This post is part of an ongoing #BlackFuturesMonth18 series in February with the Black Lives Matter Network, exclusively shared on Blavity, that aims to explore what the Black feminist future can and should look like for all of us.

Welcome to the final week of Black Futures Month! Thank you all for tuning in every week this month to see our content. We are delighted to have presented you with many different visions of Black Feminist Futures.

Our last pair to #TellBlackStories is Dana Washington and our very own Art + Culture Lead, Noni Limar. Dana Washington is a multidisciplinary artist who, through experimental film, portraiture, text and narration, examines family history, fiction and memory, as well as the condition of Black and queer persons, centering on oppression, representation and healing. Noni has a decade long resume in television, theater, commercial and music, and is committed to create by any means necessary. Together, they bring you a short film to close out Black Futures Month 2018.

Please view the film above to explore their vision of a Black Feminist Future. You can find the text of the poem from the film, below.

heartburn

by noni limar

i cannot heal you

that is not my job

you will have to heal yourself

you will have to save yourself

i am only a midwife to your emotions.

all sickness begins in the heart

not the body.

the body is a gilded thread pulled slowly

over time it spins and splits / brittle

it will eventually shred.

i am not here for ur body

i am here for ur heart.

the heart is a memory.

a temple of worship & transgressions.

let me hold yours

like a copper bowl / fill it with sound

come

let me press my mouth to ur heart and hum

listen/ hum / listen/ hum

let me press my cheek to ur chest

watch it cave in

heave/ blue / heave

u weep in time

2/4

2/4

i tap the nape of ur neck

keeping beat

listening.

here is your healing—

let me ask about you

how are you?

how are you sleeping?

how is your mother?

where is your father?

are you speaking?

and your lover?

are they listening?

and your dreaming?

are you dreaming in color?

Dana Washington

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