Visual PDF available online: grunt.ca.
Published July 2023.
Author(s): Christina Kim and Kay Slater, grunt accessibility committee

Introduction to alternative text catalogue:

The alternative text catalogue project is created by the staff and contractors on the Accessibility Committee at grunt gallery. Our approach to alternative text is one of creative access, straddling the line between information and function. We are all artists, and while we try to minimize subjective language, we are working to provide a catalogue that creates an enjoyable experience for our non-visual audience and those better served by text!

We welcome feedback from our audiences. Please contact us at access@grunt.ca with any questions or feedback.

Creative Access Descriptions:

Pamphlet:

Cover (front):

A yellow cover with a single image. The top text reads grunt gallery, May 12th – July 8th, 2023. The bottom text reads Odera Igbokwe, Syncretic Birthrights. The image is The Volcano, an oil painting by Odera Igbokwe. A single Black figure with a strong chin, thick lips, and black eyes peers over half-circle glasses perched on their nose. Their black hair sweeps up and away, becoming bright, hot flame. They wear a large red cape textured in dark swirling lines hinting at eyes, fire, and smoke. It is draped over their wide shoulders and exposed chest, sweeping away on both sides to reveal the figure’s muscled chest. They wear a silk top which opens into a wide V from a cinched belt, skirted in ruffles the colour and texture of charcoal. Over their exposed left breast are three stones with tails of bright fire exploding up from their belt. The stones are smooth, making them appear like bullet holes, the bright fire now dripping down from the exposed wounds. Their left arm is bent across the chest, holding a bouquet wrapped in pearly fabric in front of their right breast. The arm shows cinders above the elbow, which fades into the black of burnt wood, their hand completely darkened by the once hot flame. The bouquet is made of dappled feathers and huge matchsticks, their heads burning and swirling in flame. Behind them, the silhouette of buildings burn, encased in orange flame, and behind this, a huge volcano towers up and past the edge of the painting. The sky behind it is a mixture of ash and flame, telling us that the volcano is active and on fire. While the work is burning and active, the figure is confident and serene, as much a part of the fire as the volcano behind them.

The printed catalogue’s cover is a textured but smooth, plastic-feeling thick paper.

A loose insert has been tucked into the pages of the printed pamphlet. These footnotes, written by Nya Lewis, were missed during the proofing process. These footnotes are detailed towards the end of the pamphlet description, following page 20.

Cover (back):

Hot mustard yellow page with image credits in black text that read:

Image details:
Front Cover,
The Volcano (2023), oil painting on wood panel.
Inside Covers, Pages 2 and 3, 16 and 17,
Syncretic Birthrights (2023), installation view at grunt gallery.
Page 4,
The Altar (2023), oil painting on wood panel.
Page 8,
The Veil (2023), oil painting on wood panel.
Pages 12 and 13,
Left: Oya’s Gate (2023), acrylic painting on wooden panel
Right: The Griot (2023), oil painting on watercolour paper
Page 15,
The Spirit Child (2023), oil painting on wood panel.
All images credited to Dennis Ha (2023).

Transcriber’s note: the dates listed are the year works were photographed, not the creation date of the works themselves.

Inside Cover Spread:

The double-page image spread shows the exhibition photographed from the entrance of the gallery centred on the south-east corner. The image spread is bisected by the inner catalogue pages, with the inside left or front cover showing the white east wall with unframed oil-painted works on panel. The inside right or back cover shows the south, or back wall, painted in hot mustard yellow, with 2 framed works and a long black leather bench that bisects the gallery space.

Page 1:

The page is all text. At the footer, the grunt gallery logo (the word grunt in lower case in white on a black painted brushstroke) sits above a line of gallery and exhibition funders. They are acknowledged in the text credits.

The interior pages are thinner than the cover but still feel thicker than photocopy paper.

The credits read:

grunt gallery
Syncretic Birthrights
Odera Igbokwe
116 – 350 East 2nd Avenue
Vancouver, BC Canada
V5T 4R8
grunt.ca
Curator: Whess Harman
Writers: Whess Harman and Nya Lewis
Design: Victoria Lum
Copy Editor: Katrina Orlowski
Photography: Dennis Ha
Printed in Canada by Mitchell Press
Edition of 250
ISBN: 978-1-988708-21-8
All Rights Reserved
Publication © 2023 grunt gallery
Artwork © 2023 the artists
Text © 2023 the authors
All images courtesy of the artists

© Copyright grunt gallery, the writers and the artists. Content from this book cannot be reproduced without express permission from the publisher.

Note: the following paragraph has Indigenous spellings of nation names followed by the English translation.

grunt gallery is located on the unceded and ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ/selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, who have lived in kinship with this land, water and air for thousands of years. We recognize and acknowledge their leadership and our own complicity in settler colonialism, its present occupation and its violent legacy. We acknowledge our responsibility to work actively in support of Indigenous sovereignty, and towards a respectful relationship with this place.

grunt gallery gratefully acknowledges support from The Province of British Columbia through the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, The Canada Council for the Arts, The British Columbia Arts Council, The City of Vancouver, the Audain Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Vancouver Foundation.

Page 2 and 3 (facing):

The double-page image spread shows the west and south walls of the grunt gallery. The back or left wall is a hot mustard colour, similar to that of the pamphlet’s cover. This wall hosts two framed works. The right or west wall holds 4 unframed oil paintings and ends in a box of didactic title text about the show. A black bench bisects the space and exposed lighting racks can be seen above the show.

Page 4 (left):

The image shows Odera’s work titled The Altar. The image is bordered in the same hot mustard yellow as the cover. The Altar shows a solitary figure standing upright with their fingers wide and reaching, their arms extended, one raised over their head, and one reaching towards their feet. A long copper-coloured braid coils up and around their arm in a huge infinity sign, like a figure 8 rotated 90 degrees. They wear textured garments reminiscent of Nigerian masquerades, composed of raffia and palm garments. This garment extends downward, in tiers from the shoulders down to their ankles, all the colour of copper and flame. They stand on tip-toe within a ring of fire that leaps up from a crucible atop an earth-coloured altar, surrounded by large, soft-petaled flowers and the occasional candle. Floating before them is a sword with ornate handles, an Ofo staff traditionally held by Igbo men during ceremony, and around their neck is a huge copper ringed medallion with a large cowrie shell at its centre. In the candy, pastel sky is softly swirling clouds afloat and undulating waves of water. The image is cradled by a huge arching rainbow at the top.

Page 5:

On an ice-white page, the bottom left corner states the author of the essay “Whess Harman” and the title “Curator’s Introduction” in a large sans serif font. The page number is written in tiny type just above the title text.

Page 6 and 7:

The left page is all black text in 2 columns on white paper using the same sans-serif font. The text continues onto the right page in a single column.

Near the left bottom edge of each page is the page number.

The essay reads:

I first came across Odera’s work in their zine, New Moon. This fanzine, inspired by Naoko Takeuchi’s globally recognized and beloved series Sailor Moon, collects together Odera’s reimagining of each of the series’ central characters as Black women in the shoujo magical girl style. I remember the excitement of coming across this zine at the fair; so much of illustration especially for BIPOC artists has been about taking space, reimagining and noting where we haven’t been included and confronting the exclusion by providing resistance through joy. This is a marked difference from works created during the Golden Age of Illustration (1850-1925). Though the demand (and income) of (predominately white) illustrators peaked during this period, the space for expressing themselves as artists was marginal; producing work for advertisements and magazines, the content of the work was neatly prescribed and regarded as distinctly separate from gallery work.

Since then, the barrier between fine art and illustration has smudged to become less restrictive when it comes to finding space for illustration practices within the gallery. However, in some ways, contemporary illustrative practices live in an even more confusing space; while we see more of this work legitimated in gallery spaces, we also see the struggle for illustrators to make a living while keeping their autonomy in regards to the content of their work. There is also now a new threat; AI generators exist in an uncertain place as publishing companies tip-toe around the legalities of their use. Like many industries in demand and under capitalism, instead of illustration becoming a robust field capable of supporting a large number of artists all speaking from unique experiences and styles, there is an increasing desire to do away with illustrators entirely or at the very least, to devalue that labour to keep cost margins low.

Still, artists like Odera still find ways to maintain their autonomy and fend off the tepid encroachment of AI generators. AI intelligence and data collection has repeatedly demonstrated its shortcomings when it comes to the nuances of passion and investment in sharing one’s own voice. AI cannot advocate for itself through what it produces. So while it can be difficult to move between the job of an illustrator and the visioning of an artist working with material that is so deeply personal, the true strength of Odera’s work is that its central themes hold strong regardless of where you encounter it or what project it might be attached to. By syncretizing, harmonizing, and revisiting not only folkloric traditions and spirituality but also the places where Odera themself has also found joy, their work resonates with many who also find themselves trying to hold sometimes conflicting, sometimes converging identities. Finally, coming into the gallery to see these works is still well worth the time. The intensity of colour in these works and the refinement of composition are in conversation with one another and you do, in my opinion, get a sense of each painting being both an entity unto itself and also in conversation with the others in a way that is meaningful and vigorous. And perhaps most importantly, despite the many issues regarding representation, racism and Blackness that Odera often cites as an inspiration to continue this necessary work, to do these things and speak in ways that are both joyful and engaged.

Page 8:

The image shows Odera’s work titled The Veil. The image is bordered in the same hot mustard yellow as the cover. The Veil features a figure looking directly at the viewer, standing tall, their body turned in profile. They wear a fluffy or feathered full-bodysuit the colour of deep, cool blue stone. Upon their head is a huge bowl, balanced and draped in a long transparent veil. Within the veil, the figure is surrounded by a pair of equally majestic and tall figures, standing similarly with bodies in a row and faces turned towards the viewer. They are made of silvery liquid, or perhaps the veil itself made flesh, showing chiselled muscles and restful expressions, their defined arms softly huggling and draped over the central figure. Around the veil and figures are round faces, reminiscent of African masks and the moon’s phases, their expressions are also calm with eyes closed. There is a serenity in the scene balanced by the knowing and noble expression on the main figure as they look directly at you. Above the bowl floats oval shapes showing the moon through her various phases, overlapping like a jewelled necklace. The background mountains are a softer blue or purple, also painted in a texture similar to a huge stack of feathers. The sky sets into a trans-flag-coloured sunset.

Page 9:

On an ice-white page, the bottom left corner states the author of the essay “Nya Lewis” and the title “Afro cosmologies and other Queer externalities” in a large sans serif font.

Page 10-11, 14:

The essay is written in black text on white paper. It spans 2 pages, each laid out in 2 columns, interrupted by the double-spread photo on pages 12 and 13, and concludes in a single paragraph and column on page 14.

Near the left bottom edge of each page is the page number.

Note: the following essay does not include the footnotes originally included and provided by the author, as the pamphlet went to print without them included. However, the unpublished text has been included at the bottom of this alternative text pamphlet so you can read it as the author intended.

The essay reads (uninterrupted):

Afro cosmologies and other Queer externalities

By Nya Lewis

Living outside the subject, if only within your own imagination, is generative. However, to make anew from the loose ends of colonialism’s tentacles, spell-binding worlds that render and modernly translate African and Indigenous oral histories that affirm your presence is life-changing. At the intersection of Afro-futurism, potential present-day heroes, deities, otherworldliness, and ancestral narratives, holds an easter egg for Afro-queer diasporic identities. Syncretic Birthrights takes up the consummate task of speculating another way out of unquestioned cultural prejudice and harm to make way for discovery and acceptance of innate divinity—Black, queer, trans, and godly brilliance. Odera Igbokwe’s practice is a bridge across realities and an intimate visual language of Black resilience, joy, and magic.

A defining aesthetic, images like The Spirit Child dance and swirl across the canvas, unveiling a story within a story. Depictions of serenity, rage, hope, and love clad the avatars, cascading layered symbolism in technique and theme; the movement ignites in yellows and golds, inviting the viewer into their cosmos. Igbokwe’s ability to simultaneously visualise with sincerity the emotional multitude and nuance of our shared experiences, isolation and guidance, dignified fear, and self-affirmation. Engulfed by light, fire, shadow, and still an act of faith. A white gown, perhaps an emblem of purity, peace, and child-like freedom, dances as they lean on the edge of new realms. In full flight, relentless pursuits of self-proclamation. I see myself in this journey, where cultural narratives and myth can be a universal place for powerful beginnings or salvific transformations.

I am interested in creative practices as a site for study and queries concerning the parallels between; the conditions of Black/African life and mythology, the process of art making, and the existential capacity of religion, both doing the work of transcending reality and presenting alternative ways of being through non-cognitive means. Speculatively, interest in otherworldly forces and faith systems responds to the need for radical healing. For Igbokwe, where their Nigerian Christian upbringing is concerned, the desire for transcendence and refuge turns to hybrid spiritual philosophies and theological iconography to examine their identities and make sense of the moment. Within a lineage of Afro-diasporic interdisciplinary visual artists like April Bey and Wangechi Mutu, or literary artists like Akwaeke Ezemi who engage the fantastical, carving spaces for mythology to be read in equal parts ancestral and futuristic. In 2022, Ekow Eshun’s exhibition In the Black Fantastic was dedicated to the work of Black artists across the diaspora who use spirituality, myth, science fiction, and Afrofuturism to suggest utopian possibilities. A departure from a Western-centric perspective, the presentation explored Black autonomy and experience, evoking a surreal, satirical use of character and avatar to analyze colonialism’s detrimental legacy. This convergence of African oral histories and the Black imaginary manifests as a speculatively new and integral resource, stories that orient us in time and space and present us with a view of the world and our place within it. Syncretic Birthrights rediscovers and reshapes West African, Yoruba anthologies, and Tarot cosmologies, expanding indeterminacy and the multiplicity of radical self-regard.

I question how dissolving or intertwining different beliefs, practices, and traditions work in favor of re-articulating identities. How does borrowing from diverse spiritual traditions create access to new ideas ripe with the possibility for Queer visibility? How do we employ our right to choose articulations of spirituality that mirror our needs without reiterating harm, appropriation, manipulation, or rewriting of histories? In what ways does this porous practice of cross-pollination mimic the strategies of survival for queer Black/African people globally? Regarding Igbokwe’s practice, how did Ifá divination becomes the perfect container for Black queer universal stories? In search of a queer spiritual lineage and purpose, I found affirming solace in the ethical considerations of sexuality and gender found in spiritual practices indigenous to southwestern Nigeria and parts of Benin and Togo. In the aftermath of Transatlantic slavery, the influence of Yoruba cosmology spans across the Diaspora—including Brazil, Cuba, the Caribbean, and the United States. This belief system is one of ontological wholeness, culminating in a supreme being, historically characterized as genderless or possessing all possible gender expressions simultaneously. This being is informed by divine energy and power that brings things into existence, from which emerges the infinity of forms that populates the universe. A being that exceeds the scope of human comprehension, though sometimes likened to gods, orishas are understood as avatars or personifications that relate to natural forces. Artists that engage mythology and illuminate queer, trans, Black, and Indigenous people of color in spiritual folklore across cultures; through protagonists and oral and illustrative storytelling weave myth, cultural narratives, identity, and spirituality in ways that move beyond traditional narratives of religion. This realm of creativity acts as a continuing body of beliefs—a cosmology—that incorporates the centrality of creation, ritual, and inheritance, a shape-shifting relationship between the human and the divine.

Page 12 and 13:

This two-page spread shows an exhibition view of two of Odera’s works hung next to each other. The image spreads across both pages and is bordered in the same hot mustard yellow as the cover. The left image is Oya’s Gate, and the right is The Griot.

Oya’s Gate is described as A swirl and sweep of soft candy pink and purple clouds wrapped around a seated figure with one leg raised. The head and left arm are draped over their knee, and their Black skin is in contrast while also complementary to the swirling pinks and lavenders of their hair. Their right arm and shoulder blend into the soft clothing that morphs and hints at buildings and a city line. The figure sits upon or emerges from a large building with a rounded door on a stone plinth high above the ground. To both sides of the resting body, clouds and cityscape are two figures in profile, potentially guarding or standing watch. They blend and match the colours and shapes of the central figure but are still distinct against a pale blue, softly darkening sky. The painting has a serene but watchful feeling as if the resting figure is also a sleeping castle protected by vigilant guards.

The Griot features a single figure. There is a lightness in the primary colours here, complemented by the confidence that exudes from the central floating figure, the Griot. Their hair is a crown of Bantu knots, and their ebony skin glows in flowing, soft tangerine and peach-coloured clothing. The soft purple and pink clouds reflect their colours and glow around the figure and their clothing. Their forearms, hands and feet are exposed. They sit in a cross-legged, almost lotus-like position, floating above a perch of scrolls and folded paper. The perch becomes a rooftop as below them are shadowy arcades and arches partially obscured by flowing mists. Their arms encircle a large open book covered in Nsidibi symbols, whose pages float out and away towards a circular portal behind and above their head. Through the portal, a pasture of green and pink florals is illuminated by a bright blue sky.

Page 15:

The image shows Odera’s work titled The Spirit Child. The image is bordered in the same hot mustard yellow as the cover. The Spirit Child features a Black youth cradled by a pair of hands covered in veins or stone-like cracks. These hands function as a perch or launching pad, as the figure leans out with arms extended, palms facing out as if to step off and take flight. Their soft purple, sleeveless dress is decorated in a dotted and contrasting pattern at the neck, shoulders, and skirt edge. The skirt’s edge is teased up and behind them by the breeze. Energy is expressed through swirling spirals around one leg and arm, creating a slight corona behind their head. Their hair is short and dense, and their forehead and ears are jewelled in gold studs the size of coins. Their make-up is a similar metallic tone and adorns their relaxed closed eyes. There is a sense of peace and confidence in their resting face and pose. Below the cradled hands and figure is a blue watered planet peeking up from the bottom of the artwork. Above this and behind the figure are active, dancing clouds in mellow yellows and fiery oranges. Tucked away in the folds of fluffy galactic matter are other planets the same colour as the surrounding clouds. The orange pillowy forms rise up into active celestial figures made of flame, motion causing tendrils to swirl and dance around and behind them, bright and in high contrast to the small section of the deep black universe peeking in from the beyond. The artist shares that the figure is simultaneously falling and ready to descend to the planet while also floating upwards, contradictorily, as though they are about to rejoin the celestial figures above.

Page 16 and 17:

The double-spread image covers two pages with a panorama image of the Syncretic Birthrights exhibition. The space is a concrete-laden, high-ceiling room. The artwork is neatly hung up at eye level and spaced out evenly against the three gallery walls. Overhead are stage lights that shine a soft spot light that reflects the paintings’ luminescence. The left and walls are white, and the far-back, middle wall is deep mustard yellow. The left wall has 3 paintings on it. The middle mustard-yellow wall has two framed paintings. The right wall has four paintings. In the centre of the gallery is a black leather bench.

Page 18 and 19 (facing):

These ice-white pages feature the bios of the artist Odera and essay author Nya Lewis on facing pages written in a single column.

Near the left bottom edge of each page is the page number.

The bios read:

Odera Igbokwe (they/them) is an illustrator and painter located on the unceded and traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Odera was born of Igbo parents who immigrated to the lands of the Lenape people. As a result they are constantly excavating, responding, and envisioning in spite of the fractures that occur via diaspora. Their artwork is an exploration of storytelling through Afro-diasporic spiritualism, Black resilience, magical girl transformation sequences, and redefining the archetypal hero’s journey. More specifically, they are intrigued by Nigerian spiritualism, folklore, and sacred practices, and how that relates to contemporary communities across the Americas.

Their artwork weaves together ancient narratives with Afrofuturist visions to explore present day embodiment. It explores the magic of the Black Queer imagination, and questions how to build a home from an intersectional lens. Ultimately these works are a gateway to healing from collective and generational traumas, and assert that healing can be a celebration of joy, mundanity, pain, and fantasy coexisting. As an artist, Odera works with clients and galleries to create work that is deeply personal, soulful, and intersectional. They have created personal works and commissions for Beyoncé, Solange Knowles, Oumou Sangaré, and Dawn Richard. Odera’s work has been exhibited at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Museum of Anthropology at UBC, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, grunt gallery, Burrard Arts Foundation, The James Black Gallery and SUM Gallery.

Nya Lewis’ practice is a culmination of centuries of African resistance, love, questions, actions, study, and embrace. Lewis sees her practice as a continuation of a long lineage of work undertaken by Black artists, curators, writers, activists, and thinkers who blaze(d) a trail of critical discourse surrounding the Black experience. Her archival research-based practice works across the disciplines of curating, writing, and organising. Her work is multivalent in form and expression but is always driven by the reimagining and reclaiming of community.

Lewis (MFA) is an independent curator/writer currently serving as the Director/curator of Artspeak Gallery, research assistant at the Center for the study Black Canadian Diaspora, and the inaugural Research Fellow at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Page 20:

A blank white page.

Insert:

A white looseleaf page folded in half.
The text reads Afro cosmologies and other Queer externalities. By Nya Lewis.

Footnotes:

1. Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic that combines science-fiction, history, and fantasy to explore the Black Atlantic experience and aims to connect those from the black diaspora with their forgotten African ancestry.
2. April Bey grew up in The Bahamas (New Providence) and now resides and works in Los Angeles, CA as a visual artist and art educator. Bey’s interdisciplinary artwork is an introspective and social critique of American and Bahamian culture, feminism, generational theory, social media, AfroFuturism, AfroSurrealism, post-colonialism and constructs of race within supremacist systems.
3. Mutu is best known for spectacular and provocative collages depicting female figures—part human, animal, plant, and machine—in fantastical landscapes that are simultaneously unnerving and alluring, defying easy categorization and identification. Bringing her interconnected ecosystems to life for this exhibition through sculptural installations and videos, Mutu encourages audiences to consider these mythical worlds as places for cultural, psychological, and socio-political exploration and transformation.
4. Akwaeke Emezi is a Nigerian fiction writer and video artist, best known for their novels Freshwater, Pet, and their New York Times bestselling novel The Death of Vivek Oji.
5. In the Black Fantastic, 2022 exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, presents ways of seeing, inhabiting and re-imagining the world through the eyes of 11 contemporary Black artists. Curated by Ekow Eshun.
6. Yoruba people are an ethnic group, mainly inhabiting Nigeria and the Republic of Benin, and some parts of Togo. Yoruba is one of the three official languages of Nigeria.
7. The Ifa divination system, practiced among Yoruba communities and by the African diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean.
8. Cosmological Queerness Across the Yoruba Diaspora, AAIHS, James Padilion Jr, February 17 2017.

Essay with footnotes

Afro cosmologies and other Queer externalities

By Nya Lewis

Living outside the subject, if only within your own imagination, is generative. However, to make anew from the loose ends of colonialism’s tentacles, spell-binding worlds that render and modernly translate African and Indigenous oral histories that affirm your presence is life-changing. At the intersection of Afro-futurism [footnote 1: Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic that combines science-fiction, history, and fantasy to explore the Black Atlantic experience and aims to connect those from the black diaspora with their forgotten African ancestry.], potential present-day heroes, deities, otherworldliness, and ancestral narratives, holds an easter egg for Afro-queer diasporic identities. Syncretic Birthrights takes up the consummate task of speculating another way out of unquestioned cultural prejudice and harm to make way for discovery and acceptance of innate divinity—Black, queer, trans, and godly brilliance. Odera Igbokwe’s practice is a bridge across realities and an intimate visual language of Black resilience, joy, and magic.

A defining aesthetic, images like The Spirit Child dance and swirl across the canvas, unveiling a story within a story. Depictions of serenity, rage, hope, and love clad the avatars, cascading layered symbolism in technique and theme; the movement ignites in yellows and golds, inviting the viewer into their cosmos. Igbokwe’s ability to simultaneously visualize with sincerity the emotional multitude and nuance of our shared experiences, isolation and guidance, dignified fear, and self-affirmation. Engulfed by light, fire, shadow, and still an act of faith. A white gown, perhaps an emblem of purity, peace, and child-like freedom, dances as they lean on the edge of new realms. In full flight, relentless pursuits of self-proclamation. I see myself in this journey, where cultural narratives and myth can be a universal place for powerful beginnings or salvific transformations.

I am interested in creative practices as a site for study and queries concerning the parallels between; the conditions of Black/African life and mythology, the process of art making, and the existential capacity of religion, both doing the work of transcending reality and presenting alternative ways of being through non-cognitive means. Speculatively, interest in otherworldly forces and faith systems responds to the need for radical healing. For Igbokwe, where their Nigerian Christian upbringing is concerned, the desire for transcendence and refuge turns to hybrid spiritual philosophies and theological iconography to examine their identities and make sense of the moment. Within a lineage of Afro-diasporic interdisciplinary visual artists like April Bey[2] and Wangechi Mutu[3], or literary artists like Akwaeke Ezemi[4] who engage the fantastical, carving spaces for mythology to be read in equal parts ancestral and futuristic. [footnote 2: April Bey grew up in The Bahamas (New Providence) and now resides and works in Los Angeles, CA as a visual artist and art educator. Bey’s interdisciplinary artwork is an introspective and social critique of American and Bahamian culture, feminism, generational theory, social media, AfroFuturism, AfroSurrealism, post-colonialism and constructs of race within supremacist systems. footnote 3: Mutu is best known for spectacular and provocative collages depicting female figures—part human, animal, plant, and machine—in fantastical landscapes that are simultaneously unnerving and alluring, defying easy categorization and identification. Bringing her interconnected ecosystems to life for this exhibition through sculptural installations and videos, Mutu encourages audiences to consider these mythical worlds as places for cultural, psychological, and socio-political exploration and transformation. footnote 4: Akwaeke Emezi is a Nigerian fiction writer and video artist, best known for their novels Freshwater, Pet, and their New York Times bestselling novel The Death of Vivek Oji.] In 2022, Ekow Eshun’s exhibition In the Black Fantastic[5] was dedicated to the work of Black artists across the diaspora who use spirituality, myth, science fiction, and Afrofuturism to suggest utopian possibilities. [footnote 5: In the Black Fantastic, 2022 exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, presents ways of seeing, inhabiting and re-imagining the world through the eyes of 11 contemporary Black artists. Curated by Ekow Eshun.] A departure from a Western-centric perspective, the presentation explored Black autonomy and experience, evoking a surreal, satirical use of character and avatar to analyze colonialism’s detrimental legacy. This convergence of African oral histories and the Black imaginary manifests as a speculatively new and integral resource, stories that orient us in time and space and present us with a view of the world and our place within it. Syncretic Birthrights rediscovers and reshapes West African, Yoruba[6] anthologies, and Tarot cosmologies, expanding indeterminacy and the multiplicity of radical self-regard. [footnote 6: Yoruba people are an ethnic group, mainly inhabiting Nigeria and the Republic of Benin, and some parts of Togo. Yoruba is one of the three official languages of Nigeria.]

I question how dissolving or intertwining different beliefs, practices, and traditions work in favor of re-articulating identities. How does borrowing from diverse spiritual traditions create access to new ideas ripe with the possibility for Queer visibility? How do we employ our right to choose articulations of spirituality that mirror our needs without reiterating harm, appropriation, manipulation, or rewriting of histories? In what ways does this porous practice of cross-pollination mimic the strategies of survival for queer Black/African people globally? Regarding Igbokwe’s practice, how did Ifá[7] divination becomes the perfect container for Black queer universal stories? [footnote 7: The Ifa divination system, practiced among Yoruba communities and by the African diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean. ] In search of a queer spiritual lineage and purpose, I found affirming solace in the ethical considerations of sexuality and gender found in spiritual practices indigenous to southwestern Nigeria and parts of Benin and Togo. In the aftermath of Transatlantic slavery, the influence of Yoruba cosmology spans across the Diaspora—including Brazil, Cuba, the Caribbean, and the United States. This belief system is one of ontological wholeness, culminating in a supreme being, historically characterized as genderless or possessing all possible gender expressions simultaneously. This being is informed by divine energy and power that brings things into existence, from which emerges the infinity of forms that populates the universe. A being that exceeds the scope of human comprehension, though sometimes likened to gods, orishas are understood as avatars or personifications that relate to natural forces. Artists that engage mythology and illuminate queer, trans, Black, and Indigenous people of color in spiritual folklore across cultures; through protagonists and oral and illustrative storytelling weave myth, cultural narratives, identity, and spirituality in ways that move beyond traditional narratives of religion. This realm of creativity acts as a continuing body of beliefs—a cosmology[8]—that incorporates the centrality of creation, ritual, and inheritance, a shape-shifting relationship between the human and the divine. [footnote 8: Cosmological Queerness Across the Yoruba Diaspora, AAIHS, James Padilion Jr, February 17 2017. ]

Essay ends.

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