The Knotted Line started as a personal exploration; how is it, that in a society where freedom is the central political rhetoric, we have constantly confined large portions of our population? That discrepancy, once glimpsed as a teenager, became a spark of my politicization and the subsequent search for other narratives. Over the years, that question expanded through my interest in art, populist history and radical pedagogy. The Knotted Line was created as an internet-age dub for people on a similar search -- a mix of Zinn's People’s History with Lawrence's Migration Series; Chang's Can’t Stop Won’t Stop with hooks' Teaching To Transgress.

What I have come to understand through this exploration is that ‘Freedom’ in the United States is tethered to the idea of confinement.  Freedom only gains traction when contrasted with the hypervisible invisible: the confined other. Race, class, gender, citizenship and sexuality are shifting markers of freedom or unfreedom, of exclusion or inclusion that define who is or isn’t part of the American mainstream.  The rhetoric of Freedom does not define what freedom is; instead it defines who has the right to freedom.

Who has the ‘right to freedom(s)’ was, and is, a question of power.  Within this rubric of freedom, those who are free are those who have the most institutional access, generally, though not exclusively, along a spectrum that places the white, straight, Christian, wealthy, male at the top. While this is a thesis that has been illuminated by many, the key point presented in The Knotted Line is that the rhetoric of freedom has been a central organizer of social structure and hierarchy in the United States - from the Pilgrims to the Patriot Act.

In exploring the political device of freedom as essentially one of disenfranchisement and exclusion, my hope is that The Knotted Line will add to a history of people, communities, art, music, dance, work, and education which has defined freedom as an autonomous, spiritual and grass-roots concept - in spite of the presence of confinement. It has been an effort to expand not only understanding, but also possibilities, strategies and tactics on personal and social levels. If the ‘freedom’ that is offered within the American mainstream is built on the confinement of another, I see the need to move past ‘reform’ to offer our own definitions of freedom that prioritize new ways of being, interacting and creating community safety. In the tradition of Grace Lee Boggs and so many others, I hope that The Knotted Line will be part of a larger movement that does not stall at protest, but instead challenges oneself, as much as our society, to define a freedom based in love and collective liberation.

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