2019 Call to create cohort

What’s not working?

This guiding question is intentionally straightforward, without active poetics, and crafted to evoke responses that grow beyond the question itself. The answers essentially become solutions in the narrative of each of us who engages.

Amin @koousteau #workinprogress — Amin
@koousteau
#workinprogress

Breauna @sugarstonesage #suitetrapblues — Breauna
@sugarstonesage
#suitetrapblues

Courage @cadillacademic #untitledculture — Courage
@cadillacademic
#untitledculture

Devynity @devynitywray #dracarys — Devynity
@devynitywray
#dracarys

Fredua @aud_fredua #soundnimage — Fredua
@aud_fredua
#soundnimage

JME @jme.iii #wordisbond — JME
@jme.iii
#wordisbond

Khabeer @ksultanphoto #beholdmybrother — Khabeer
@ksultanphoto
#beholdmybrother

L. Hanan @sulachildz #seventhson — L. Hanan
@sulachildz
#seventhson

Lee @squaredotcom #falsereality — Lee
@squaredotcom
#falsereality

Michelle @cuisine_rezistans #weneedhealthyoptions — Michelle
@cuisine_rezistans
#weneedhealthyoptions

Sharla @sharlafabulous #getitdone — Sharla
@sharlafabulous
#getitdone

Steven @multiversal_steven #reflectionsinthewater — Steven
@multiversal_steven
#reflectionsinthewater

November 10, 2019

Open Studio

Reflection & celebration of our pilot cohort—Mother Mercy’s 1st Open Studio was filled with 11 works in progress imagined by each participant answering: what’s not working?

Our collective community was called to create through an open mic after our panel discussion moderated by Jenee Osterheldt, Boston Globe culture columnist. Every collaborator, from our Graphic Designer (Samantha Rivera), Digital Strategist (Wendy Michel Dupox), Assistant Curator (Meghan Venable Thomas) and featured vendor (Perpetual Anastasia Hayfron), was called to engage in our guiding question in some capacity. #whatsnotworking

The Nubian Gallery (formerly the Hamill Gallery of African Art) in Roxbury, MA became the physical space for our spiritual portal; it was an honor to baptize the gallery with a new beginning as a home for creatives. The Open Studio provided a culmination for the transformative work of the cohort, yet the event also fostered a beginning to much more for those present.

February 2, 2019

Call to Create launch

The structure of this call allows thinkers & makers time to explore the project concepts and begin to build community, before signing a commitment agreement.

With the C2C commitment being 10 months, imagined in 3 phases, the goal was never the completion of each work of art. The goal was to both observe & influence the creative process; capture the alignment of spirit, of sociopolitical & personal power at play when we create.

A syllabus was crafted for this project and Emergent Strategy, by Adrienne Maree Brown, was an important text in our work together. Cohort members were free to choose any creative medium to express their response to the call. We documented our individual and collective process along the way.

November 11, 2018

The Question

A nod to 11:11, an auspicious numbering recognized and revered in many cultures, marked the inception of our guiding question. After a working retreat curated by Mother Mercy with guided dialogue, individual & group activities, and experiencing "Nine Moments of Now", at the Copper Gallery of African American Art at Harvard, six thinkers wrestled with what we need to ask ourselves and each other as creative and conscious beings of color.

Several ideas rose to the top of our list, some with suspicion and even resistance. Yet after testing each question against our guidelines and honoring our triggers, we agreed to move forward and with confidence in this question, as the right one to ask at this time: What's Not Working?

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