I CREATE MEDICINE AS ART AS MEDICINE, AND SACRED DREAMTIME CONTAINERS FOR MY OWN HEALING + COLLECTIVE LIBERATION FROM THE COLONIAL IMAGINATION.
My work unfolds through the realization and revelation that spiritual and artistic practice are not separate acts, so all that we do—whether it be prayer or journal prompts, ritual or recording music, making offerings or making offeringsss —is seen as holy, sacred, ancestrally-guided and True to who we actually Are, not who the colonial oppressive frames have attempted (and failed) to shape us to be.
I know that I am not alone in my decolonial imaginings.
I'm Queen Gogo Yemah.
self portrait, bahia, brazil, 2024.
About Me
I see Them everywhere:
In galleries, in parks, in people turning away from manmade delineations in their identities, their genres, their lives. I see it in the return to the land, In the longing for the Ancestors' wisdom we are enacting with each brush stroke, each figurine firing, each soundwave hitting the air.
I trust the calling that the Mother so clearly sent that we are answering. I am here to connect with you if you are feeling that call in your Soul and want some inspiration. Some guidance. Some footpath markings. I am here, dear Dreamer.
Let's Dream and See what's possible.
We need your
in the archive of
may they be heard, known
Dreams
Time.
and Realized.
we need Your
in the archive of
may they be heard, known
Queen Gogo
Yemah Takhakhan
A brief background tale...
With my spiritual practice as the central portal, I have created and supported over a decade and a half of art in the fields of theater and performance, music, film, television, as well as throughout the academy, in healing spaces, women’s circles, prisons, places of worship, and sacred spaces at and across the oceans.
I do my work as an Artist in the highest and deepest ways; calling others back to the practice of Art as Healing and Healing as Art.
I come from a lineage of teachers, healers and community builders and chose to study Liberation work formally and informally in order to get free. I am rooted in a midwestern US upbringing, with red-dirt southern great-great and 3rd great grandparents, and have answered the Call of my ancient ancestors of Southern Africa who dreamt me into Ubungoma initiation and still beckon me to reclaim + resound the medicines and Songs of my people.
I give gratitude to the teachers of MA temple, who stood at the gate holding my Ancestors, as I rebirthed myself through the Spirits of the Water, the Earth, the Stars and the Void: Makhosi Himi Gogo Thule Ngane, Queen Baba Ekhaya Esima, my Warrior Spirits and Royal Ones thank you endlessly.
I give gratitude to many teachers, mentors, and artistic collaborators, who have shaped and sculpted my practice into what it is Now. And what it will become as we continue dreaming into the new Earth, together.
I have undone and outdone Myself many times over. I continue unmaking Myself everyday, to return to indigenous perspectives & practices that heal at a cellular level. I know enough to know how much I don't know, and enough to humbly share what I do.
Thank you for joining me in the pouring. Let's begin, again.
junteenth
christmas
salty
sweet
doc
reality show
vintage
designer
Winter
Summer
academic
ancestral
I have a pet peeve about folks saying "3am in the morning." 'AM' already means morning, so using both simultaneously is redundant. I have complicated feelings about English, but this is my clear stance on the 'am in the morning' phenomenon.
three.
My Great-Grandmother may have been into burlesque. I found a flyer in her dresser that I now own. Stay tuned for more investigation in my memoir.
two.
It's just a fun fact that I love tennis and plan to hit all the grand slams before I become an Ancestor. It's a game that really shows the will of the human mind and I freakin LOVE it. Talk to me about tennis!
one.
Fun personal dets
a tradition of radical love [mini-manifesto]
The Radical tradition is an older tradition than colonial tradition.
The Radical tradition is synonymous with Ancestral tradition.
All people come from and carry Ancestral traditions.
marimba ani, let the circle be unbroken: "When we perform rituals as our ancestors did, we become our ancestors and so transcend the boundaries of ordinary space and time, and the limitations of separation that they impose.
It is through ritual that the unexplainable is understood, that chaos is made to be ordered within the logic of tradition. It is through ritual that trauma is avoided, crises dealt with and overcome and difficult transitions are perceived as passages between stages of normal growth and development."
ritual is an art.
healing is an art.
art is an art.
life is an art.
lets dream and see what's possible.
READ MORE
"I started working on a document to share my collaboration approaches and values over four years ago, a little before the decade mark of my professional career as an artist. There’s google docs and notes on legal pads and many text threads where I gathered language I wanted to share with people about what collaboration means to me."
THE MEDICINE OF COLLABORATION: BRIDGING ANCESTRAL WISDOM AND ARTISTIC PRACTICE
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"In 2024, I took a step back from taking on new collaborations. I turned down some seemingly dope opportunities to work with new people, because how I was showing up was feeling off... Then, I stopped using good and bad logic and really listened to Spirit. At the time, all I had was the sense in my body to take a pause/not now approach to new collaborations, and I'm so glad I listened."
beyond good and bad: the medicine of conscious collaboration
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"In my embodied, ancestral, ero-poetic, Black soma-feminist view, medicine has a much broader definition. Everything is and has medicine and everything can be an opportunity to heal. In this view, it becomes up to us whether or not we want to be well."
Stepping into Working with Me: An Ancestral, Healing-Centered Approach to Collaboration
// IN MY YEARS THUS FAR, I HAVE PRACTICED A LOT OF COLLABORATION. HERE ARE SOME LEARNINGS.
// In my years thus far, I have practiced a lot of collaboration. Here are some learnings.
the collaboration collection
Divination as creative force
Attunement to Divine Love
Radical responsibility & Spiritual rigor
The Energetics & Core Intentions behind My Work
Respect and Acknowledgment
