"The Well" by brontë velez /186
Lead to Life Oakland Ceremony; Photo by Ayse Güröz.
Over the years, For The Wild community has been blessed many times by the scholarship and poetry of brontë velez. Through their word, we have been summoned to surrender, to imagine future worlds, and to embody the revolution. If you have had the pleasure of listening to brontë, For The Wild is asking you to give generously to them and their organization, Lead to Life, to support their divine, healing, and liberatory work.
Through their work, brontë reminds us that “Black wellness is the antithesis to state violence” (Mark Anthony Johnson) and during these times of great transformation and tension, we must prioritize Black wellness and communal care. Financial resources given to Lead to Life will fund their rapid response work; a summer healing series led by Black healers for the Black community, care packages for mothers whose children have been murdered by the police, ongoing trauma stewardship programs focused on nature connection and expressive art therapy for families who are survivors of police and state violence, and more.
We are asking our listeners who have believed in brontë’s musings as a guiding light, to support Lead to Life’s work as an investment towards the world we so desperately need, as well as an act of reciprocity for those who have richly given to our imaginations and hearts.
As inspiration for giving, we present brontë’s prophecy “The Well”, written by brontë velez. Initially aired on For The Wild Podcast Episode 139, The Pleasurable Surrender of White Supremacy [Part One], this prophecy was written by brontë velez and originally recited by brontë velez, jazmín calderón torres, and Liz Kennedy of Lead to Life and Ra Malika Imhotep, co-founder and co-convener of The Church of Black Feminist Thought, with musical accompaniment by Jiordi Rosales at Lead to Life’s public alchemy ceremony in 2019, where community gathered in front of Oakland City Hall on the 10th year anniversary of Oscar Grant’s passing to melt guns into the shape of the constellations strung above Oscar Grant the night he was murdered by BART police in Oakland, California.
Give in gratitude directly to brontë through their Venmo @bronte-velez or directly to Lead to Life by becoming a monthly member of their alchemist guild, or through a one time donation and ensure that Lead to Life meets their $25,000 goal by Juneteenth “in support of Black life, Black joy, and Black healing.”
“This is not our apocalypse, we have come to lay white supremacy to rest. This is not our apocalypse, my people are free. This is not our apocalypse, we have come to lay patriarchy and greed to the ground. This is not our apocalypse, we are giving it back over to the soil to do their work. This is not our apocalypse, we are just offering the eulogy. This is not our apocalypse, we are the doulas.”
brontë velez by Andre D. Wagner
brontë velez (they/them) is guided by the call that “black wellness is the antithesis of state violence” (Mark Anthony Johnson). black-latinx transdisciplinary artist and designer, they are currently moved and paused by the questions, “how can we allow as much room for god to flow through and between us as possible? what affirms the god of and between us? what is in the way? how can we decompose what interrupts our proximity to divinity? what ways can black feminist placemaking rooted in commemorative justice promote the memory of god, which is to say, love and freedom between us?”
they relate to god as the moments of divine spacetime that remind us we are not separate, the moments that re-belong us to the earth. they encounter these questions in public theology, black prophetic tradition & environmental justice through their eco-social art praxis, serving as creative director for Lead to Life design collaborative, media director for Oakland-rooted farm and nursery Planting Justice, and quotidian black queer life ever-committed to humor & liberation, ever-marked by grief at the distance made between us and all of life.
Lead to Life is transforming weapons into shovels for tree planting ceremonies at sites that have been impacted by violence or carry spiritual significance across Atlanta (occupied lands of the Cherokee and Creek people) and Oakland (occupied lands of the Ohlone people.)
Inspired by Mexican artist Pedro Reyes and an ancient lineage of Swords to Plowshares creators, we choose to locate our alchemy and cultural healing work in the US (occupied Turtle Island).
For The Wild is a slow media organization dedicated to land-based protection, co-liberation, and intersectional storytelling. We are rooted in a paradigm shift away from human supremacy, endless growth, and consumerism. As we dream towards a world of grounded justice and reciprocity, our work highlights impactful stories and deeply-felt meaning making as balms for these times.