Spring 2020 Climate Justice Fellow
Fellow: Von Bl3ssing
Project: Green Afrofuturist Project

ARTIST BIO

Von Bl3ssing is a Black, disabled, nonbinary artist, organizer, and self-described 'underground ecologist.' Since 2017, Bl3ssing has used their love for African-American folk spirituals, theatre, and speculative art to facilitate workshops about environmental issues that combine scientific scholarship with digital media and ritual performance. Bronx-born and raised, Bl3ssing is devoted to building communities of resistance among marginalized populations disproportionately impacted by environmental injustices.

Project Description:

Flows and Figurations

"“Flows and Figurations” is a Green Afrofuturist Project workshop series. In a world of climate crises, pandemics, uprisings, marginalized people are at a unique risk of both ecological and social/economic/political dangers. “Flows and Figurations” is a Green Afrofuturist Project experience that Bl3ssing is sharing with us, as part of the Fellowship for Utopian Practice at Culture Push. It is focused on gathering Black, disabled, trans communities and people from other marginalized backgrounds on the front lines of environmental and social injustices. Using Afrofuturist aesthetics, Bl3ssing will share a set of original myths, fables, glyphs, and poems, all based on a set of "dreams" they claim came from a mysterious otherworldly dimension called the "Undulatrix." Through the Undulatrix, Flows n Figurations will curate meditations on Black radical ecology with a focus on how folklore, and the sacred interweave with science to create a sense of rest in the midst of environmental and other crises."