dreaming our futures
dream archive
songspell for taking root among the living.
video description: a songspell ripples and envelopes, cozy and warm, co-crafted and cast in care-filled crip community for dreaming our futures + embodying our dreams. we’re dreaming of taking root among the living. soft blurs of pink and blue translucent fabric portals overlaid over bright green and yellowgreen fabric portals (shaped into alexa dexa’s bed opera costume by Rebirth Garments) shimmer and slowly shift with the peach pink of alexa dexa’s body in motion. our libretto, co-crafted by all, floats to the top. sound descriptions by Hayley Ku’unani float to the bottom within brackets. all text is handwritten by alexa dexa, half-script scribbles and etches. sounds are shared by alexa dexa and their toychestra, our gorgeous crip community, and live electronic processing in maxmsp.
This is alexa dexa speaking and just wanting to thank everyone for their gorgeous welcomes and sharings and for being here. Such a joy, such a wonder. Yeah. It’s still perfectly wonderful if you’d like to keep saying hello or sharing anything you would like to share and we will just slowly transition into co‑crafting our songspell time.
Okay. I am just picking up my dreaming our futures + embodying our dreams oracle//composition deck and I’m just gonna be shuffling on a theme for us to dream around on this, the eleventh of our gatherings together, in this beautiful september moment. And just again, if anyone still has something they want to share, to say welcome or an introduction, it’s never too late, so you can absolutely do that. And I’m just shuffling here. The cards are large, they’re about the size of my hand. So I’m slow shuffling. Here we are. Oh, okay.
So this card is very pastel, it’s a very light card. The card features ‑‑ it’s sort of like a leaf design. It’s all very light rainbow pastels and it’s almost like a leaf in the shape of an arrow or the letter M like pointing upwards. And it reads taking root among the living. And it has a partner card, for context, the card that’s either right after or right before it – I can’t remember – reads communing with the dead. And this card, taking root among the living, is sort of the partner space, the hand-in-hand but also – especially with what Alisia was sharing and also Bailey was sharing and probably also Kat – this sort of connecting outwards and meeting with whatever you might be meeting with, whoever you might be meeting with, but really sort of reorienting the self and the space into any kind of very alive feeling activities and mindsets and whether that’s like Alisia was saying, sort of having this vibrant joy from being in different communities and around different arts or whether that’s cultivating the things that are keeping you living as a practice, as an intentional spell-making moment.
Maybe it’s breathing with the plants that you may have inside or outside. Or even with the wind or with a friend or with yourself. But yeah, I think it’s ‑‑ anyway to sort of come back around, I think that this is a card that is sort of like a — you know when I was making this deck and I was in my very big flare‑up and in my bed, and mainly in my bed, it was sort of the crip reminder to tap into the energies around, and the vibrance of, being here. And so let me read the little ‑‑ I’m going to read the little spell poem that goes along with this one inside of the little guide book. So I’m just going to come in here and search for it. Okay. Here we go. So it reads:
taking root among the living
a loving reminder
you are of this world, still
open to the earth
and flourish
And I’ll read that again, it says:
taking root among the living
a loving reminder
you are of this world, still
open to the earth
and flourish
And I think the question, like a guiding question that I think about in this moment with this reminder is maybe like what are the things that help create that feeling of being super super alive and how can we be with them a little bit more?
So what I’m gonna do is I’m just going to write down taking root among the living. And if there is something around this theme that feels resonant with you and you would like to dream on it, you can share anything that comes up for you, any prayers, any spells, any wishes, any dreams, any messages that you want to remember and carry forward with you. And if it doesn’t resonate with you, that’s totally fine. If there is something else that you want to dream on or remember or carry forward, you are welcome to share that as well. And so whatever anyone shares, I will be writing down and that will become our libretto for our songspell. You can unmute to speak or write in the chat and radio will read the chat aloud. Yeah. I think we are ready to co‑craft.
taking root
among the living
taking root
among the living
we are all
we are all connected
like mushrooms + fungus
our roots all connect so far
so far, so far
connected by air, by water
by sound, by vibration
the psychic, the cosmic
in ways we don’t even know
in this galaxy + beyond
sharing our lives
in small ways
i feel very connected
to all of you
i celebrate aging and mortality
i celebrate my living community of spirits
i celebrate my queer crip ancestors
living and transformed
some day i will have the absolute privilege
to rot into the earth
and that is a beautiful blessing
until that time
i celebrate entropy and change
in my living human form
“death is the room
and we are the elephants.” [Alok Menon]
mother earth cocoons
holding our bodies
as they are today
wrap ourselves in dirt, insects
dead leaves and the moisture
of the change of seasons
holding our pain and grief
transforming to another stage
of life, of being alive
becoming a person
who truly takes
care re-remembering
all-encompassing animism
may nurturing energy
grace our inner and outer worlds
a river of eternal flow
and connection
hard edges become softness
that translate to the softness
we care for ourselves
that equals the softness
we experience the outside world
squares become never-ending circles
may sacred geometry hold us as we
become, become, become
home to ourselves
home to each other
home to the earth
home to ourselves
home to each other
home to the earth
home to ourselves
home to each other
home to the earth
dried herbs: every different
combination, concoction
and spell made from once-living
things contributes in a different way
to our access, power, ability to
strengthen roots that hold us
gently with love
become, become, become
home to ourselves
home to each other
home to the earth
home to ourselves
home to each other
home to the earth
to the earth
to the earth
home
become, become, become
become, become, become
become, become, become
home to ourselves
home to each other
home to the earth
sound description by Hayley Ku’unani.
[alexadexa tenderly tinkling toy harp rooted portals of possibility]
[maxMSP deliciously decorates ambience, reverb plates and reversed delays for fortuitous flourishing]
[visceral stringed vocalisations vibrate and sublimate into soundscape]
[anticipatory drones take root to honour the flute]
[alternate currents and echoes enmesh and deliver]
[sonic textural patterns tesselate]
[shimmering strings suspend]
[kalimbas pluck and polish alongside shiny percussive textures]
[exhalations and vocalisations soften into the serenity of alexadexa’s voice]
[delayed and reverberated spoken word and vocalisations cast spells into our shared living reality]
[ethereal and angelic voices swell into symphony]
[rhythmic plucking anchors our aliveness]
[collages of affirmative dreaming and spoken sigils lay loving foundation]
[summoned by the sounds of grounding, ahhhs of ours and of reclamation]
[hopeful harmonics decorate (de)light]
[hypnotic layers ripple and ruffle]
[tectonic tones oscillate below the surface of collective conjuring]
[layers and loops lavish between the inner and outer landscapes transforming cripbodymindspirits]
[clanking keys cement conversationally choral conjuring]
[thematic tinkling]
[vocalisations verse vivaciously]
[subtle human vocalisations invite our aliveness]
[tapping patterns reflect, root and rewire]
[enchantment builds]
[collective sounds popping up portals of potential]
[swirly sensations tickle amongst tapping]
[sublime subliminals of cripsibling serenading collective roots amongst the living]
[rhythmic realities collide and combine in sonic surrender]
[soundscapes layer and level in love]
[affirmative sounds driving declaration build and burrow]
[vocalisations vibrate and illuminate grounded grace]
[tapping texture treat and tone]
[granulated glitches giggle and bubble collective wishes to the surface]
[delays decay dreaming strengthening believing]
[vocalisations verse and verb into reverie]
[growing and evolving ahhhhs-cillate]
[wonderment and awe evolves]
[grounded sounds tinkle and tap the vibrance of being here and now]
[strings pluck and steel strikes the loving reminder of being of this world still]
[becoming]
[ringing singing trickles of tone root resilience]
[swells melt]
[shiny metal shimmering]
[raining realities of sound nourish, flourish and root]
[scrubbing sensations swirl and swell]
[glittering grounding fades out]
group portrait <3
