What We’ve Done in the Past
Panel, q&a, breathwork exercises, sound therapy and several grounding rituals utilizing somatic plant healing.
Conjuring the Past, Marking the Present is offering a very special workshop on grounding the Black Queer body led by King Cobra, LoriKim Alexander and Charlotte James. This gathering, What We’ve Done in the Past, is called to cultivate a greater understanding of self-initiated healing, reminding us of methods our ancestors used in the past to remain physically present, spiritually aware and affirmed in their purpose. In addition to a beautiful panel discussion and q&a, we will spend time in breathwork exercises, sound therapy and several grounding rituals utilizing somatic plant medicines. This can be a powerful moment for us to collectively welcome radical forms of self love, sew new seeds of hope in transformation and ultimately conjure an echoing declaration to show up as our most authentic selves.
Conjuring the Past, Marking the Present is part of Recess’s program, Session, which invites artists to use Recess’s public platform to combine productive studio space with dynamic exhibition opportunities. Sessions remain open to the public from the first day of the artist's project through the last, encouraging sustained dialogue between artists and audiences. Due to the process-based nature of Session, projects undergo constant revision and the above proposal is subject to change.
Panel, q&a, breathwork exercises, sound therapy and several grounding rituals utilizing somatic plant healing.
Conjuring the Past, Marking the Present is offering a very special workshop on grounding the Black Queer body led by King Cobra, LoriKim Alexander and Charlotte James. This gathering, What We’ve Done in the Past, is called to cultivate a greater understanding of self-initiated healing, reminding us of methods our ancestors used in the past to remain physically present, spiritually aware and affirmed in their purpose. In addition to a beautiful panel discussion and q&a, we will spend time in breathwork exercises, sound therapy and several grounding rituals utilizing somatic plant medicines. This can be a powerful moment for us to collectively welcome radical forms of self love, sew new seeds of hope in transformation and ultimately conjure an echoing declaration to show up as our most authentic selves.
Conjuring the Past, Marking the Present is part of Recess’s program, Session, which invites artists to use Recess’s public platform to combine productive studio space with dynamic exhibition opportunities. Sessions remain open to the public from the first day of the artist's project through the last, encouraging sustained dialogue between artists and audiences. Due to the process-based nature of Session, projects undergo constant revision and the above proposal is subject to change.
KING COBRA (documented as Doreen Lynette Garner) was born in 1986 in Philadelphia. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Since graduating from Rhode Island School of Design with an MFA in glass in 2014, COBRA has created corporeal sculptures—that utilize glass alongside silicone, beads, crystals, rubber, synthetic hair, petroleum jelly, and other materials—to explore the frequently suppressed and traumatic histories of medical exploitation of the Black body, as well as diseases spread by White Europeans during the transatlantic slave trade. COBRA has held residencies and fellowships at Recess Art, the International Studio and Curatorial Program, Socrates Sculpture Park, Pioneer Works, and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. In addition to her sculptural practice, she is a licensed tattoo artist, a practice that extends her explorations of flesh, mark making, symbology and the transformation of physical pain to spiritual healing.
Charlotte Duerr James is an Educator and Medicine Woman of Afro-Caribbean and Germanic lineage. She works to create a world in which everyone is able to live in fearless pursuit of their radical transformation. She uses her skills as an educator, therapeutic coach, and ceremonial facilitator to build and engage a community focused on pursuing collective liberation.
Charlotte has been exploring her own mind and spirit with the support of Sacred Earth Medicines for over 15 years. She has completed a traditional apprenticeship with Kambo, and has supported hundreds of community members in ceremony. She graduated summa cum laude from Johns Hopkins University with a BA in Latin American Studies and Anthropology. While studying at JHU, Charlotte interned for the Baltimore CIty Health Department Needle Exchange Program and served as the first Overdose Prevention Coordinator, organizing city-wide Narcan training for 3rd party bystanders. Charlotte has lived throughout South America and is a multi-lingual Spanish and Portuguese speaker. She is a lifelong student of the Earth, and is actively continuing her facilitator training through a 3-year certificate program in Transpersonal Psychology, Psychedelic Medicine, and Indigenous Wisdom with the Awe Foundation where she also serves as a program mentor. She has sat in ceremony with elders and medicine keepers of varying traditions and is committed to her ongoing unlearning and relearning process. Charlotte feels that engaging in one’s personal decolonization work is imperative for being an authentic facilitator practicing in integrity, and in service to collective liberation.
Jamaican born and world bred, LoriKim Alexander (she/ we/us) has dedicated her life to working for social and environmental justice, specifically organizing around centering justice for other animals, our ecosystems and for LGBTQIA+ Black, and Indigenous people. Us use our lived experience with work in biology, anthropology and environmental education in a synergistic way to forward Black liberation. We see veganism as a central platform for reconnecting with our ancestral realities, food justice and combating environmental racism to galvanize the struggle to liberate all oppressed beings. LoriKim is currently organizing on many fronts, but her central work is building The Cypher - a Black Tans & Queer femme-led QTBIPOC collective dedicated to total liberation.
The Cypher is a Black Trans & Queer femme-focused and led QTBIPOC formation addressing issues around true gender equity beyond the binary, food justice, and environmental justice from a conservation mindset.