“thy word have i hidden in my heart…(number 8)” — PRINT

hortense spillers: “in order for me to speak a truer word concerning myself, i must strip down through layers of attenuated meanings, made an excess in time; over time, assigned by a particular historical order, and there await whatever marvels of my own inventiveness.” this quote is one that guides my practice of thinking about the ways theology and doctrines created for me identities that were a “meeting ground” from which to think desire and renunciation and loss. theology and doctrine create the objects, the persons, it will also dispense with and discard. so i’m thinking of the words, and the Word, and how in the tradition of black feminist and queer life, i had to invent myself after going through the layers of misnamings. it’s an ongoing process but one i am committed to. this process of thinking through and interrogating the layers might look something like the “thy word” series: messy and layered and beautiful and complex and textured and ripped and severed and angular and rough. with the hopes of otherwise.