Rootmy body grew Text, photos, and illustrations by Jasmine Hearn
This is an imagined and remembered illus- trated poem that is composed of sketches and poetics frommy recent process jour- nals. The photo is from a recent flight into occupied lands now known as Houston, TX. Root my body grew is in conversation with the upcoming archival and performance project, Memory Fleet: A Return toMatr due to premiere in Houston, TX April 2024. It references non-linear conversations I have had withMarjani Forté- Saunders, Marlies Yearby, Jo Stewart, Jennifer Harge, Byronné Hearn, Jenna Hearn, Myssi Robinson, Alisha B. Worms- ley, BennalldreWilliams, FreWuhn, Victor Le Givens, Urban BushWomen, Li Harris, Lovie Olivia, dani tirrell, BarbaraMahler, and Athena Kokoronis of Domestic Performance Agency.
like a cliff that crumbled into the ocean a part of what is no longer held
tectonics keep moving keep kept and then shaken/shared
I have been saying yes to the fear of an uterus the size of a hen full of inescapable fluid
and a trail of migrating blood in between my feet while walking
this is question of where the stars are over the church steeple church as mother building as mother structure as womb as cave as forever home
emptiness in-between bladder and colon in- between organs does that did that would that hopefully not will not the space collapse? did the space collapse? did the church close? the coordinates empty? a disappearance a missing and inevita- bly a forgetting why do i forget almost every month since fourth grade the acute pain of the descending space too full for feel- ing the exact coordinates of (you) joy and grief
mother can rule her own
is this really a story about the differ- ence between violence and care or reading tension or receiving the frequency of vulner- ability and it is on all the time with every person energetic body i assumed you to have healed yourself even if its plugged with stagnant highly packed fluid stirring and pulling up towards the stars
the way I understand
is to say yes to fear and all that fear brings
I have been forgetting the left side the bobbling knee and the ill- situated sits bone I have been moving myself away from itself easy hold on tight and loose lost loose luc sensation sin sensation
whined and unwind varying levels of intimacy
with a distinct palate to what got calloused and what hurts and what tastes good.
JASMINE HEARN was born and raised on occupied lands now known as Houston, TX. They are an interdisciplinary artist, director, choreographer, organizer, teaching artist, and a 2017 and 2021 Bessie awarded performer. Jasmine’s commitment to dance is an expansive practice that includes performance, collaboration, and memory-keeping.
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In Dance | May 2014 | dancersgroup.org
u n i f y s t r e n g t h e n amp l i f y u n i f y s t r e n g t h e n a p l i f y
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