The Edges in the Middle, II: Báyò Akómoláfé and V
Photo: Portal with a decorated door; Courtesy of Nairaland.
Continuing the conversation series, “The Edges in the Middle,” presented in collaboration with UC Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute, For The Wild is delighted to share Báyò Akómoláfé in conversation with V (formerly known as Eve Ensler, playwright, author, and founder of V-Day and One Billion Rising).
Speaking on the theme “The Promise and Limits of Restitution: Returning to ‘Congo,’” Báyò and V dance together in a conversation that shows us portals of possibility that edge us towards deep change. Discussing the Congo as both place and portal, Báyò and V open up their connections to the place– specifically focusing on V’s work with City of Joy, a transformational leadership community for women survivors of violence, located in Bukavu, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Together, Báyò and V contemplate the persistent and fugitive glimmer of possibility within trauma and repression. Reckoning with trauma is a life’s work. We have never been unbroken, and yet we must ask how we might become the architect of our stories, how we might dive into the alchemy of apology. As we pay slow, deep attention and care to unraveling and processing our stories, how might we create the sacred space from which movement and growth may flow?
“It is a portal. It is an opening that has grown out of people’s non-reliability of those structures, but turning inward to themselves and each other to create a new paradise, a new world, in the midst of what has collapsed.”
“The Edges in the Middle” is a series of conversations between Báyò Akómoláfé and thought companions like john a. powell, V, Naomi Klein, and more. These limited episodes have been adapted from Báyò’s work as the Global Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley's Othering & Belonging Institute. In this role, Báyò has been holding a series of public conversations on issues of justice and belonging for the Institute's Democracy & Belonging Forum, which connects and resources civic leaders in Europe and the US who are committed to bridging across difference to strengthen democracy and advance belonging in both regions and around the world. Báyò's conversations encourage us to rethink justice, hope, and belonging by sitting amidst the noise, not trying to cover it up with pleasant rhythms. To learn more about the Democracy & Belonging Forum, visit democracyandbelongingforum.org.
Describing The Edges in the Middle, Báyò writes, “These explorations are not ‘safe’. These encounters will probably be offensive (we hope they are). This is not a preaching to the choir. This is a jumping-off-from-tightropes into potentially risky and emancipatory waters. This is a material inquiry of the unsayable, a leaning into the places we are not supposed to go to, a reconsideration of the ordinary, and a refusal to reify anything touched as finished, declared, transmitted, or final. As a ritual of inquiry at the end of the world, this is a material-discursive-pedagogic attempt at breaking through the sensory monoculture of compliance and cyclicity. Most importantly, this is a call for you to create-destroy with us, to with-ness, to greet more-than-human entities, to be pierced through, to be undone.” With this, we encourage you to listen to these conversations with curiosity and open exploration. How might we grow from challenge, from inquiry? What might the trickster bring to the table?
♫ The music featured in this episode is “Yes Yes Forward” and “92 Roses” by Sitka Sun, generously provided by The Long Road Society Record Label.
Photo of Báyò Akómoláfé
Photo of V
Episode References
Ebos Landing - New Georgia Encyclopedia
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Reckoning by V
The Apology by V
Othering & Belonging Institute
Reading Recommendations
The Edges in the Middle Series
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