WEBVTT - Ancestral Magic 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:15.040 Welcome to Woke a f with me Danielle Moody. Throughout 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:17.560 this month, I am highlighting a series of amazing artists 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:20.000 whose work is on display this summer in New York 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:22.360 at the Shed Cultural Center as part of their open 0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:25.080 Call program. Last week on my Patreon, which you can 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:28.400 support now at patreon dot com slash woke AF, I 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:32.200 spoke with Don Christian Jones, creator of the outdoor performance 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:35.400 Volvo truck. Don Christian talked with me about his connection 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:38.159 with cars and car culture and how those connect to 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:40.920 his greater identity as a black person, as well as 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:45.360 our collective consciousness, something he calls black quantum physics, which 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:48.320 connects us all. He also recognized the role of black 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:50.519 women in his life and how we as a society 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:52.360 owe a great debt to the black women who have 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:56.040 come before us ancestral magic. Here is the first half 0:00:56.080 --> 0:01:02.040 of my conversation with Don Christian Jones. Let's start off 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:08.279 with your exhibit and why you're so excited to share 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:13.160 this work with folks. It is a multimedia and I 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:16.160 kind of want you to walk through, like describe it 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:19.600 to us for folks that are listening, walk us through 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:25.200 this kind of multimedia exhibit that is upcoming. I'm trying 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:27.600 to put words to it myself every day as as 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:31.640 as this evolves. It's really meant to be a living 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:37.440 breathing installation. So it's performative. It's performance based in that 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:42.000 you know, there are people enacting and moving, but it's 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:46.600 also sculpture in so many ways. And really, more than anything, 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:49.880 I wanted to be a monument, like a living breathing 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:53.720 monument that is up, that is erected for you know, 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:57.920 two days, two nights, that people can experience in the 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:04.680 round and can kind of also encapsulate people as audience. 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:09.280 So the title of the exhibit is Volvo Truck. Is 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:14.280 that right? It is? Yeah, talk to me about that 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:18.600 and why cars are so important and what folks can 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:23.240 expect as they walk into this installation. Because as I 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:28.760 was watching a previous interview of yours and understanding the 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:30.680 fact that you said you didn't play with toys as 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:34.480 a kid. You played with matchbook cars and trucks, and 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:38.880 that that was very much a part of your growing up, 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:41.080 and it reminded me of my younger cousin who I 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:44.000 remember from when he was two or three years old. 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:46.480 The only thing that he ever wanted every time that 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:50.880 we went to a store were those little cars and trucks, 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:54.760 and his fascination with cars just developed as he got older. 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:58.320 So I was very endeared as I was learning more 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:02.000 about this exhibit. But why I work cars and trucks 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:04.760 so important to you and what's the significance of it 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:07.680 in this installation? Sure? And I think I've been kind 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:11.000 of grappling with and coming to terms with what, you know, 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:13.760 cars kind of symbolized for me in a broader sense, 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:17.480 but also in this piece, and I think coming to 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:21.280 to terms like over the years, because I've been so 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:26.280 inundated almost into this culture of cars, and I've started 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:28.560 to ask a lot of questions, you know, with regard 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:31.600 to what they what they mean as symbol especially like 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:35.280 in a capitalist in a Western world, what they mean 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:39.320 with relation to blackness and kind of like a very 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:44.800 black American preoccupation with nice cars or fancy rides, and 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:48.520 then the ways in which sound and music intersect with 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:51.680 cars and our experiences growing up in them. Um, I 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:55.120 think was hugely formative for me, Like I feel like 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:59.080 so much of my growing up and like realizations made 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:02.760 and light bulb moments took place in cars, whether I 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:05.280 was in the backseat with one of my aunts and 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:08.000 one of their cars, or my grandfather or my dad, 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:11.640 and there was always music, and there was always some 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:17.200 sound skips, some sound score or landscape provided by outside 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:20.080 the windows, you know. So I just remember I can 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:26.640 recall conversations had in passing or like sirens or other 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:30.800 cars with you know, booming basses rattling. So I think 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:32.839 I just have had this longing for a really long 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:37.719 time to try and reenact that that feeling. You know. 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:40.960 It's funny because as I as I was looking at 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:45.240 your work and listening to your prior interviews and thinking 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:49.479 about my own experience with my family, with my aunts 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:53.920 and uncles in their cars, and that experience of kind 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:57.920 of growing up in the backseat or actually before you 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:01.279 were supposed to have children sit in the front seat 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:04.120 in between two adults in cars, and kind of the 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:07.240 joy of that experience. Every time a car door opened, 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:09.760 as a young person, I felt like we were headed 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:13.040 for an adventure because the world was so fresh and 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:17.599 so bright through the eyes of my youth. Was there 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:23.640 a sense of adventure and experience and exposure that riding 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:27.960 around in Philadelphia, which is where you were from, provided 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:31.920 for you. Definitely. I think about like the ways in 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:37.400 which black people occupy urban space, American space, like and 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:39.760 and the access to car and car culture, and the 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:44.240 ways that can really change or like reshape one's adolescents 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:48.360 or just to a broader world. Because I surely had 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:50.920 met and grown out with some folks that you know, 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:54.960 they grew up in like a five black radius and 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:58.240 never and maybe never have experienced the beach before they 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:01.359 were a teenager or an adult, or made it down 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:04.400 to you know, the Parkway from South Philly to go 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:08.080 to the Art Museum. And I think I've grown to 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:11.599 understand the immense privilege that I was afforded in having 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:14.160 people around me that were raising me, that could take 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:17.000 me places, and then hear stories about how they grew up, 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:19.960 how my grandfather maybe taught them how to drive, or 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:22.760 my dad taught me how to drive, and these really 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:27.320 like visceral moments where it's like they just put you 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:29.040 out on the road in the way that they put 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:32.960 me in a pool and said swim. So formative. So yeah, 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:37.640 so there's a gratitude I remember, you know, just hearing 0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:40.840 from my aunts, like their access to the beach, their 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:43.720 access to Atlantic City and Chicken Bone Beach growing up 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:47.720 in the sixties, that widen broadened their landscape and I 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:53.240 imagine the boundaries to which they could dream right or 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:56.960 see a world outside of what they lived in. You know, 0:06:57.040 --> 0:07:00.880 there's a sense of freedom that I here right, and 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:05.919 independence from being able to have access to cars and vehicles. 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:09.240 Like you talk about your aunts, which I want you 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:11.240 to be able to get into, and your and your 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:14.840 mother and the fact that they were so influential in 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:19.840 your life, these different beautiful black women with varied experience 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:24.520 and access and opportunity, and you speak about them being 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:27.720 you know, born at these different times which are actual 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:31.480 really critical points in our history as black people in 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:33.920 the United States. So I want you to be able 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:37.480 to speak about how your aunts, how your family are 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:41.400 wrapped into this installation and this work that is going 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:44.160 to be presented, and why you think it was important 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:51.440 to tell their stories great hard questions. Yea. In my adulthood, 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:55.360 I've been able to kind of step back and really 0:07:56.360 --> 0:08:00.960 regard them as individuals, as human beings, and in so 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:05.000 many ways almost take them off of this pedestal that 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:08.200 I once put them on. For having raised me, and 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:12.040 to be able to find correlation between my own life 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:16.440 or experience and them and maybe their mother or their father, 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:20.960 and just a greater reverence for like my own personal 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:24.040 lineage and ancestry. I think we're living in a time 0:08:24.440 --> 0:08:28.000 like this time is so crazy, and more than anything, 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:32.319 for me, it's been shadow work. It's been a spiritual reckoning. 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:36.040 This feels more like spiritual warfare than anything. And I 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:38.960 say that as an a religious a non religious person, 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:43.240 but who grew up in religion. So I'm remembering ritual, 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:48.520 I'm remembering tradition, I'm remembering the power in like ancestral magic. 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:51.080 And I think this is like a conversation that is 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:55.680 swelling and almost like breaching this collective consciousness. You know, 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:57.600 you look at some of the media out today, like 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:04.040 these movies, these films, Lovecraft, m HBO, random acts of 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:08.160 flyness that are really verging on like this conversation about 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:12.440 it's like it's black quantum physics and the realities of 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:16.400 such and and tapping into this magic that has been 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:20.640 really relegated in the way we're taught. It's relegated to 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:24.839 like folklore or like voodoo, or like zombies, on TV, 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:30.200 But like, what makes that any less tech? High tech? 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:35.120 What makes our power any less profound, any less scientific? 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:37.800 You know, I think that's been a part of our 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:41.240 undoing that they try to implement on us, is to 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:43.840 make us for you know, we forget where we come from. 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:47.439 So this past year and maybe a little more, I've 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:50.360 been really trying to remind myself of where I come 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:55.000 from through them. So you just blew my mind with 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:57.600 a couple of things, Black quantum physics, like I want 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:01.240 to delve into that, and then spiritual warfare and the 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:07.080 idea of what it means to reconnect to your beginning, right, 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:12.600 like our beginning, your beginning meaning where your family, where 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:16.040 we originate from in our family, but then our beginning 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:20.199 as a community as a people, and ties to our 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:23.480 land and our ancestry. And I think, you know, Woke 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:27.400 AF is a political show, right, It is a progressive 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:31.280 political show where I try and infuse different aspects of 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:35.199 what it means to show up consciously right, and that 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:38.400 being conscious is a part of everyday work and exercise 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:41.560 and practice. I talk about being woke as not something 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:43.960 that just happens once, like you hid an alarm and 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:47.640 then you're forever awake, right that it is a constant 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:51.599 awakening that happens every day, and it's a constant expansion 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:56.440 that happens when we talk about black consciousness in the 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:59.880 grand scheme of things. For me, it is about awake 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:04.120 to what has been lost, or rather what has been robbed. 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:09.880 So for you, when you are looking at your family 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:14.560 lineage and how it positions itself within the greater sense 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:18.360 of blackness, what comes up for you as you've been 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:24.400 journeying through the development of this work. I mean, surely, 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:30.280 I think fundamentally it's this a pure reverence for the 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:35.800 black woman and has having experienced or seen or witnessed 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:43.199 them as being the scapegoat for the world while simultaneously 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:46.720 being like the impetus for the world, and to be 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:49.839 able to see that and witness that through these these 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:53.160 very real people that are my aunts and my mom, 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:58.520 their resilience, their creativity, their fortitude, their independence, their sheer 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:02.880 ability to you know, transcend time and space through their 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:05.640 work and the people that they've touched over the years. 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:08.320 You know, I think about well, I'll go into this 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:12.199 when you talk about black women being both the scapegoat 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:16.800 and the impetus for the world, the creation of it 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:21.160 for you. How has your understanding of the kind of 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:25.280 journeys that your aunts and your mother have taken, How 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:29.640 has that kind of I guess maybe shifted your thinking 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:33.319 about black women, or how has it deepened your understanding 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:38.240 of how the world experiences black women. I'm thinking of 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:42.439 how you said it's this daily practice, right so to 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:47.640 never to really like approach every day from this place 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:50.320 of critical pedagogy, like this is going to be a 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:52.679 practice I'm going to learn in this day. I'm going 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:56.600 to ask, and like I was saying, in so many ways, 0:12:56.640 --> 0:13:00.240 I've taken them off this pedestal or these tropes of 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:04.200 archetype which I've I've realized maybe so much as my 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:07.000 own projection onto them who I think them to be, 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:10.240 who I've made who I associated them to out in 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:14.080 the world, and kind of like wanting to provide space 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:19.240 for us to just be, to simply just be, to dance, 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:24.880 to make music, to eat as commune in a political 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:29.680 way that it will inevitably be politicized. M What has 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:34.680 their experience with your art been, as I'm assuming you 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:38.880 have had conversation with family and connected with them because 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:45.160 They're such an inspiration for this particular project, this particular installation. 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:48.479 What has their feeling been as kind of seeing themselves 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:53.120 through your lens? I think much of this project, or 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:56.000 the meat of it, really has been getting to know 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:59.440 them again or through new lens. The past year, you know, 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:02.120 COVID and everything, Well, this was the first time in 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:04.640 over a decade that they were all on the East 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:08.720 Coast at the same time. And in having my own 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:12.080 car for the first time in my life, I was 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:15.559 now afforded the ability to see them at greater length 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:18.720 and more often. You know, now at thirty one, it's 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:21.520 like I'm almost having this reunion with them, which has 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:24.400 been remarkable. And then going through all of their personal 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:29.320 archives and documents and photos and letters and their wardrobe, 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:32.400 you know, being able to touch this stuff that I 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:36.400 remember from you know, twenty years ago, so much comes up. 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:39.560 So all this stuff comes up, So we're having conversations 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:44.320 that I've never had before, Like I'm learning histories about 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:47.480 my family that were never shared. And then I'm left 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:50.880 to really think about what does this mean like for 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:54.880 the shed or for the audience watching this, And it 0:14:54.920 --> 0:15:00.520 almost doesn't matter anymore because, you know, I'm I'm already 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:03.280 experiencing this work. So much of this work has already 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:10.840 been done. In the second half of our conversation, Don 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:14.000 Christian and I got deep into his relationship with art 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:15.880 and his role as a creator and how it has 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:19.560 evolved during the pandemic. It was an honest, raw conversation 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:22.240 and you can hear the rest right now by supporting 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:25.360 me at patreon dot com, slash Woke app and you 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:29.080 can see Don Christian perform Volvo Truck on June seventeenth 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:32.680 at the Shed dot org slash Open Dash Call Dash 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:35.280 live stream, or if you're in New York, you can 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:38.200 visit the Shed four free. I will be shocked up 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:40.800 there this summer checking out all of the amazing artists 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:43.360 in the open Call program. Whether I see you next 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:45.840 week in the tweets at D two cents or over 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:49.400 on Patreon. Power to the people and to all the people. Power, 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:51.560 get woke and stay woke as fuck.