Journeys from the Journey
Journeys from the Journey represents individual and collective stories and personal reflections from an eight-week pilgrimage in 2026 honoring the Underground Railroad. Along this journey, I stood on the shoulders of Abolitionists and giants such as Harriet Tubman and was honored to witness the sacred stories of present-day journeys of resilience and strength, which I then translated into the language of color and texture.
This installation is grounded in the presence of ancestral trees. These columns of textile represent the witness of Africa, the witness of contemporary journeys to freedom, and they were woven during a period of intense witness in Minneapolis/St. Paul during the ICE occupation and executions of 2026. The textile features the West African character Nkyinkyim, used in Ghana to reference the slave trade and evoke resilience through life’s trials.
Individually and collectively, these stories portray resilience through journeys that confront issues such as health, family, racism, sexual assault, and homophobia. These stories honor the Freedom Seekers and Advocates throughout history by affirming the power of community and allies, and the power of the inner and collective North Star when external sources of support and guidance fail.
A few stories also elicit questions of our role in perpetuating oppression. These stories are not to guilt or shame, but rather, like ancestral trees, serve to witness the complexities of life – standing in both the light and the dark and letting our connected canopies offer compassion to all navigating the path we call the human experience.
Mutual transformation through storytelling is both a spiritual act and a way of resisting the polarization of today’s world. When you and I share stories, they become our story, and when stories are shared across the political spectrum, we move from a place of "them" to a place of "us".
There is a solidarity among those seeking and supporting freedom from oppression. My hope is that you see yourself in these stories and know that you honor those who stood against oppression when you claim your own journey of resilience as sacred.
Maybe we are here
Maybe we are here
in this divided time,
to be the first
to be transformed.
Seeing
our very real pain, suffering, and fear,
our disappointment, embarrassment,
our resolve,
reflected.
Called
to say Black Lives, Trans Lives, Gay Lives, Women’s Lives, Children’s Lives
and
MAGA lives matter
in the same amen.
Honored
to take the risk
for a world
unpromised and unseen.
Where
the high ground is only moral
if it is shared,
where my wagging finger
of “teachable moments”
points back at me,
where they become we.
Accountable
to change my mind,
to participate in
the evolution of the divine.
Here now.
By design.
A note on authorship. All participants have consented to have their stories shared. I’ve opted to use initials (and sometimes pseudo-initials) for authorship to maintain a standard acknowledgment across the project, recognizing that some people's personal safety is at risk if their names were disclosed. Where there is no indication of authorship, the writing is mine and can be cited as such.