Raven Moore's Blog, page 3

My First Insight into World History through Cloth !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, Catherine McKinley’s “Indigo” is another one of those books that could go grossly overlooked because it’s informative. Truly her search for indigo revealed the severe tie between cloth and world history everywhere.

A reader will get much more than the story of indigo in the world of textiles. In this narrative ethnography, full of desire and color, the reader will be introduced to the Nigerian medical doctor who discovers a cure for AIDS but then just a few pages later the reader gets folded back into cloth while learning that the Netherlands was the fourth-largest, slave-trading nation whose Dutch textiles made up 57 percent of the goods exchanged for human lives during their slave trade. Cloth constituted more than 50 percent of European exports to West Africa on a whole by the late 1600s—so that we see the incredible importance of cloth to West Africans that they would exchange lives for it. Concurrently, abolitionists over in America were staging boycotts of indigo and all of this information goes very well towards feeding the reader with the zeitgeist of the times.

Cloth takes on its own persona in “Indigo.” McKinley makes cloth come alive as she explores its processes and its history in pre-colonial Africa as well. She effectively runs through the various types of cloth that were exchanged from East to West and North to South. Everyone around the world loved cloth in all its colors and textures. She also succinctly points out on a general note that the making of the ‘beauty’ during colonialism is also the making of the crisis that consumed many West African countries post-colonialism.

Every bit of indigo McKinley can find not only furthers her Fulbright research but furthers her insatiable desire to ‘feel’ the history of the people when it is not readily communicable from its owners. She believes in understanding by osmosis so that when she lacks the information to steer her in the right direction for more culture, rather than assuming there is no more knowledge to be gotten, her self-determination, sheer faith, and belief in the power of cloth pushes her straight through to the places she needs to go and the people she needs to meet over and over again throughout her West African journey.

The textile cultures McKinley discovers have been in West Africa for a very long time and as the needs of a global economy loom, she explains how that has necessitated that many West Africans start to place the pursuit of financial gain over the maintenance of laborious yet ancient and rare textile traditions. These cloth traditions do more than impart beauty but also translate generational heritage as indigo has been included in dowries passed down from mother to daughter and the symbolism embedded in the cloth itself expresses the various cultural values from ethnicity to ethnicity and country to country that she explores.

Iron Butterfly

Ironically

eloquence

comes in

your final

hours, days, months, years

of desperation

after you’ve already asked politely

then questioned confusedly

erupted in anger

fallen silent

and erupted again

began to hate everyone

for a day

and everything

for an hour

lies seemed like the

only flowers that bloomed

after meaningfully meaningless discussions

which you wonder

really existed

in your mind

is where it all began

you went left

instead of right

you forgot you had to fight

things seemed easy for a while

you lingered too long on a smile

and now

ironically eloquence

comes in

your flickering final

glimpses of sanity

you know you’re not going to win

unless

you fly

Resistance-in-love

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m here

doesn’t mean

be mean

don’t say what you mean

lean into your dislike

of my fight

let me know what’s wrong

what’s right

I’m here

doesn’t mean

don’t say

how you feel

forget to be real

imagine you’re in a soap opera

fantasy

you’ve seen on TV

you forgot you were free

you have choice

your voice

is a spiritual instrument

that provides nourishment

or disease

I’m here

doesn’t mean

look down on me

tell me my lipstick is missing

when I never bought it

or bought into it

I feel fine

sometimes I drink wine

sometimes I hang with this

or that one

I’m not ashamed to have fun

tell me my clothes are not right

tell me my shoes are too bright

when you put up a fight

that’s how I know I’m alright

Family Is

Family is indescribable

often unknown

underrated

and overdeveloped

in theory

connections made

and very unmade

hiding behind closed doors

sneaking down hallways

marrying on paper

not in public

Family is familiar

often unmistakable

blunt force trauma

upon door openings

on first sight

regrettable

and unforgettable

or

loving

or fighting

or both

Family is serious

Family is invisible

and visible

and always

real

Some Things in Life

Confidence

is

a

workout.

Motivation

is

a

drill.

Love

is

free.

Setbacks

Setbacks are

seeing

you

as imperfect

and perfect

at the same time

broken

polished

beautiful

shining

decayed

my image of you is painful

holding onto it

is painful

wishing

for other events

to have occurred

instead

of painful

setbacks are imagining

you

here

or that you were here

when I was there

and why wasn’t I here

when you were there

setbacks are your words

the ones I use to guide me

they remind me

of you

forever

of you

Fierce Thoughts

How do all

these fierce

forums

change anything

when not

between us

and the police?

I need to see

a badge

invited

to the View

Fox

ABC

Then

It will be

SOMETHING

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My Biggest Fear

My biggest fear

is that

I will be swallowed

up in all this mastered

craziness

and no imprint reflected

in the final slosh

of my sad devotion

to being greater than

what others imagined

for me

Solange

Now, I must tell you, I didn’t think I had forgotten

until I remembered

the light

the natural light

the soft radiation

of skin seen

and unseen

blackness

black thoughts

black skin

black hair

but forget about that

let’s remember

art

made

time and time again

I’m talking about

elevating shit

yes

I must say it

this way

ain’t like that

don’t make me upset

trying to reflect

all we’ve been given

if – you – don’t – open

your mind up

and outwards

smile

you know you like it

you know you love it

you know you think

about ways

to copy it

the inimitable

but you still imitated

faux pas

faux things

faux means

faux types

the only means

is what it means

what it means

is beauty

feel your soul

push out against

the insides of your fake limitations

breach it

illuminate

elevating again

up

up

and away

is still firmly grounded

digging deeper

is coming up out of a pressure

that could never last

because beauty outlasts

defines

everything around it

strong