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yondaproject

@yondaproject

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📍🐂 // 🏠 2-5-2 // Black Rural Southern Designer. Archivin’ and writin’.
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“I’m from Pantego, North Carolina” — and when I say that, I mean that as an acknowledgement and a reminder of the roughly 40 acres of land that you see here. In our town, it’s called “Riddick Town”. This land was toiled for and claimed (or moreso reclaimed) by my great great grandparents Annie & Noah Riddick. A Black farmer and a Black & Indigenous migrant worker. They had 8 beautiful Black children, one of which is my great grandmother. I am now responsible for the home and land she was left, being that she left that to me. Along with each of their 8 lots, there is a mass of land that is owned by our family.
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Our future goal is to conserve it and preserve it—we don’t know how, because we don’t know—but ultimately we desire to sow into it and to communally reap from it. We deeply dream of the day it reminds us all of what it used to be. I desperately dream of the day my elders will feel what they felt when they used to roam the fields that Noah & Annie tended and tilled. That it reminds them of when they would skip the fresh water in the creek that used to divide the land from the neighboring white owners who patiently wait to colonize what’s there. It is good ground. It is beautiful Black soil. It is sacred space.
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And Whatever it takes, we will honor those who came before us. We have to. We have to because our family’s history and future both depend on it. This is and forever will be our story to tell.
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#pantegonc #land #family #familyland #love #future #BlackAugust #BlackFutures #Yonda #AfroCarolina taken in Pantego, North Carolina by @yondaproject

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5 years ago

Season Two, just like dat is kickin off Sunday Sept 1st. — focused on LAND. Land relationship. Land stewardship. The realities of heirs property. Swamps and ecopossibilities. Land as necessity and how we as human beings do right by it and each other.

The guests for this season are incredible people and I’d like to express the utmost appreciation for their work and our conversations that might get us closer to something different. I speak with an attorney focused on families and heirs property who has connections to heirs property herself - @mcclendonlawga ; one of our Durm sage’s, artist and cultural organizer @brobeas about what we might learn about newness and transformation from the swamps/maroons. And close it out with more depth and clarity from one of my favorite Black Geographers and organizers @dmpurifoy 💜

I am deeply appreciative to my ancestors for putting me on this path to tell more of our story and to be always thinking about Home. This season is focused on land. Free the land too. #LinkInBio for more details and sign up so you don’t miss an episode! Go catch up on season one or run it back. Are you ready for season two? by @yondaproject

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2 years ago

Short version is: early voting in NC starts tomorrow through Halloween and @see_jay_runaway asked me to talk about the 3 constitutional amendments you need to vote NO to for mid terms. So I did bc it would be irresponsible not to, as much as I be talkin on here.

Anyway, vote no to all three and here’s some context for why. My stories are usually reserved for friends and family so this is one way to get it to more people.

CUTTING taxes is not a benefit to us bc we’re not the people whose taxes are being cut. Plus, many of us who actually pay taxes also benefit from the public services available to us. Meaning, this isn’t just about elections or voting but it’s about showing up to put your name down on something that we actually can all decide on. Before you get to the “voting doesn’t matter” part, don’t. Bye!

Also if there’s incorrect info in my points plz tell me. I reviewed the amendments several times to make sure I understood what they were doing or calling for, and went from there. I’m not trynna be perfect, but I am trynna be principled.

#nc #midterms #ncconstitutionalamendments #voteHellNah @ncfamilies4publicschools by @yondaproject

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4 days ago

Sunday Sept 27th // REAL Talk at @shrineoftheblackstar with @bookerbbbrown //

Clear: Cultural Work is a part of my work. There are ways life shows us new versions of ourselves and I have to say, organizing with the brothas of BMB on the cusp of becoming a parent was a major evolution for me. Inside and outside. I’m most grateful for the community we’ve built here, the cultural workers and artists and, wild enough, how many present black fathers I’ve met and get the opportunity to walk alongside. This opportunity to chop it up with brotha Mark Anthony Neal confirmed I’m right where I need to be on this journey. Thank you.

Thank you to @bbennettweston for hearing that podcast in May and sayin, “BMB should connect with MAN. Sounds like yall are doing similar things!” It was at that meeting that he gave us the early copy of his upcoming book. And here we are!

Big shoutouts to @djuan____ for seeing the need to give brotha MAN his flowers and celebrate his new book, Save a Seat for Me: Notes on American Fatherhood here in Durham. Righteous work. Thank you to @diaslight333 for the glorious works being made in the space and for all of the pre, day of, and post-event work to make the space what it needed to be to hold the people.

To @shambomedina , thank you for answering the call to lead us in ritual to bring in the names of the fathers and parents we have lost. It’s not a small thing to commemorate our people and you did so beautifully. Thanks brotha.

Brotha comrade @studiophill_ pulled up and gathered some images for us, honored all requests and made sure we were good with where we landed. That’s the work.

Cultural workers are needed now more than ever. What’s happening in Durham is special. What’s happening now is necessary for us to be building a bigger Blacker future.

Thank y’all for all the support and love shown, peace to @blackmenbuildnc and all other friends and comrades who pulled up, gave feedback and notes for making the next ones even better. Catch the next one with Elder Eddie Swan in the coming weeks! by @yondaproject

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12 days ago

(Captions change as you swipe. Read as you can)

Regrowth, reclamation : nature // notes on plants and beings.

my family has been moving through phase one of our land preservation journey. Couple more steps to go on the legal + genealogy side. This has brought me to two things: 1. I want to do a whole lot more of this heirs property family organizing work in this next phase of my life. Maybe I can invent a line of purpose for myself and reuse these workshops and facilitations with other families. Highly interested in skill sharing or swaps.

2. The Land is growing up. That’s what we say. What I’ve mostly been sitting with is whether the land is growing up or if the Land is reclaiming what someone long before us changed about it. Like maybe what’s growing is thriving actually bc we’re not keeping our hands in it or on it. And that’s not a bad thing though it could mirror similar outcomes as neglect or a lack of care. I’ll sit with that on my own.

Anyway, visited the Land this weekend and I’m learning more from it than anything. The man we rent some land to farms soybeans. I wonder what that’s doing to the soil. We have good ground here. Ground that the forestry service says could yield 96 foot pines. Given most people on my maternal side of the family are under 6 feet tall, that’s more than 16 of me or 17+ of Them standing on our own shoulders. That’s magical.

This is the Family Tree. My great great uncle and aunt are buried right here. Their graves need marking and clearing out. Workday soon come. @michelleisrizin taught me that bc of the roots of trees, if we can touch the tree we can maintain a touch to our ancestors buried there. 🪄

Ole poke berry bush . Those berries are powerful I heard if taken in small doses. Poke salad here and there.

Just look for the bright red plant.

Morning glory. Also medicinal, ancient uses. Gotta test. Grab the seeds they said. Smash down the flowers for pain. Dry the flowers for tea and calm. And divination. It’s power in dere!

More morning glory. What a beauty.

Thanks to @countrygentlemancooks we now know this is Ground cherry. Random. In the center of the path. Multiple growths. My assumption is someone grew these by @yondaproject

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15 days ago

(new caption on each photo, read as you can) // The preparation for the discussion with @bookerbbbrown about his new book, Save a Seat for Me: Notes on American Fatherhood, made me reflect a lot about what it meant to come to an understanding of what a father is supposed to be. I think a lot about my formation of understanding parenting by being parented. Cuz if nobody told you, we’re all just old ass kids. Anyway, I think about my toddler. And how at 2.5 she remembers a lot. This first photo is of me and my Pops. I imagine I was my kid’s age. And I don’t remember it. I don’t remember my dad much at all before high school. Except that one time I think he was abt to go off again. Maybe bc trauma, or drive bys, or the gigantic number of people in my family being impacted by the state via prison. This meant I have a void around fathering. Idk what that was and don’t really know what it is. But came to learn it through the other Black men in my life. Father figures. Tv. Movies. The James Avery’s of the world. Now though, as I’m developing a relationship with my own father, I have great respect for the current attempt tho the shame or guilt or lessons learned the hard way must stick to you like hot grits.

I had 6 great great uncles. All but one lived up Riddick Town. Through each of them I learned so much..maybe too much. Western tv shows. Gardening. Shelling peas. How to crack pecans between your palms. How to ring a chicken’s neck. How to be silent. How to scare people. How to shoot. How to resolve conflict by shooting at others. How to talk fire out of burns. How to lie. How to get ya ass whooped for calling somebody a lie. How to wear too much cologne. How to like girls. How to talk to women. How to be a man. How to walk like one. How to fight like one. How not to be. How not to treat women. How not to treat kids. How not to be around kids. How not to drink. How not to smoke cigarettes. How not to lie. How not to get your ass whooped.

My great great uncles represented a league of men I was both terrified of and also in admiration at how they talked. Cussing and shit became a rites of passage. I loved them regardless

I didn’t understand how great great granda by @yondaproject

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18 days ago

I’m not calling them the Cornell nothing. Call them what they are. Prolly gone be censored here but it is what it is. by @yondaproject

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20 days ago

1. ancestral covering.

Between migraine breaks I get to reflect on time in Richmond. Went to a concert, roll mostly filled with photos of trees. It be like that. Here’s some of my faves from August’s black and white. Focused on size and shadows.

#minoltax700 #kodaktmax100 // expired 2013. +1.

// are “broad” streets unique to southern states?

NoName at Richmond Jazz & Music festival. She can rap.

Mic on.

@bbennettweston / vendors market. (Our people ALWAYS gone sell a shea butter)

copaganda // this metal work was at first a face installed on a side of a blank building to me til i looked on the map and saw its a cop credit union. Yikes.

Black people and a shade tree. A love story.

Leon thomas. // rockstar.

the quirk. Beautiful hotel.

Him. Him. Him.

shadow work.

Maymont mansion. It’s privately owned, not public 😭.

can’t see the forest for the trees??)) by @yondaproject

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a month ago

Black People. Black August. We here.
All grabbed on the #MinoltaX700 and #reflxlab800t // was worried about daytime shooting but I kinda dig.

@moochola // in motion, havin motion. Same thang.

Revolutionary Love // @blkltn // “train up a child in the way they should go…so that when they’re older they’ll be ready to set us free as we should be!” – Book of Black Power Chapter 1 verse 12

👁️ SeeU. Willie Two Watches. One of em my granddaddy’s.

Do ya @hommewrk //

Black August // angela Davis // august 7th, 1970, 17 year old Jonathan Jackson ran up in the Marin County Courthouse to free the Soledad Brothers. One of which was his brother, the dragon 🐉 George Jackson. Angela Davis was hunted down by the state bc of her connections to Jonathan and George, and bc the [redacted] Jonathan used were in her name. Honor the freedom fighters.

10 years later. @bbennettweston

Youth: “You ain’t trynna take our picture tho!” *walking by*
Me: “Who?! shiiiid. Come on. Let’s go! But I can’t show it to you cuz it’s film.”
Them: “What that mean?!”
Me: “It just means it’s old school. I take the picture and gotta develop it but I can tag you when it’s done.”
Them: “Bet.”

mirfrmda919._
@allah_b7

// Working on framing. But can blackness be “captured” perfectly?!

Resident Young Nobleman @uncle_kette
I ❤️ Black People

King Kenny @k.b.j_

🍊Nike air max safari orange.
Teal pencil suit shorts 🩳
Preciate you @uncle_kette

Brother friend! @huddlespeak

All People of African Descent // we Africans 101.

Balls of light.
800 tungsten is the way to go. 🎞️

Me: “How’s it feel to have YOUR photo taken?”
Dare: “Weird.”

// Much gratitude to brotha @darethechronicler for capturing Black people across the diaspora at @blackaugustnc for the last decade and then some. Here’s a photo of him with his beautiful archival work aka the book you all need to buy. 🫡 by @yondaproject

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a month ago

We celebrated @yondaproject’s birthday a couple weeks ago and had such a good time with so many people who love him at our family friendly fete. We told people to put their sh*t on and they rose to the occasion!

Ever the Leo, Q wanted to have an outfit contest and @camilledenise came through with big Leo energy and took home the win!

Q also loves cookies so I enlisted our neighbor-friend @samanthaadei who made, not one, but three different types of cookies!

@hyltondaniel_shortstays provided the perfect location for our gathering and an overnight stay for the two of us.

@photosbydaffodyl captured everything beautifully.

Always grateful for our community. Can’t wait to host something again soon 💕 by @yondaproject

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2 months ago

August has been full of it. The good stuff. Family, friends, comrades, celebration. All the stuff that reminds me that I’m alive.

Thanks to cousin @mrcutright for grabbing these first photos, to good music, to good people, to wearing ya good clothes!

Slide 3-Until: 📸 Minolta X-700 on Cinestill 800T Color 🎞️

PS: Shoutout to @cobblestore vintage for having film on deck that saved me from crashing out bc I left my low light film at home 😭. by @yondaproject

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2 months ago

Each year is just an attempt. From gathering, to walking gardens where our first date went down, to a rites of passage with the Guys™️, finishing up Harm Free Zone…I’m trying to be more present with my life and being quiet enough to notice changes and shifts and new ideas. Summer been on it. 🫡

📷 Minolta X-700
🎞️ on Kodak T-Max 100 // expired 2013 (learning that I needed to overexpose more than a stop for contrast, a few came out totally white. Mistakes are good opportunities.

#filmphotography #minoltax700 #kodaktmax100 by @yondaproject

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2 months ago