Amoke Kubat
Amoke Kubat is a HeARTIST* and Spiritual Culture Bearer, who remains curious about self, the natural world, and the Sacred. She reclaims an African Indigenous Spiritual sensibility to reconnect herself and Black people to Earth and Water, as practice for holistic wellness.
Self-taught, she uses artmaking (weaving, dollmaking and clay) and writing; essays, short stories, poems, and plays, to continue to define herself and hold a position of wellness in an America sick with inequalities and inequities. Her plays, ANGRY BLACK WOMAN & Well Intentioned White Girl and Old Good Kit Kat and Good Old Kit, speak to this.
Amoke is the creator of YO MAMA’s The Art of Mothering Workshops and YO MAMA’s House Cooperative. YO MAMA’s philosophy and practice is to empower mothers by disrupting the devaluation of women’s visible and invisible labor and increasing the recognition of the ART of Mothering and to grow mothers as artists, activists and healers.
(*Open Heart centered artwork.)
Interview Transcription:
SPEAKERS
Molly Joyce, Amoke Kubat
Molly Joyce 00:00
So the first question is, what is resilience for you?
Amoke Kubat 00:13
Oh, I guess for me, I think I'm a very resilient person. I've always been able to access resources and get my needs met fairly well, independently and interdependently. I know a variety of people, I think people that are the most human resources is a gift and the treasure that people often not tap into having relationships, interpersonal relationships, having relationships that go beyond transactional, I think gives me my, the resources in the sense of I can do or it can be done, which makes me really resilient. I've had a lot of things in my life that I think other people will probably lay down and just die. But I've always like, there's some curiosity, there's some hardheadedness, there's just as real and stamina that continues regardless. So being resilient is being able to access what you need to keep going and to, for me to to go on a level that has quality and dignity.
Molly Joyce 01:29
The second question is, what is isolation for you?
Amoke Kubat 01:34
I isolate a lot. So isolation to me is, is, is somehow being not part of the crowd not being part of the herd, maybe self exiling, or for some reason, you've just been axed out. You have not been able to find your tribe, you're more comfortable. Alone in isolation, being by yourself being alone. I think a lot of people become isolation, I feel isolated, because they don't feel it's their choice. I self isolate a lot. I just know, I'm an introvert. And after a while, it's like, you know what, I feel like the hall the life has been sucked out of me, I need to take a step back. So I do that quite often. And it really enjoy being by myself. So I don't isolate a lot, I feel isolated. Because there's something I'm not able to give to myself something I'm not able to solve for myself. There's a need, there's a warrant that I can't satisfy or fulfill. So I might feel a little isolated around that. But most of the point I pretty much you know, I pretty much have a network of people that somebody is available 24/7. There's a book there's a video, there's a film, there's an inspiration coming somewhere, I have my shrines. I have my faith, so I never feel too isolated. Definitely, really on the introverted level. Yeah, I've, I'm definitely introverted. And I also feel a deeper connection to just not just people but I feel like I'm a part of everything I I've had experience once were that this kind of came to me I was actually I uses float to flotation tanks. And it's a sensory deprivation situation. And in that first time I did it. I mean, I didn't know you know, you're enclosed in this small capsule. And it's, you're floating. I mean, maybe 12 inches of water that has a lot of you're very buoyant because of the salt in it. So I guess that was my first realization is, hey, I'm floating. And then the second one was, what's that noise, and the noises were one my heartbeat and one of my breathing. So once a heartbeat and reading became instinct, I had a sense of expansion. And I felt like something else was, was expanding. And I was shrinking. But I had this real clear sense of wherever I was, I was part of it. I was very small. But I was part of something that was huge and wonderful and magnificent. And I've never forgotten that. I've never forgotten so when I'm little feeling maybe that isolation, I feel like I need to tap back into that energy. So that's, you know, either prayers or going to the lake or watching animals or reading a good movie by nature or just talking to with a friend like hey, this is what I'm feeling. That's kind of works works for me.
Molly Joyce 04:37
And the third question is, what is connection for you?
Amoke Kubat 04:46
Ah, connection is knowing is you're just the center of the universe. I think I heard there was six degrees of separation between people. I think it's like one or two. Now I really think it's that's shrinking I think we have, although we did continue, like we've liked these pods and these, these these silos that we put ourselves in, we're really not. I mean, I'm always amazed that I know somebody that I think doesn't know 10 people that I know somebody else. I've given parties where there's 60 people in the room, and I realize none of these people would know each other, if it wasn't for me. So I've connected all these people that would never have the opportunity to be around each other. And they find out they like each other, they enjoy each other they're really aware of I wouldn't see I wouldn't talk to this person and they're walking down the street. I've said the same thing. I wouldn't even really sit out. No, that's not true. I do talk to people walking down the street. I'm curious. I'm very curious about people. So my curiosity gets contagious. And it's like, I connect people I am a connector. I've always like, Oh, you need to talk to this person. Or let me speak up with this person. Or, you know, when here's this person, I'm always connecting people. I don't I don't believe that we're really divided. I think we've become timid or awkward. Some some for some reason, but we and we were afraid that we're going to make mistakes. We're afraid we're very conscious of being perfect. And we're not perfect. Nobody is definitely creative, embarrassing ourselves. Oh, I embarrass myself all the time. So at this point, I mean, I've looked at some of the things that didn't say what was I thinking? Why did I was in the moment of whatever it was?
Molly Joyce 06:42
And the last question is, what is darkness for you?
Amoke Kubat 06:46
I thought that was your most interesting question. Because we live in a we live in a culture where darkness is "Ooh, spooky and evil and crazy" and whatever darkness is. You know, I don't believe darkness is the absence of light, I think even in darkness you see swirls in color you see? Darkness. It's not a word I use. I don't ever think of darkness as negative. I like darkness of possibilities of that. What you don't know, the unknown. And I don't have a problem with what you don't know. You don't know everything. I mean, you know what, you know, you know what you don't know and then there's this kind of area of you don't know what you don't know. So you got you don't know that till you get to it. You know, so I don't a darkness is a strange word. For me. It's like, I think people think of the means in the absence of light. It's you know, it's black. It's it's dark, dark brown. It's dirt. It's the hidden it's what's not seen. It's the mysteries.