone Octavia for her patience and witness and my partner -film maker Divad Durant who has also been a great support and source of encouragement on and off set. Major thanks to my dear friends Jil Novenski, Stephanie Lawrence and godsister Kendra Rodgers.  Heartfelt thanks to my community for your undying love and support and thanks to my ancestors and Great Creator for your guidance.


I am grateful to Third World Newsreel for being the spark, and accepting me into their Production Workshop in 2014 when this project was just an idea. At TWN, I took a class with the late Herman Lew and JT Tagaki who encouraged me to bring it to fruition. I was reminded of the significance of sharing our stories. I thank them for having supported me with words of encouragement as a first time filmmaker, committed to doing this work and trusting in the journey as it continues to develop.