DID YOU KNOW THE PEOPLE COULD FLY?
In their highest imagination, Black Girl Mixtape is creating history in the present. These brilliant writers are bridging the gap between our ancestors, who we are in this moment, and our future. “The People Could Fly” is an Afro-Futuristic retelling of the rebellion at Igbo Landing. Through the storytelling presented in ten acts of “The People Could Fly,” the women of Black Girl Mixtape create a sacred sanctuary through which imagination thrives, history comes alive, and the people can fly. Support “The People Could Fly.” Give Today.
Have you ever seen a nigga fly?
Have you ever wondered why niggas believe more in freedom, than gravity?
- ebonyjanice
EbonyJanice is bringing together this dynamic group of thinkers, dreamers, healers, and creatives to contribute to the archive of stories that witness us, see us, believe us, and make us whole. Your one-time or ongoing contribution is your investment in this legendary project that will live forever- even into the imagination of our future ancestors. This is sacred. Please give today!
CAST OF WRITERS
"I choose the hum and the rock as a form of freedom; the body freedom in body language, the body freedom in the body knowing."
- Khadijah Abdul-Mateen
Khadijah Abdul-Mateen is an international trauma-informed yoga instructor with a mental health background and a trainee in somatic experience. Her work is centered on addressing the intergenerational trauma memory of violence amongst Black women and girls. She is also the co-founder of |un|earth + bloom, which is a space that uses yoga, psychotherapy, and other meditative practices to provide tools for Black Women and Girls to the power of Freedom.
"My body is the archive so whatever seeds my ancestors could not grab from their home is still here in my bones. I house these stories forever."
-ebonyjanice
EbonyJanice is a dynamic lecturer, transformational speaker, and passionate multi-faith preacher focused on Decolonizing Authority, Hip Hop Scholarship, Womanism as a Political and Spiritual/Religious tool for Liberation, Blackness as Religion, Dialogue as central to professional development and personal growth, and Women and Gender Studies focused on black girlhood. EbonyJanice has a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology and Political Science, and a Master of Arts in Social Change with a concentration in Spiritual Leadership, Womanist Theology, and Racial Justice. She is the founder of Black Girl Mixtape, a multi-platform safe think-space, centering the intellectual authority of black women in the form of a lecture series, a podcast, and an online learning institute lead by black women scholars, and Dream Yourself Free, a Spiritual Mentoring project focused on black women’s healing, dreaming, ease, play, and wholeness as their activism and resistance work.
"Your wings can do far more than lift you. Study them."
- Zakiyyah Abdul-Mateen
Zakiyyah Abdul-Mateen is a licensed child, adolescent and young adult psychotherapist who uses meditative practices to reduce anxiety associated with traumatic memory. Her work is reflective on both a local and global scale, providing training and workshops in places like Haiti and parts of Africa. She is also the co-founder of |un|earth + bloom, which is a space that uses psychotherapy (talk therapy), trauma-informed yoga, and other meditative practices, to address the physical and psychological manifestations of trauma amongst black women and girls.”
Nikki Blak is a literary artist, sociologist, womanist, and intersectional feminist whose thought leadership and radical education work centers marginalized and oppressed populations in the United States. Her specialized areas of study include the social sciences, child development, history, and reproductive justice, which she uses in tandem with her lived experience and ancestral knowledge to create incendiary art, provide unrelenting socio-political critique and activate liberatory praxis to dismantle systems of oppression. She holds a B.A. in Sociology, a Master of Arts in Social Justice and Community Organizing, and is talented at utilizing a critical race theory framework to interrogate anti-Black ideologies and challenge patriarchal cultural norms.
"Drumbeat hearts. A Chorus of ancient names landed on children singing, storytelling, ascending into dance." - Nikki Blak
"For us, wings aren’t required for flying, partly because we’re so deeply in relationship with nature… Not flying is unnatural."
- Thea Monyeé
Thea Monyeé is a licensed therapist and Oya priestess in the Ifa tradition, committed to creating healing opportunities to Black/Marginalized bodies through the decolonization of joy, mental health, and pleasure. In addition to appearances on HBO, OWN, FOX SOUL, and THE RED TABLE TALK, she is the host of Shaping The Shift Podcast, founder of MarleyAyo, and The Blacker The Brain: A Mental Health Decolonizing Campaign, Conversation, & Cohort, co-host of Dem Black Mamas Podcast, and co-creator of The Free Joy Experience.
"I am affirming the liberty of my black Womanhood through the reflection of myself in other black women." - Sonya Renee Taylor
Artist, Activist and transformational leader Sonya Renee Taylor is a National and International award winning writer and performer, best-selling author, and founder and Radical Executive Officer of The Body is Not An Apology, an international digital media and education company committed to radical self-love and body empowerment as the foundational tool of social justice, whose content reaches over 1 million people monthly. She has shared her work and activism across the US, New Zealand, Australia, UK, Scotland, Sweden, Germany, Canada, Brazil and the Netherlands. Sonya has been seen, heard, and read on HBO, BET, MTV, TV One, NPR, PBS, CNN, Oxygen Network, The New York Times, New York Magazine, MSNBC.com, Today.com, Huffington Post, Vogue Australia, Shape.com, Ms. Magazine and many more.
"The seeds are all right the seeds became and burned every flag that haunted the people the seeds are alright they push down fences and turn the wrecked steel into jungle gyms." - Mahogany L. Browne
Mahogany L. Browne is a writer, organizer & educator. Executive Director of Bowery Poetry Club & Artistic Director of Urban Word NYC & Poetry Coordinator at St. Francis College. Browne has received fellowships from Agnes Gund, Air Serenbe, Cave Canem, Poets House, Mellon Research & Rauschenberg. She is the author of most recent works: Woke: A Young Poets Call to Justice & Chlorine Sky. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
"Our DNA is sheet music still humming at the bottom of the ocean. We remember the bodies. Our bodies remember. Even when you strip us of land, of language, of every instrument meant to tell our stories. The beat goes on. "
- Roya Marsh
A Bronx, New York native, Roya is a nationally recognized poet, performer, educator and activist. She is the Poet in Residence at Urban Word NYC and works feverishly toward LGBTQIA justice and dismantling white supremacy. Roya’s work has been featured in Poetry Magazine, Flypaper Magazine, Frontier Poetry, the Village Voice, Nylon Magazine, Huffington Post, The Root, Button Poetry, Def Jam’s All Def Digital, Lexus Verses and Flow, NBC, BET, and The BreakBeat Poets Vol 2: Black Girl Magic (Haymarket 2018).
A PRODUCTION IN 10 ACTS
In 1803, off the coast of St. Simons Island, a group of Africans overthrew slavers on a ship called “The Wanderer” and then got up off the ground and flew back home.
Act 1: LIVE Group Workshop
Act 2: Public Virtual Workshop
Act 3: Docuseries
Act 4: International Diasporic Healing Workshop
Act 5: A Play (Theatre)
Act 6: A Film
Act 7: A Book
Act 8: Annual Healing Retreat
Act 9: Global Diasporic Artist Residency
Act 10: Curriculum
Tiers of Giving
THE PEOPLE COULD FLY: AN AFRO-FUTURISTIC WOMANIST RETELLING OF THE REBELLION AT IGBO LANDING
$5-$99
Black Girl Mixtape is a Safe Think Space created to center the intellectual and creative authority of black women.
Click to select your giving level.
Black Girl Mixtape is a Safe Think Space created to center the intellectual and creative authority of black women.
Tiers of Giving
Act 1: LIVE Group Workshop
Act 2: Public Virtual Workshop
Act 3: Docuseries
Act 4: International Diasporic Healing Workshop
Act 5: A Play (Theatre)
Act 6: A Film
Act 7: A Book
Act 8: Annual Healing Retreat
Act 9: Global Diasporic Artist Residency
Act 10: Curriculum
A PRODUCTION IN 10 ACTS
In 1803, off the coast of St. Simons Island, a group of Africans overthrew slavers on a ship called “The Wanderer” and then got up off the ground and flew back home.
Tiers of Giving
Zakiyyah Abdul-Mateen is a licensed child, adolescent and young adult psychotherapist who uses meditative practices to reduce anxiety associated with traumatic memory. Her work is reflective on both a local and global scale, providing training and workshops in places like Haiti and parts of Africa. She is also the co-founder of |un|earth + bloom, which is a space that uses psychotherapy (talk therapy), trauma-informed yoga, and other meditative practices, to address the physical and psychological manifestations of trauma amongst black women and girls.”
EbonyJanice is a dynamic lecturer, transformational speaker, and passionate multi-faith preacher focused on Decolonizing Authority, Hip Hop Scholarship, Womanism as a Political and Spiritual/Religious tool for Liberation, Blackness as Religion, Dialogue as central to professional development and personal growth, and Women and Gender Studies focused on black girlhood. EbonyJanice has a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology and Political Science, and a Master of Arts in Social Change with a concentration in Spiritual Leadership, Womanist Theology, and Racial Justice. She is the founder of Black Girl Mixtape, a multi-platform safe think-space, centering the intellectual authority of black women in the form of a lecture series, a podcast, and an online learning institute lead by black women scholars, and Dream Yourself Free, a Spiritual Mentoring project focused on black women’s healing, dreaming, ease, play, and wholeness as their activism and resistance work.
Khadijah Abdul-Mateen is an international trauma-informed yoga instructor with a mental health background and a trainee in somatic experience. Her work is centered on addressing the intergenerational trauma memory of violence amongst Black women and girls. She is also the co-founder of |un|earth + bloom, which is a space that uses yoga, psychotherapy, and other meditative practices to provide tools for Black Women and Girls to the power of Freedom.
Nikki Blak is a literary artist, sociologist, womanist, and intersectional feminist whose thought leadership and radical education work centers marginalized and oppressed populations in the United States. Her specialized areas of study include the social sciences, child development, history, and reproductive justice, which she uses in tandem with her lived experience and ancestral knowledge to create incendiary art, provide unrelenting socio-political critique and activate liberatory praxis to dismantle systems of oppression. She holds a B.A. in Sociology, a Master of Arts in Social Justice and Community Organizing, and is talented at utilizing a critical race theory framework to interrogate anti-Black ideologies and challenge patriarchal cultural norms.
Mahogany L. Browne is a writer, organizer & educator. Executive Director of Bowery Poetry Club & Artistic Director of Urban Word NYC & Poetry Coordinator at St. Francis College. Browne has received fellowships from Agnes Gund, Air Serenbe, Cave Canem, Poets House, Mellon Research & Rauschenberg. She is the author of most recent works: Woke: A Young Poets Call to Justice & Chlorine Sky. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
A Bronx, New York native, Roya is a nationally recognized poet, performer, educator and activist. She is the Poet in Residence at Urban Word NYC and works feverishly toward LGBTQIA justice and dismantling white supremacy. Roya’s work has been featured in Poetry Magazine, Flypaper Magazine, Frontier Poetry, the Village Voice, Nylon Magazine, Huffington Post, The Root, Button Poetry, Def Jam’s All Def Digital, Lexus Verses and Flow, NBC, BET, and The BreakBeat Poets Vol 2: Black Girl Magic (Haymarket 2018).
Thea Monyeé is a licensed therapist and Oya priestess in the Ifa tradition, committed to creating healing opportunities to Black/Marginalized bodies through the decolonization of joy, mental health, and pleasure. In addition to appearances on HBO, OWN, FOX SOUL, and THE RED TABLE TALK, she is the host of Shaping The Shift Podcast, founder of MarleyAyo, and The Blacker The Brain: A Mental Health Decolonizing Campaign, Conversation, & Cohort, co-host of Dem Black Mamas Podcast, and co-creator of The Free Joy Experience.
Artist, Activist and transformational leader Sonya Renee Taylor is a National and International award-winning writer and performer, best-selling author, and founder and Radical Executive Officer of The Body is Not An Apology, an international digital media and education company committed to radical self-love and body empowerment as the foundational tool of social justice, whose content reaches over 1 million people monthly. She has shared her work and activism across the US, New Zealand, Australia, UK, Scotland, Sweden, Germany, Canada, Brazil and the Netherlands. Sonya has been seen, heard, and read on HBO, BET, MTV, TV One, NPR, PBS, CNN, Oxygen Network, The New York Times, New York Magazine, MSNBC.com, Today.com, Huffington Post, Vogue Australia, Shape.com, Ms. Magazine and many more.
