[07 January 2024]: "Primitive Hypertext" — spirit writing of lucille clifton + amputated fingers; kangaroo words; african ontologies of time + comp. memory; weird altars for commodities; rockit!
spirit writing of lucille clifton + amputated fingers as "wonders [cut] off"; kangaroo words; east + central african ontologies of time + computer memory; weird altars for commodities; rockit!
Bismillah. We begin everything with the name of Allah. We say Bismillah to initiate an act to acknowledge the intention and the ethics we carry with all that follows Bismillah.
This is part of the newsletter's “Primitive Hypertext” (Octavia Estelle Butler) strand.
An annotated list of five things I’ve read/seen/heard and want to share. [weekly: every Sunday]
Read more about the changes in the newsletter rhythm here.
Hiya!
Happy (Gregorian) New Year! I have committed to nothing for 2024 but moving at a less stressful pace. Over the last few years, my health has taken quite a hit dealing with the weight of leaving relationships, jobs, and projects. I found an herbalist and studied my sleep patterns. I finally found a smoothie recipe I like, and I make French-pressed coffee now to force myself to go slowly. Things are steadily improving — less stress, more sleep, more energy — but I still have so far to go.
The one thing that causes a lot of stress is flying. On March 8, 2022, I had a near-death incident flying back from Cleveland, OH. We ended up emergency landing in Scranton, PA (which was cute as one of the many The Office superfans) after tailwind issues and running out of fuel. On my flight to LAX, we had terrible turbulence on the way down; it was simply terrifying.
I am finally in Los Angeles for a site visit for my show, i want to climb inside every word and lick the salty neck of each letter at REDCAT and to see my auntie. My major solo exhibitions closed today (KW Institute of Contemporary Art) and tomorrow (Art Institute of Chicago), so I am feeling the post-show slump alongside the realization that I have not been to Los Angeles since my naan’s funeral. I could smell the water and see the expansive sky when I arrived. The things I miss about California are all environmental — I need to be near water. I have always lived near water. My first apartment with my parents and oldest brother was near San Francisquito Creek. Many of my field trips were to the marshlands, where we’d eat pickleweed. Our first house had an in-house well, across the street from a farm and tank house and a few yards from a neglected swimming pool that I still dream about. Why did my city look like this? Charles Weeks established an agricultural utopic colony called Runnymeade in East Palo Alto in 1916. I do not know “home” without water.
Recently, I did a sensory deprivation float. It was the fourth time in my life, but the first time that I was organizing my water ritual on the new moon. I floated in the Epsom salt-filled tank. I felt relaxed for the first time in a while. I begin swimming classes in March. I am very excited to spend a lot of time in water.
On to the primitive hypertext!!!
An invitation for me: What is a word or phrase connecting all five links?
***Scroll to the end to see where I landed***
An invitation for you: What is another word or phrase connecting all five links?
Another invitation for you: Which of these links do you want to share with a friend?
Magloire, Marina. The Spirit Writing of Lucille Clifton. The Paris Review. October 19, 2020.
I love Lucille Clifton. I love that Lucille Clifton carried her self-discovery well into her final year. I love that Lucille Clifton wrote alongside the continuity of living and astral planes. I am fascinated by Lucille Clifton’s relationship with the Ouija board (read more about the Baltimore history of this device) because growing up in a very Black and very Muslim household, the Ouija board carried all the suspicion and criticism one could imagine. The author of this article shared more notes on the Emory Libraries blog.
I just started reading her interview with Charles H. Rowell in Callaloo (1999) and am struck by her description of the sacred and the spiritual in her work.
Many of you may remember that she was born with a condition called polydactyly, and her “extra fingers” were later amputated. Take a moment to listen to her read, “i was born with twelve fingers,” where she writes, “somebody was afraid we would learn to cast spells / and our wonders were cut off / but they didn’t understand the powerful memories of ghosts.”
I learned about kangaroo words from Adam Aleksic / Etymology Nerd, and I am captivated! I love word games, and this is peak nerdy word games! A kangaroo word contains letters of another word (joey), in order, with synonymous meanings. A joey word is the synonymous word “carried” by the kangaroo word. For example, banish or dice. Here is a fun list! (Now, what do you think an anti-kangaroo word is? Click here to see if your guess was correct!)
I love to think about words corporeally — a word with a carry pouch for other words! This worksheet describes them as words hiding within other words. With this language of words hiding inside other words (also kind of reminds me of Matryoshka dolls), I can’t help but think about steganography. I like the definition from this source: “Steganography refers to the practice of concealing a message (with no traceability) in a manner that it will make no meaning to anyone else except the intended recipient, while cryptography, on the other hand, refers to the art of converting a plaintext (message) into an unreadable format. Thus, steganography conceals the existence of a secret message while cryptography alters the message format itself.”
Over the past few years, I have been fascinated by programming language and divination, different engagements with time and memory, and the specific language used to refer to computing processes and roles.
— Check out Neta Bomani's amazing project, "Dark Matter Objects: Technologies of capture and things that can't be held” (Description: “one-of-a-kind handmade audio zine compiled by Neta Bomani about technology that studies computational history and terminology as it defines social, political, economic, racialized, gendered and other relations that emerge from the systemic structures that undergird the specifications of the technology used by people and in turn, choreograph the social behaviors and rituals of daily life.”
— Check out this paper, A Comparative Study of Ifa Divination and Computer Science (2013). I have a few other links somewhere — hit me up if you want them.
Pendergrast, Kelly. Merchandizing the Void. Dilettante Army. May 1, 2023.
During the beginning of this ongoing pandemic, I would spend a [redacted] number of hours watching unboxing and pantry restocking videos. Something was soothing about the organization, but also a bit bizarre about our homes being staged as display rooms for goods. I did not have the language to describe my simultaneous annoyance and fascination. This article comes close to what I think I was trying to articulate. There is something spiritually off as well — something like what it means to build these weird altars for commodities. In the article, Pendergrast shares: “One poster on the r/Anticonsumption subreddit complains that Khloé is “Definitely someone who worships a retail environment rather than someone who desires a home.” And maybe it is also something about the illusion of accessibility and self-sufficiency — that the home can hold everything one might ever need…or like a more curated, influencer-friendly, canva-designed version of survivalist culture?
Herbie Hancock — Rockit (1983)
This trippy music video held my attention for multiple watches! You can learn more about it here, but I will share what was most exciting about this 1983 offering: “When a finished version of the track was played for executives at Mr. Hancock’s label, Columbia, it met with sputtering disbelief. He was refused a budget for a video. So Mr. Hancock pursued that route on his own, enlisting Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, the English rock duo who had directed videos by the Police and others.”
An invitation for me: What is a word or phrase connecting all five links?
containers —> spirit writing as container for ancestor engagement; kangaroo words as containers for joey words; other containers for memory; taking things out of one container and putting them in another; refusing the container of genre
An invitation for you: What is another word or phrase connecting all five links?
Another invitation for you: Which of these links do you want to share with a friend?
Thank you for reading,
Kameelah 👽
Finally, while I do not organize my finances around paid newsletter subscriptions, wouldn’t it be cool if this wee little newsletter could allow me to take quarterly self-imposed writing retreats? Consider getting a one-year membership at $70 USD :)
How to cite this newsletter: Rasheed, K. (Year, Month Day). Newsletter Title. I Will (?) Figure This All Out Later. URL
I think two-timing is a good word to show how the two/spirit/faced nature corresponds in word and in linear time on the western colonial society.
Neta Bomani's project is amazing. I have been re-reading Dark Matters recently and this has been so well timed. I am appreciating no angles of this work through this audio zine. Thank you for sharing!