Images by: Hallecherry
So much has changed in 8 years on this journey together. A decade ago there were no queer Caribbean spaces in NYC that married its mission to highlighting the arts and activism. Shiiyeet I was a different hoe 10 years ago. Lol /// Still after all this time we have morphed and shifted to grow and bloom. Never getting stuck in rigid nostalgia or that the Caribbean sound was only hinged to the 90s (which people often do). Discarding ideas that a Caribbean queer party had to sound one way. We’ve been open to whatever obstacles, opportunities and adventures laid before us. /// I remember the 1st RAGGA Rave at the The spectrum and being so worried people wouldn’t get into the vibe. I was worried people wouldn’t see it for a space where we can be proudly Caribbean and still pop a 💊 to the synths of the night. Thank god for real ones who get it and have stayed on this journey with RAGGA. /// To being mixy and having imagination. /// A journey of self discovery where we stake claim in all the beautiful sounds that are black 👏🏿black 👏🏿BLACK👏🏿. Where we experiment with what it would feel like and sound like to live in our own black Nirvana‘s. To take up space and make a real time oasis especially considering all the violence we are up against when we aren’t sweating on these dance floors.
I have so much respect and love for @dwellerforever and its ties to history and world building to continue making black oasis’s today. The Quest of Drexciya (where the Dweller name comes from) is a hope for the past and dream for our futures selves to be truly free. A reality where we get to embody that freedom in space, soul and music - in this case techno/ electronic music. At the start of RAGGA and pre dating that I have worked to integrate this desire to see ourselves liberated and melanated in my personal art practice and in RAGGA spaces. I remember the photo shoot at the New Museum residency working with RAGGA family and us all coming together in our common history of the Haitian revolution and legends like Queen Nanny. The stories of a Black Atlantis (Drexciya), Yemaya the Santería Afro-Caribbean orisha/ mermaid, the flying Africans of Igbo Landing all come from the same magical space. That space is where RAGGA & Dweller sprout. It’s Black History Month and here’s to us continuing to make history against all odds. To know we are rooted in deeeeep history and magic. We Dwellin today, tomorrow and forever.