I don't know what's going on with my life, but I absolutely
love it. Several very influential scholars are working in my favor to expose me to the "right" connections in the field of AFAM Art and also African. I feel so excited that I occasionally get the heart flutter (bad heart, too) thinking about what's going on! The Director of Black Studies at UCSB is shattering the glass of my graduate solemnity by connecting me with other directors of studies programs at CUNY colleges, Duke, Yale, Princeton. . . Wellesley, and I'm now able to create a better image of what I want to pursue! And shit, their houses are AMAZING (yes, materialism is involved, AH's don't make much, but I want a good idea of if I'm living in a box or not). Secondly, apparently all these connections are vital in demanding more funding, benefits, etc. from other PhD programs. And their conversations are amazing! And it apparently logically follows that you don't drink water at these gatherings, but you drink hard liquor. These scholars are out of their "classroom" element and are real human beings! (and yes, I totally adore the comment that I don't look 24. . . at least from them) I also just got off of the phone with an amazing artist and musician living in Germany now, who has his first retrospective catalog premiering the end of this February, so I'm hoping on the possibilities here. Also, an hour + a few minutes discussion from a Skype call to Germany is roughly four dollars!
And Isaac Julien's 10,000 Waves at the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston is so fucking stunning! Said Director showing me "the black arts scholar world," provided me company and the discussion afterwards was also amazing. So I'm thinking about applying to UC Berkeley at the suggestion of several people-------- and holy shit, I understand I'm a noob and still naïve, and being introduced to all these scholar "stars" is either serendipitous or purposely calculated, but AHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!
Also, if you're in Boston I highly - fucking - suggest you see 10,000 Waves. It's a video installation presented on nine projection screens of simultaneous and disjointed "whole" scenes of moving clippings (three narratives) -- very disorienting -- about the idea that we're "all" immigrants, and the dialectical struggle between mixing fantasy and reality within our imaginations of living, religion and work. Seriously. I fucking love Isaac Julien, and apparently the professor wants me to write an article with him and publish this in a book. That's scary as fuck, but.. I gotta do something right?! YAY!