Ending with a beginning
Of Cotton, Clay, and Water: A Black retelling of the Anthropocene narrativeEnding with a beginning/before pt. 2
before I made the vase into a vase it was a block of clay
before it was this block of clay, it was a kind of clay soup in my reclaim bucket
before it was clay soup, it was something else
before it was something else, it was fresh clay from the bag
before it was fresh clay in the bag, it was clay that was processed in a factory
before it was processed in a factory, this clay was taken from the earth
Beginnings are difficult to decipher, and so are endings. Where does the clay end and where does the vase begin? It's sure that this vase will never be clay again. This vase will be on this planet after me now and it's story will hopefully be read by many more. How will it be read? Will my future reader understand that I left the clay raw to make my figures' skin Black? Will Black even mean anything to them? This vase is just beginning, as the story of the clay is ending. My time with the vase is ending, and now its time with everyone else is just beginning.
To reconcile with an ending is difficult, in the same way starting anew is difficult. Let my future reader interpret the vase as they please. Let them see the figures and the story and the hurt and joy and misunderstand. Like a lore tablet from The Broken Earth Trilogy or Martine Syms' Mundane Afrofuturist Manifesto, let this vase be falsely interpreted and written over. Let my future reader press mud into the carvings and smooth the stories over and use the vase as a vase is intended to be used.
***
At the end of this Anthropocene retelling, the author suggests a new name for the epoch. As Bonneuil and Fressoz rename the epoch, this author suggests the Ater-cene. A Black-cene that centers Black stories and reckons with Black apocolypses. A Black-cene that acknowledges Black people's presence if humans survive and acknowledges that eventually the ending that has been rippling through Black communities will eventually reach everyone else and swallow us all up. The Black-cene holds multitudes, the joy, the hope, the sorrow, the sacrifice, and as a Black cene is implicitly filled with endings, allow it to have beginnings too.
(rewrite/repair)