In 2020, as we enclosed ourselves to protect ourselves and others from the ravages of Covid-19, I noticed for the first time in a long time the resonant chorus of birdsong. Without the sound and smog of vehicles, the natural world around us began to sing more loudly. As I discovered through a conversation between Krista Tippett and sound ecologist Gordon Hempton on the radio programme On Being, the return of birdsong – to the world around us and to our consciousness – is much more than something beautiful to listen to: humans have evolved to not only detect the faintest birdsong in the distance, but to move in its direction because birdsong is the primary indicator of habitats prosperous to our survival. 

But the birds of our ancestors sang in a very different jungle. The concrete jungles we inhabit now are increasingly inhospitable to our survival. And as malakaï sargeant explores with me today, tapping into and utilising the ancestral and evolutionary wisdom within us is urgent work. What else do we know? In order for us to survive and to do for others what our ancestors have done for us, malakaï says we must continue to dream outside the carceral geographies of the cities we can feel trapped in. To help themself and others do this, malakaï does dream-enabling work creating and holding space for queer Black creative expression in the arts. From theatre-making to artistic direction, poetry and performance, malakaï enables art that not only challenges the carceral limitations of our world, but which offers what Katherine McKittrick might call “liberatory clues”.

I caught up with malakaï ahead of their pilgrimage to Jamaica where they reconnected with their liveliness through a closer proximity to land and lineage; and our conversation today is one of diasporic tensions, cultural knowledge, queerness as cosmic and ancestral gift – and how malakaï knows they sparkle when they sleep.

This conversation was made possible with funding from the AZ Creative Fund.

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About Busy Being Black

Busy Being Black is an exploration and expression of quare liveliness and my guests are those who have learned to live, love and thrive at the intersection of their identities. Your support of the show means the world. Please leave a rating and a review and share these conversations far and wide. As we continue to work towards futures worthy of us all, my hope is that as many of you as possible understand Busy Being Black as a soft, tender and intellectually rigorous place for you to land. 

Thank you to our funding partner, myGwork – the business community for LGBT+ professionals, students, inclusive employers and anyone who believes in workplace equality. Thank you to my friend Lazarus Lynch for creating the ancestral and enlivening Busy Being Black theme music. Thank you to Lucian Koncz and Stevie Gatez for helping bring new Busy Being Black artwork into the world.

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