KwaNTum Field Notes 2022 #7: The NTR-Tain-Meant of NUN
Com/PuTer ProCeSSing uNiT ComMend 7:
“Ruth Hubbard brilliantly explains how scientific fact making is left to a group of selected few, academics that are, for the most part, white males and come from the upper echelon of society from an economic standpoint. Chosen and validated by their peers, they make decisions that impact the lives of the masses with no system of checks and balance in place. The author states that, contrary to scientists’ denial, such an endeavor is never unbiased but highly political and ideological (Hubbard 1988: 8). This leads to historical distortion where, as Merle Collins puts it in her poem ‘Crik Crak’, it is impossible to say, ‘What is the mirage and what reality? Do we know what is truth and what is truly fiction?’ (Collins 1992: 1)” — “Appropriating African Belief Systems: Renée Stout Re-Writes Her Self” by Alix Pierre
“Through the alter ego I was able to project a personality that would have the attributes that I wanted it to have and were probably ones that I wished I had. It gave me the freedom to set up and act out scenarios in a way that was more objective and, by creating art and stories through and about this alter ego, I began to learn much about myself…She stays in my ear saying, ‘Do this’ or ‘Do that’, and I trust that she knows because she comes from that deep part of me that’s more connected to the universe. She’s from the more spiritual and intuitive place that dealing with a society such as this can take you out of, if you let it…I was inspired because in trying to figure out who you are as a human being, you always need to go back to the source.” — Renee Stout
I/DeNTity FabRiK = The Tain(G)ing Room
Nikusa Minpa:
“The space crackles”
KMR(N)
MKR(N)
MRK(N)
MeL/K(N)
Krik Krak
Across the TR(K)ShoLD
All I see are TR(K)S
Waves between my aLTR of Agos and Ames
Wash a way within my own reflection Mass(k)
This my point of NTRing
A Door of Nun ReTRNing
Sense
Some
Tain(G)
There
I move
from the interference
What sensation is this?
SW/T through the Grrrr for each Puta Puta Puta
Pulsing
Dje m be
Anke djé, anke bé
The sound gathers into a rippling construction of a reflection
Flick Flick Flick Frik Frik Frik Frig Frig Frig Figr Fugr
Ripples of Frag meant all the f(r)ictions against my skin
Mother(G)ourd/On
A Pierrot Granade whipped
Waves Flags to reclaim SW/M
A constellation of moving points
N/motion with Heebie Jeebies
The mountains of weight on the Back (S)©R(K)
I am an archive opened up into remembering
I am the (K)LauGh MaRKing time
The FLSH = a FeeLD of Study
Holy roller echo chamber
Reflect on the ways I’ve been dragged
Pulled and Pushed
Carries me (K)LauGhin’ in waves
Finds me my (G)NGN(S)Running
All the interferences that drag me become my costume
The druma of a drapto stirring a possession of dis/sociations
(M)MiRRoRR of a (M)MiRRoRR of a (M)MiRRoRR of a (M)MiRRoRR…
Krik Krak KUBA
The doll wakes up stirring into some tain(g) else
HepiKat
L’(g)Nub
Measured in capture
Wrrr (K)Bls on the ocean floor of M>ND
A spinning top Kwa RiK Kwa RaK
Pathway circuits of transatlantic hear(d)ing of (s)©hips
I be/longing to l’attitude
Beyond the crossroads of trade routional into the NTR-FGR of SeLF
Riding a WRRRR/DDDD Be/a(s)t
Carry me to (S)HRM/NKS
What makes me move?
What is there to hold onto?
Where is my projection coming from?
Jack jumbie the KNDL
Jack be MAD/AM Ma/DAM M/Adam
Jack M>ND ND a Krik Krak
KoM KoM KoM/Puta
My (K)Litter go Puta Puta
The LiGhT comes
from a sense
of GRaviTy
Kom Quimbara:
Kom Krik Krak (G)NGN:
Change: A MeL Movements of NTR
A plucked GeB reveals the Mass(K) of points = KRowNeD Kom/Puta oRG
is StiLL a MouTh full of flow
a mounting Lwa
I/D__(N)(T)LoGic SW/M = SeLF ND De(D) uTTeR
“Famalay-lay-lay-lay-lay-lay-lay-lay-lay
With me
Famalay-lay-lay-lay-lay-lay-lay-lay-lay
When we
Come to play-lay-lay-lay-lay-lay-lay-lay-lay
We mash up fete
Tun up dance
We like ah armyCus everybody
Jumping up together (Gether)
Jumping up together (Gether)
Mashing up together (Gether)
Mashing up together (Gether)
Waving up together (Gether)
Waving up together (Gether)
Jumping up together (Gether)”
— “Famalay” by Skinny Fabulous, Machel Montano, Bunji Garlin
“until the lioness
is her own
hiss —
torian”
— “Crick Crack” by Merle Collins
This year’s series of field notes will be a list of ComMendMeants exploring the idea of these programming codes as praise songs of the nature-based hybrid automaton Al Kym/Org. They are part of the process of my larger poetic project KwaNTum, which explores concepts of knowledge and knowledge-making from a Black, Afro-diasporic perspective, using ideas from STEM, Afrofuturism and the Black Speculative Movement. This project is partially made possible by funds rom the NYSCA Literary Grant, sponsored by Culture Push.
