steal a way

informed by the lineage of the black fugitive invocation, “steal away”, we call upon the wisdom of encoded songlines rooted in negro spirituals that supported enslaved black folks to share subversive liberation paths toward freedom. in a time of hypervisibility and hypersurveillance, we inquire how studying and living maroonage and fugitivity in a translocal community of practice can weave an embodied research network of radical hospitality, regeneration and refuge across the country. casting the homophonic spell, steal a way, we intend to make a way out of no way; to reveal a path that invites us to retreat to a time outside of time.

Photo from Lead to Life Oakland Alchemy Ceremony 2019 by Ayse Gursoz.