storytelling
technologies
How will you express
the stories, inquiries, and interior worlds that want
to be known?
My practice and personhood would not exist without writing. Remembering the echoes of Black feminist writer Lola Olufemi, “design is also the speech we use to build and give meaning to the world around us,” I write to open us up to what can become more possible in our practice as designers and creative beings who are shaping, and being shaped by, this world.
Through various storytelling technologies, such as inquiry-based writing, poetry, essays, and meditative talks, I’m able to give life to who we are and why we practice.
I’m finding that these multiple modes of expression allow for my full, creative self to show up expansively while also responding to the various ways we can engage with the written word. Creating different access points, I’m also honoring the fluctuating capacities of chronic illness and the non-linear nature of my process.
Right now, I understand my writing practice to be intuitive, meditative,
and sometimes fragmentary.
Each approach, rooted in collective memory and illuminated insight, bends the boundaries of expected writing forms and norms that I want to explore more. There’s a sense of freedom that exists because these forms require spaciousness for contemplation, playfulness with a genuine sense of wonder, and honest dialogue about our interior worlds and the desired futures we want to enact.
FEATURED EXPERIMENT
POETIC MEDITATION
CONTRIBUTION
i believe grief
has no timeline,
so don’t rush me.
A poetic meditation written and designed after death clearing my Granny’s home and feeling the ongoing, non-linear emotions and memories that exist within a grief process. Feeling urgency from exterior worlds and ways of being and making that often rush the timelessness of grief—this was my poetic act of resistance.
The poem is now apart of the book An Encyclopedia of Radical Helping that invites the reader to wander through a collection of interconnected entries on helping and healing.
NON-LINEARITY
GRIEF
DEATH PRACTICE
publications
writings living inside of self-published zines, print collections, books, magazines, and exhibitions.
ESSAY
SELF-PUBLISHED ZINE
the life-giving
consequences of
creative rest
A personal essay on reckoning with what happens to creative practice when choosing slowness and softness. After noticing how my life, work, and relationships have changed since taking a breath amid grief and turmoil, this essay captures a glimpse of what it feels like to resist systems of exhaustion while centering care.
CREATIVE ACTS & INQUIRIES
PRINT COLLECTION
ways of being: ongoing
practices & possibilities
(in three words)
A collection of nine cards that facilitate meditation, conversation, and creative guidance around practices we can make possible in our everyday lives. Echoing personal and communal commitments expressed within the design, organizing, and somatic spaces I'm connected to, this collection invites us to slow down and listen for what guides us by engaging with a range of creative acts and inquiries.
REFLECTION
CONTRIBUTION
black powerful: black voices reimagine
revolution
Reflecting on the invitation to imagine a world where you are loved, safe, and valued, my written contribution drops back into the body and shares a sensorial imagining of a future that is alive. Black Powerful is curated by Natasha Marin and explores the monumental resilience, joy, and triumph of Black People everywhere.
FRAGMENTARY WRITING
EXHIBITION
a survey of joyful
sensations
Capturing the fleeting, life-sustaining moments of Black Joy experienced during the devastations of covid-19, this creation moves through the senses with healing memories that kept me present, alive, here.
It lives in the artist-driven digital and distributed exhibition, Poetry for Persistence, organized by
Printed Matter and Press Press.
POEM
AUDIO RECORDING
be well
(after tasha)
The poem, be well (after tasha), is my poetic response to the track “Take Care” by songwriter and musician, Tasha, that I played on repeat throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. It was written and recorded during the summer nights of 2020, after emerging from a six-week period of not leaving my home and feeling compelled, out of necessity, to write a letter of care to the people I love. This poetry recording is currently living in a resource library curated by the Center for Liberatory Practice & Poetry.
ESSAY
MAGAZINE
sustaining wellbeing
as a black womxn with a chronic invisible disease
Offering an intimate glimpse into my dreams about the possibility of living with less stress and more ease as a disabled type 1 diabetic, this essay was published inside of Womanly Magazine’s Issue No. 5: Stressed Out! in January 2020. Described on their website, “The issue compiled stories, poetry, and art that remind us that we aren't alone in struggling with stress. Learn how to destress with these tools and resources to lead a happier, healthier life.”
meditative talks on
insight timer
Each recording experiments with another medium for storytelling beyond print and intentionally disrupts typical meditation app media by integrating narrative, inquiry, and facilitation. With this work, I hope to offer respite from the internal struggles we encounter throughout our everyday lives, build new ways of relating to ourselves and each other, and generate spaces of digital wellbeing.
notice the people who celebrate you, with you
quieting our loud
imposters + inner critics
on dating & being needy
The phrase that comes to mind when I read Denise Shanté’s writing is “calming wisdom.”
The focus on wellbeing, intentional self care and how to best use our creative energies in her writing is so clear, descriptive and helpful as a guide of how to think about your current moment and think about how to better take care of yourself. Reading the practices and tools she shared with the readers just made me so happy to know this caring, compassionate person and I think everyone should be exposed to her writing to get the chance to reflect and think deeply as well.
— Betty Fermin, Editorial Manager at Womanly Magazine