On Belonging

Two moss loving friends talk about being moms who make art with community as a way to cultivate connections in a world that aims to divide us. carla and Jamie-Leigh also dive into feeling-thinking together about what each discovered in themselves while making On Belonging— ending with an invitation to you, the listener, to reflect on what it means to belong. 

Support our Work

Patrick Pouponneau joins Jamie-Leigh in conversation to explore ideas around place-based belonging within diasporic identity, carrying our ancestors with us as a tool for healing, and how being Black in really White places can hinder the process. A conversation which ultimately inspired Patrick to write a powerful poem to further explore his own connection to belonging, which is also featured in this audio story.

Support our Work

In this story, rowan ewanyshyn reads a timeline bending narration that blurs the lines of life and death to bring us closer to ancestors known and unknown. Painting vivid scenes of memories, visions, and dreams, we explore rowan’s own turbulent path towards healing ancestral pain woven with threads of softening masculinity, embracing grief, and ultimately finding belonging amidst the uncertain. 

Support our Work

Elia, who grew up in Lebanon, takes us on a profound journey across lands, cultures, and into liminality— both the in-between and the periphery— where he feels belonging has the potential to be more generative. Through the lens of radical histories and cultural studies, Elia discusses a myriad of topics and ideas, such as: languages, autism, social constructs, whiteness, diaspora connections, some current passions, and more. Throughout this impassioned narration, Elia encourages us to be with the many unknowns as we embrace the impermanence of everything— including the dominant and violent structures we are up against— creating better futures together.

Support our Work

Webs of Connectivity begins with a poetic narration by Sophie and then flows into a deep conversation with carla.  Sophie speaks to the importance of making and unmaking worlds within a practice of presence, and shares some potential pathways towards opening ourselves up to surprises within every moment or interaction so we can deepen our innate belonging. She also points to the very real horrors that lurk within the realities of Empire and our complicated identities, in particular whiteness. Woven throughout, Sophie offers vital reflections and a sense of comfort as many of us set out to (re)discover our often fractured connections across all time — including with our ancestors, our more than human kin, and throughout landscapes.

Ancestors of Place is Dani’s beautiful and ghostly pilgrimage across lands and water, weaving together an intricate tapestry of what it means to explore ancestry and belonging amidst fractured histories, colonialisms, patriarchy, and capitalism — while searching for a deeper sense of home.

April joins carla and Jamie-Leigh in a joyful conversation about broadening our perspectives of what ancestry can be, and who and what it includes. They discuss the potential of technology to facilitate connections, as well as a need for grounding amongst/within the more-than-human kin around us. Exploring these expansions of radical ancestry as a way to create more harmonious and just futures.

This story opens with a dreamy narration by Coulee Ross that moves into a conversation between Coulee and Jamie-Leigh. Through auditory exploration, Coulee lands us in a world where all beings inherently belong. In the follow up conversation, they look at how ongoing colonialism challenges the narrative of belonging and how reciprocity and kinship are salves we can use across time and space.

Grounding in land, ceremony, and ancestry, Klee narrates a poetically powerful and honest story, one that brings us to the root of this conversation about belonging. In Klee’s words: “for Mother Earth to flourish, settler failure is necessary.” Moving beautifully  between genres, Klee’s words are medicine — an offering to move us towards deepening mutuality and collective liberation.

*

Klee Benally passed peacefully on Dec. 30, 2023.

As we collectively grieve, please keep Klee’s powerful messages traveling. keep them radical. and celebrate Klee’s ferocity for destroying colonialism & his love for mutuality.

Donate to Klee's kin and projects

Rest in Fierce Love, Klee.