Zanele Muholi

Zanele Muholi’s photo exhibit at SAM this last Thursday stopped me in my tracks.  Every photo didn’t just cross my vision, every photo smacked me with rage, Zanele’s rage, Zanele’s anger about the violence that her LGBTQ community in South Africa experiences on a daily basis.  You can see rage in Zanele Muholi's eyes; in every self-portrait. Images scream out reflecting rage about racist stereo types. And it’s a “Lesbian Photographer.”

Not just one photo but every self-portrait conveys this.  Some more silent in the image, some so loud you have to look away and when you do look away the image haunts you and you have to work your way back around to that image because you can’t get it out of your mind. 

In a New York times interview Zanele Muholi said about her photography “My practice as a visual activist looks at black resistance — existence as well as insistence.” Most of Muholi’s previous work focused on documenting and archiving black L.G.B.T. and gender nonconforming people of South Africa. 

Her new work “Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness” puts her self into the fray, her whole self. Zanele Muholi takes everyday items, clothes pins, safety pins, steel wool scrubbers, straws, and decorates herself in racist stereo types.  But it’s the look on her face the stare in her eyes that give the photos their sense of rage.  It’s as if Zanele uses herself to convey all the anger and rage of South African’s LGBTQ community pushing her audience to that unsafe place where Zanele herself lives every day.

Feminist Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said of Zanele Muholi’s work “the single story” — an invitation to the marginalized to take up space.”  Zanele’s pushes her blackness unapologetically confronting her audience.  

Days later I can’t stop thinking of the images of Zanele Muholi, of the violence experienced by LGBTQ community in South Africa, of racism in the world.  Watch Human Rights Watch documentary on Zanele Muholi to learn more.  https://www.hrw.org/video-photos/video/2013/11/22/zanele-muholi-visual-activist

Fall Settles In, Winter is Coming

The cool morning settled on my bare toes.  I don’t care, I love being outdoors. The community of tress towering over me standby as my protectors.  The hills peak-a-boo through the trees highlighted by the early morning light. Silence falls over the mornings, the songs of

spring have long ago gone now, summer fades.

Cool mornings hint at fall just around the corner, not my favorite time of year.  My favorite time, spring.  Spring starts with frogs loudly singing at 3am keeping me up.   Frog singing signal spring will be here soon.  As spring gets closer the song birds start their morning chorus the same time the frog’s songs fad in the early morning telling me summer is even closer. Time passes fast for me in the spring and so does the frog songs leaving the birds chorus boom louder in the backyard as I sip my coffee.  Aaaahhhhh, my favorite time of year.  I recall all of spring as I sip my coffee here in the North Cascades.

Now on the brink of fall I gather food.  Canning peaches to keep a touch of summer with me throughout the winter.  The peaches bring a touch of sunshine in my day through the drizzle of rain on those gray mornings.  The canned tomatoes are part of winter comfort food of pot roasts, spaghetti, and soups.  This is what keeps me going through the winter months along with the memories of warmer times.  

Winter for now will be an internal journal, writing my memoir, reviewing where I've been and yes even at my age where I might go.  You see I'm a late bloomer.  My life has been about coming out of my shell, observing, thinking and slowly taking my place in the world.  People ask me about my where my next journey will be, my answer for now, inwards.