CW:/ Video mentions names of LGBTQIA+ folks who have been murdered by systematic violence, magic, and nudity.
I created this performance piece thinking of how heavy the burden of my safety, and at times my body, feels in the midst of community care.
I tend to gravitate to caring for others, making space for others, prioritizing others because I long for a motherhood I feel I may never have.
So at the beginning of ‘pride’ season,’ I decided to make space for community that has been stolen from us, and in this piece I rest with the dead.
Pride can also look like resting with our ancestors, resting with the ones who paved the road of the movement blocks that guide our liberation.
About Eve Xelestiál Moreno-Luz :
Eve Xelestiál is a brown, trans and queer multimedia artist living in San Diego. Eve Xelestiál spends their time challenging the white, heteronormative, patriarchal society that is imposed on queer and trans people of color. She thrives/enjoys resisting with other TQPoC, cooking plant based food, listening to queer & trans music, singing IN queer, and watching queer cinema. Xelestiál is committed to combatting main stream media through her personal identity, visual art and poetry. Her work has being featured at The Huntington Museum, the Getty Museum, and on Rest For Resistance. Follow Eve on Instagram @iwritelight_.
About Grey:
AlexGrey is an indigenous genderfluid femme & performance poet. Their work reflects their experiences as a queer first-generation & neuro-divergent artist. They have hit stages as a stand-up comedian, a spoken word and slam poet, a singer, a folkloric dancer, and emcee. Performance and people are two of their passions and at every opportunity they hope to connect both in an effort to strengthen solidarity and care within queer and trans communities of color and their allies. Instagram: @chakana.kid
About Cielo Oscuro :
Cielo is a fashion and multimedia artist living in South Central Los Angeles. You can find them on IG : @bbysatan666
About Francisco Aviles Pino Jr :
Frankie is a poet, journalist, and abolitionist organizer. You can find them on IG: @gotfran
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Video Description:
During this performance piece Xelestiál offers Sunflowers, her soul and labor, and uses the natural elements to open a portal into the spirit realm. Using Sun Flowers that were offered by community during a ceremony of life the previous day, she dances and rests with the spirits of LGBTQ+ people who have been murdered due to systemic violence, (Suicide and Drug Overdose according to Eve fall under this category) on June 1st, 2019.
“As pride season begins, I wonder, How many more of will be destined to die? With my hands, and my breath, I offer space for those who are no longer physically here with us. I offer these flowers, I offer my labor, I offer my soul: As a way for you all to enter this world. So that you all may walk with the living, and so that we may dance with the dead, and so we may have a chance to bring forth the worlds that have been left behind. So that we may have the chance to bring forth the worlds that dare not be forgotten. Say her name, Ms. Roxsana Hernandez. Say her name, Akyra Monet Murray. Say her name, Mesha Caldwell. Say his name, Edward Carebear Garcia. Say his name, Skylar Lee.”
During the video Xelestiál flings Sunflowers in the air, burns Sunflowers, bathes Sunflowers, and buries them. She has names on a piece of paper of the murdered LGBTQIA+ folx, and also bathes them in the same water of the sunflower. At the end of the video, Xelestiál raises the Goblet that the Sunflower and names are in, and drops the water over head. She gets on her knees, and places her head into the Goblet.
Cinematographers of this film are, Francisco Aviles Pino Jr and Cielo Oscuro. Sound recording was executed by Grey Valdez.
