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Compiled
By Jamie Munkatchy
 By
way of some context for the following pieces:
Descendants
of Freedom is a play written by André Lancaster.
It has been produced twice, once in Austin, Texas, in 2002
and once
in
Brooklyn, New York, in 2004. The writings
below belong to folks that in one way or another are descendants.
a. Freedom Dreamers by Gina Velasco
b. Preface to First and Second Print Editions by Marian Yalini Thambynayagam
c. Colophon for first edition by White Chocolate Blunt Press
d. Vision Statement for Second Edition by Jamie Munkatchy
e. Vision Statement for Second Edition by André Lancaster
a. Freedom Dreamers
–Gina
Velasco
"not lost/ this
soul can hold so much/ powercontrol cannot blind this vision/
wargovernment cannot repress this mission/ cause we are/ found"
"lift up your eyes / i want us 2 vibe n synthesize with the times we will
bring each other 2 / let go of that rage cause baby we going 2 bust out of
this cage 2gether / and enter a new age with no kinda biotek capitalist credit
flow
/ yeah that's right we will be the new CEO's / who will say the end 2 9 2
5 boxed in dayz / cause work will be art and art will be working 2 brace us all
4 a taste
of this: history / our memory / our revolutionary beauty / will set you free"
-from Descendants of Freedom: A Futuristic Queer Hip Hop Odyssey1 by
André Lancaster
As I read Freedom Dreams by Robin D.G. Kelley (2) I couldn't help
but think of the above lines from my friend Andre's play Descendants of
Freedom. It seems to enact the sorts of collective dreaming that Kelley
envisions, a type of utopic practice of art and love that can possibly
escape the boundaries of Western reason. It seems to be the very poetry/dream-work/theory
that Kelley is calling for. I would like to think about Kelley's use of "dreams." Perhaps
his use of "dreams" is both colloquial and Freudian - in that
such collective and public dream-work such as Descendants of Freedom allow
for a different rhetoric, a logic outside the positivist/rational/Enlightenment
frameworks. In Freud's3 understanding of dream-work, dreams exist as vehicles
for expressing latent/repressed thoughts. Thus, we can think of Kelley's
call for "freedom dreams" as a call for a type of dream-work that serves
as a rhetoric for expressing desire, love, imagination in the service of change
-- all the aspects of revolution that can not be accounted for by Marx. These
types of dream-work emerge from a collective unconscious, that which can not
be articulated within dominant frameworks or ideologies. Not possible within
the conscious (and rational) framework of capitalism, they represent our desires
and anxieties. Much like the genre of science fiction and other utopic narratives,
this is both an invocation of the past (in the non-positivist sense) and a
vision of the future. In discussing the Afrofuturism of Sun-Ra, Kelley states, "At
the heart of Sun-Ra's vision was the notion of alter/destiny -- the idea that
through the creation of new myths we have the power to redirect the future." How
can we think through dreams -- utopic longings, futurist visions as a type
of theory, an alternative a "revolutionary blueprint", another kind
of logic and epistemological field -- one that allows for "freedom dreams"?
Gina Velasco
History of Consciousness Department
University of California at Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
1. Lancaster, A. (2003). Descendants
of Freedom. Brooklyn: White Chocolate Blunt Press.
2. Kelley, R. D. G. (2002). Freedom Dreams: the Black Radical Imagination.
Boston: Beacon Press.
3. Freud, S., & Brill, A. A. (1913). The Interpretation of Dreams.
New York: Macmillan.
b. Preface to the First and
Second Print Editions
–Marian
Yalini Thambynayagam
Post-Apocalyptik Thoughts on Hip Hop
+ Freedom
 Some would say we are currently
experiencing the apocalypse–the
end of life as we know it. Or as others would
interpret it: great change–dying
in preparation for rebirth. Systems of power have been and
continue exponentially stripping
humanity from this earth whether it be through mass extinction
of life or as many Americans experience it–through
a severing of the body from heart and spirit. Our emotions
become compartmentalized-squeezed,
flowing into narrow channels. Love and desire boxed-so we
can carry out the inhumanity necessary to maintain the American
Dream.
As America's "War on Terror" consumes us accelerating
an imperialist right wing agenda, the future that descendants
of freedom paints seems fitting. When facing these intricate
and powerful systems how can we resist in a way that does not
continue to destroy ourselves and this earth? How do we love?
heal? fight? This be just the beginning of our odyssey.
cykloptik eye blind
openin up your free mind
we be post-apocalyptik during
apocalyptik times...
singin’ freedom
Don't be too shocked
by the concept of queer hip hop. Boiz, Queens, Papi's. Princesses, Homothugz,
Dykes, Fags, Queers of all kinds been dancin, spittin,
spinnin, lovin, producin, consumin hip hop from Oakland to Austin to NYC
and further. To think of descendants of freedom as carving out a space
within hip hop for "queer hip hop" limits and undermines what
hip hop was, is n could be. It assumes that what is visible in popular
culture-- that alone is hip hop. MTV and BET --tha devine definahz. Sayin
lookism, commercialization, heterosexism, and commodification are hip hop.
That inherent to hip hop is "bling bling" and "ill pussy." And
in that world Queerness is on the down low. Hip Hop is culture and art.
It's graffiti artists, breakers, beatboxers, mc's, poets, and djs. And in
descendants of freedom, hip hop is a tool for liberation.
Marian Yalini Thambynayagam,
Two Thousand + Two
c. Colophon for First Print
Edition
this book is a combination of energies
a collection of creativities circulating
this book is a process
a waking dream
this book is space
collecting
inspirations
dreams
rebellions
putting them down on paper
binding the paper into a book and
then trying to get said book to the folks
whose energies and creativities
brought about the book to begin with
this book is a continuation of a cycle
a collection of creativities circulating
this book can be enjoyed
like a white chocolate blunt
that something that takes you
the dreamerz of dreamz
to that place
where you can see your revolution
reflected, resonating
a white chocolate blunt collaboration
fall, two thousand and two
d. Vision Statement
–Jamie Munkatchy
why i am a descendant...
Descendants of Freedom, like most organizing, is a chance to strengthen communities,
to create more sustainable communities. communities that are able to build
up love, strength, wealth and health without empire/cytkra. Descendants
of Freedom has given me a community-based framework from which to understand
HIV and AIDS. a framework that resists the idea that HIV and AIDS is a
fate to be suffered by the unfortunate. HIV and AIDS is but an additional
perspective from which to resist systems of oppression. Resistance makes
me an agent of change; and like the rebelz of Freedom, cultures of resistance
make empire/cytkra irrelevant.
why i make books for the descendants...
I add my creativities to Descendants of Freedom by making books. By
taking the words/stories/thoughts said again and again not just
in performance, but
during rehearsal, during production, during party and dinner as well. Book
making can put these words to paper and create another ripple of resistance.
An echo that can be read. An echo that can be archived, leaving evidence
of resistance to be found. A one hundred copy edition of Descendants
of Freedom
was published in 2003. The current production of Descendants of Freedom incorporates
a second edition of the play, script books for the cast and crew, a ‘sweet
sessions’ edition and a series of zines.
I bring the spirit of un-professionalism
to all my books. A spirit that pays no respect to the logic of efficiency
or bottom lines. I pay no respect to
the logic that took the tools of artistic creation and hid them away in
schools, museums and guilds. To make a book, materials are recycled
from the trash
heap and time is stolen from the bosses. And when I make books I pay respect
to
exchange and collaboration. I make a commitment to teach the craft, to
subvert the logic of empire and inspire folks to record their
own creations.
e. Vision Statement
–André Lancaster
“On the wee hours of my bday
party on 04.19.04, my twenty-fifth, I was full of life cycles.
It was the two year anniversary of the premiere performance of
Descendants of Freedom in Austin Texas. And earlier that week
on my actual birthday, my parents, 18 years divorced, called
me at the same exact time (one went to voicemail while the other
wuz callin) within the hour that i wuz born over a quarter of
a century prior—which is also on their wedding anniversary...
so in my mind dof iz all ‘bout and a celebration of life
cycles of my mom, dad, bro n sis, the cycles of my queer blood
fam, 3f, James E. Houston jr, my ppl, Texas, DOF cast + qru,
Audre Lorde, Lorraine Hansberry, Marlon Riggs, June Jordan,
Pat Parker, enslaved peoples and rebels, brothas and sistas
who have
passed from dis-ease, wars, violence, abuse... and those that
survived...
“ Back in last summer, i was
telling everybody of my plans to stage descendants of freedom
with or without grant funding. seven months, two grant rejects,
the
assemblage of over twenty-five underground and emerging theatre artists and
performers, linkages with community organizations later... we
come together as resourceful
and triumphant as the Freedom rebelz—folkz who created whole systems
of teknology, system77—a tek not unlike open
source/craigslist/linux/anything
anti-microsoft. and as dj:ayden says, “to the rebelz, lo-fi is hi-fi.”
“ But no it doesn’t just
stop there... remember Palamares, a quilumbo in Brazil where
enslaved people fled to and created and sustained and resisted
the Portuguese colonizers for over a hundred years back in the
1700s. Where capoiera, much like the rebelz Gathering of Spirits
wuz/is used as protection/healing/power. I wrote Descendants
of Freedom to challenge myself/ourselves as activists, writers,
queer folks of color, poz n movement folk... and DOF does challenge
itself, workaholic-activism, and dance battling. Look for Fo-Fo
and Mister E to pose questions, Robotique to offer critique of
Freedom, and the rebelz to be fierce queer poz warriors who make
shit happen—livin’ with hope + courage”
-André Lancaster.
First and Second Edition copies of
Descendants of Freedom can be had by writing to:
White Chocolate Blunt Press
128 Ryerson street
2nd Floor
Brooklyn, New York 11205
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