WOKEISMO
WOKEISMO
how
to
be
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WOKE
Learning, deconstructing, and reconstructing - constantly.
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It isn’t just a buzzword you can use for your own braggadocio convenience; a free pass to talk over in order to tout self-glory obfuscated through academic privilege.
To be woke does not signal being epistemically selfish to lionize your erudition, and to flagrantly demarcate yourself from others. Being woke is empowering others: to consciously and critically amplify their voices and abilities.
It’s never a contest, but a shared space for intellect, change, and cognizance.
"WE MAY TAKE NAPS, BUT WE ALWAYS STAY WOKE."
In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s La Siesta del Martes, the heat literally suffocates the plot and the characters without names. It plays a reminiscence of a bad omen, exacerbated by the negative connotation associated with the second day of the week. However, as Floridians of immigrant backgrounds from lands with a climate that rivals such intense calor through added humidity and denser cities, heat could only be combatted through resilience and the unceasing proclivity to continue on. The heat was garish during this shoot, but we were all #woke enough to pull through it.
“Nostalgia in reverse, the longing for yet another strange land,
grew especially strong in spring.” - Vldamir Nabokov
So, this is a "see you all later" (tears held back and all),
and in the superfluity of my temporary absence, stay woke.
Guau,Guau,
Jeneezus (Mother Goose of Dos Patrias)
I have had photo shoots (most impromptu) that lasted longer and had more assistance, but all feel short in comparison to this. This transformed into something efficacious and natural because of the intangible and visceral understand we shared with another with the concept of dos patrias.
While I had accumulated the usual amalgamation of ideas from magazine spreads and editorials, for the most part, I was just photographing moments and construed ideas concocted out of the spontaneity and the environment surrounding us.
Behind the camera and to the final edited product, all contained the tones of longing, nostalgia, and sentiment that signals garish authenticity.
This shoot inhabits a fitting crossroads within all of us, a photographic testament to Tame Impala’s song, “Yes I’m Changing”. Despite the undertones of melancholic magnanimity, I have acquired the penchant to always have hope; because, without this hope, everything is at a definite ultimatum;
so, maybe this isn’t the last photo shoot after all.
"Y aquel velo era el velo de los sueños, de los dulces sueños que hacen ver la vida de color de rosa." -Rubén Darío, Azul