Original subtitles

This was real special. I'm glad I could bring you for it. Okay?

Say your name.

And look at what is present here today.

In this hallway, we sense temporal entanglement

and recursion.

Stop it!

The overlapping and intimate lives

of the residents of the tenement...

...and of all those who will reside in its future.

In the 1960s and 1970s...

...there began a movement

known as land art,

where an artist would incorporate land and landscapes

as part of their work of art.

Rooted in a desire to make art, not commerce,

land art was often colossal yet simple,

also known as Earth Works.

It expanded the boundaries of the form

by using commonplace materials

such as soil, rocks, vegetation, and water.

The sites are usually difficult to reach,

requiring commitment from visitors

to experience their potency.

There's a section in the middle of the Atlantic

covering 300 square miles, dubbed the Resonance Field.

♪ I can't get enough Told you I just... ♪

Excuse me, can you turn up the radio, please?

- No problem. - ♪ I can't get enough ♪

♪ You ain't been Doin' enough ♪

♪ Do you like The way it sounds? ♪

♪ So cold ♪

♪ So cold ♪

♪ It's so cold So cold, so cold ♪

♪ You could see the future There's a sparkle in your eye ♪

♪ Why you all up on my thigh? Can't let you ♪

♪ Niggas plottin' my demise I got murder on my mind ♪

♪ I got money on the line I can't lose if I tried ♪

♪ Let no bitch break my stride Chosen, I'm gon' bet on me ♪

♪ Chosen, all my shit antique Frozen, I can't feel no heat ♪

♪ Diamonds dancing on me ♪

♪ You're startin' fresh, man You fell out of pocket ♪

♪ You fucked that girl That you met at the party ♪

♪ I got some new niggas Down in the lobby ♪

♪ How can I sleep when You're out catchin' bodies? ♪

♪ I still wanna be with you ♪

♪ Trust me I know that's insane ♪

♪ I'd rather fuck on you Than fuck on lames ♪

♪ I did some shit in Berlin My moldae ♪

Excuse me, can you actually turn it down now?

I have a phone call.

Hello?

Hey, what's up?

No shit.

♪ I can see the future ♪

♪ I can see the future ♪

I just got back home.

I was on the Nautica.

I gotta write this article

about the Trans Atlantic Biennale.

I'll tell you all about it.

But I'm tired as fuck, girl. Let me call you in the morning.

I'm sorry. Can you turn it up again?

This is the last time, I promise.

Huh?

- Set. - Oh.

- You guys ready? - Yep.

Okay. And whenever you guys are ready.

This is BLK... Sorry.

This is BLKNWS. I'm Alzo Slade.

Tonight, I bring you...

...a man who all of us really want to know.

It doesn't get bigger than this tonight.

Yes, Anas. I've heard of Anas.

He's one of the finest journalists

we have in this country.

He investigates.

And he tries to bring out the truth.

People of Ghana have worked hard, like Anas,

who risked his life to report the truth.

...who disguised himself.

It doesn't get bigger than this tonight.

Welcome back to BLKNWS.

My guest today is Africa's most famous

investigative journalist.

Anas Aremeyaw Anas' extraordinary,

deep undercover work

regularly exposes

high-level corruption.

Very few people know what you look like.

Now, your disguise is often beads that cover your face.

- Correct. -Even when you're reporting on camera,

you always keep your face hidden. Why?

The nature of the work and the security implications

that come along with it

so that I would have the capacity

to tell another story tomorrow.

My journalism is people-centered.

And that's what I do.

We've done prosthetics on a number of occasions

where you would be an old man.

There are investigations that I've done,

that I'm a complete woman.

I've made good use of makeup artists,

and that enables us to change dramatically

from one shape to the other.

And recently, there's been word

of your involvement in reacquiring

a quite famous African artifact

known as the Benin Mask.

What can you tell us about this?

Well, I cannot confirm any involvement at this time,

but I can tell you a story.

In 1977, the renowned poet Nobel Laureate,

Wole Soyinka...

He attempted to steal the original Benin Mask

ahead of the Festac, Festival of Arts and Culture,

which was using a replica of the mask

as the official emblem.

Wole managed to get a private escort

to the secret room where the mask was being held,

and he managed to walk away with the mask

hidden under his jacket.

Only later to discover the mask was also a replica.

Now, what I do know,

what I can confirm from my sources, of course,

is that this mask that has gone missing

from the British Museum is no replica.

My name is Omar.

Ooh.

Senegal, Dakar...

Have you tried the rum?

- Not bad. - Mmm.

-I'm Shayla, by the way. -Omar.

How long have you been working on Nautica?

I've been working on the ship for two years now.

- Two years? - Yes, it's two years.

Where are you from?

Dakar. You ask a lot of questions.

Sorry, sort of my job.

I'm a journalist.

What kind of reporting do you do?

Mostly arts and culture.

But lately, I've been doing a lot of... profiles.

I just covered the dethroning of the British Royal Family.

This was the moment Britain had been waiting for,

and they packed the pubs.

Millions of televisions in millions of homes

were tuned in.

Wild.

Back at it again at Krispy Kreme.

- Sarah. - Who is Chaka Khan?

No.

-And that's on BLKNWS. -And that's on BLKNWS.

Dive into this world of different colors.

And I saw the world in a different way.

And so I see things that other people do not.

How do you get there?

...everybody is kicking up?

The only way out is in.

Breathe.

You got your lunch in that box?

Nope, not my lunch.

I got my books. You wanna see?

Books? Yeah. Okay.

The Souls of Black Folk.

I read that, too. Where'd you get that?

From Miss Andrews, my teacher.

I didn't read all of it yet, but I plan to.

Got time.

♪ My love's so bold ♪

♪ This ring that I hold ♪

-♪ I give to you ♪ -♪ To you ♪

♪ With love ♪

♪ I walk up To the preacher man ♪

♪ Just to take Your lovely hand ♪

- ♪ And give to you ♪ Going into archives,

what one finds

is the incompleteness of the archive.

-♪ That's what I ♪ -One continually

confronts the necessity

of-- of supplementing the historical record...

♪ That's what I learned ♪

...which is often

not just incomplete but-- but repressive.

The record is replete with all these words

that don't correspond to the situation.

Go!

The story of the Nautica begins

with Jonah Wells,

the best-kept secret in the Mississippi steamboat industry.

He earned the name by designing an auger

that halved the time it took to dig a well in 1792.

Over the next several years, his master, John A. Quitman,

maintained a healthy side business loaning Jonah out

to his Natchez, Mississippi, neighbors.

One day, Quitman received a visit from a boatman

raving about how Wells' suggestions

had significantly improved his steamboat's

power-to-weight ratio.

Though unlettered, Jonah's engineering genius

extended far beyond well-digging.

And on that night in 1809...

...the Mississippi River Boat Company was born.

And for the next 100 years,

the Wells family knack was at its heart.

Ibrahim Chester Wells

joined this proud, yet shrouded, legacy

on April 25, 1895,

from the shop floor of the MRC.

Wells' world was disrupted in 1917

when Woodrow Wilson declared the United States' entry

into World War I.

And Ibrahim, then 22, enlisted in the Navy.

After the war, Ibrahim stayed in Washington, DC,

and enrolled in Howard University

as a mechanical engineering student

for the spring semester of 1919.

The following summer, Ibrahim purchased

a one-way ticket to Harlem, New York...

...to attend Marcus Garvey's convention

of the Universal Negro Improvement Association.

Garvey, the founder and first President-General of the UNIA,

advocated for Black separation

and pushed supporters to return to Africa

in order to form self-governing Black nations

on the continent.

He'd even begun acquiring ships

operated under the name Black Star Line

with the intention of providing transport

to those wishing to make the journey.

Thousands lined the streets of Harlem to see Garvey speak.

Lottie Selene Davis, a native of Biloxi, Mississippi,

also traveled to New York to see the parade.

Ibrahim and Lottie would be married six weeks later.

Welcome onboard the Nautica,

the only company in the world with direct routes

from West Africa to the Caribbean and Brazil.

Whether this is your first, 10th, or even 20th

cruise with us,

our friendly staff, crew,

and officers are here to help

as you get to know Nautica, your home away from home.

The sea made me immediately feel at home.

I really didn't know what to expect. Eh--

You know, I had these, like, crazy images,

and then when I came, it was just--

it was like, "Wow, a whole new world."

Once again, thank you for joining us.

Have a wonderful journey.

Please welcome on board

those passengers that have

just boarded

here in Garveyville, Jamaica.

As we finish up the boarding process,

we will begin our preparations for our departures

and our transatlantic journey.

For all those

on this ship, welcome.

We will be departing for Accra

in approximately one hour.

Hi. Um...

can I speak to Funmilayo Akechukwu?

Um, her office was supposed to contact me.

I'm a journalist.

I'm sorry. Funmilayo is

unavailable for the time being.

There's been an urgent matter.

Is there anyone else I can talk to?

Should I wait for her here, or...?

Uh-- She's my only contact.

I'm writing a story about the art exhibition.

For the New York Times.

- Let me see what I can do. - Thank you.

Seating will be li--

Drink.

There once was a woman, enslaved woman,

born in what we now call Nigeria.

She was stolen and taken to the Americas

for a life of back-breaking labor,

a life of enclosure.

But she was one of the lucky ones.

After some time, she managed to buy her way back to Africa.

She crossed this ocean,

first in chains

and then with her freedom fully intact.

Each time she took the voyage, she listened...

...and everything these waters taught her

she passed down to her descendants,

including her granddaughter, for whom I am named

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti,

a ferocious global organizer

for equity and women's rights...

...mother of Fela Kuti...

...and aunt to Wole Soyinka.

Have you heard of her?

Um... No, I don't think so.

A journalist who is asking to speak to you.

Tell her I am unavailable.

Of course...

Thank you.

Have you seen the art on the boat?

Mm-hmm.

It's my job to put it there.

This exhibition...

...is a mix of contemporary art...

...from all over the Trans Atlantic...

...and a collection of pieces that are very old.

Artifacts that long ago

were alienated from the communities

they were intended to serve.

As they travel back to the continent

for the first time since they were stolen,

they are beginning to recalibrate.

You see, some artworks need to be fed,

each in their own way.

All of those lessons that that woman

passed down from the waters to her descendants...

...they suggest that there is a section in the ocean.

A resonance field.

I'm glad you're here.

I believe you and your grandmother

were meant to join us on this journey.

I wish you both well...

...in this life...

...your past lives...

...and the next.

Why do you love me? That's a simple question.

It is a simple question,

but it ain't a simple answer.

Uh...

...because of how you love me.

It's a very...

...uh...

Don't cry.

It's a very spiritual love.

Uh...

I've been through a lot, and, uh,

you never see me for what I've been through, you know?

You see me for the best that I give to the world

and I give to my family.

And when, uh...

...everything starts to weigh on me,

you kinda, y-- you know,

you breathe life back into me, I don't know.

That's why I love you.

I love you because you're you.

I love you because you're you...

to me, you know?

I ju-- I just love you because

you're-- you're a gift...

...that I get to experience in this life...

...until I don't anymore, until I meet you again,

and I'm the woman, and you're the man.

- Don't do that. - You know? So...

that's why I love you.

It's-- it's--

This thing was, uh--

it's God-engineering,

so... it's perfect.

- Oh, babe. - Y'all gon' make me cry.

Do you ever remember the future?

A philosopher or a scientist?

Wait, no. A mystic?

-An oceanographer. -Oh, an oceanographer.

You still haven't answered my question.

Do I remember the future?

I remember the past.

It was 1892.

I had just arrived in Philadelphia.

I was eager to begin a life work

leading to the emancipation

of the American Negro.

I believed the world was thinking wrong about race.

And I was confident I would change their mind.

I hardly knew what was important.

Do you feel safe in your body and in the street?

-Yes, I do. -So, for those of you

who are uncomfortable, who don't want to hear

a positive message...

Motherfucker just took my money.

The Boli function, not unlike nuclear reactors...

...when grounded, they gather and harness energy...

...then disperse it for the good of its people.

Boli consumed and shared the abundant life force

called nyama,

found in sacrificial materials such as animal blood,

wine, honey, kola nuts,

grains and vegetables.

And she was rude for the-- Watch it!

...morning process.

We will begin our preparations

for our departure

And our transatlantic voyage,

and to our final destination

in Africa.

For all those on the ship, welcome.

We will be departing for Africa in approximately one hour.

...Atlantic voyage, and to our final...

Think of it as a data set.

♪ Let's take a nice Deep breath ♪

♪ Now, as you can exhale ♪

♪ Respect yourself, relax ♪

♪ Relax by yourself, relax ♪

♪ Let's take a nice Deep breath ♪

- This is a very touching moment. Really touching.

♪ Were so gallantly streaming ♪

She's blowing the hell out of this.

♪ And the rockets'... ♪

She just reached down there and got it. That's it--

-Sing it, baby. Whoo! -She can sing her ass off.

I ain't bullshittin'.

Sir, I'm conducting a survey

on the Negro.

Good evening, ma'am. I'm Dr. Du Bois,

a professor at the University of Pennsylvania,

and I'm conducting a survey on Negro life in the city.

Would you mind answering a few questions?

I'm not certain what I could tell you.

I just arrived not too long ago.

Other folks could probably tell you better.

My goal is to interview everyone in the ward.

When all the stories are collected

and all the facts are gathered

I will have an accurate and complete picture

of the circumstances of Negroes in the city.

- You understand? - Yes.

Will things get better after your study?

I hope so.

Please, have a seat.

I am Sarah. This is Lady and Jacob.

Lady, this is Dr. Du Boi--

So... you're the siddity professor.

Would you like a glass of water or tea or lemonade?

A glass of water would be most welcome.

The problem lay before me.

I studied it personally and not by prox.

How many people reside in the home?

Three or four, sometimes five.

Friends stay here when they need a place,

or when we need help with the rent--

You take in lodgers?

No. Friends.

What is your relation to

the head of the household?

Head of household? That's me.

Lady is older, but I'm the one who found the place.

Age at most recent birthday?

-21. -I am 26.

Don't you wanna know about my relation to the head of the household?

He already knows.

-You're my sister-- -Sibling.

Sister.

Married, widowed, divorced, separated, single?

Separated.

I'm drifting between categories.

And do you know the whereabouts of your husband?

He might be alive or dead.

How long have you been at this residence?

Three months.

We've had to move around a lot.

Once landlords rent to Negroes,

they raise the rent and the place run down.

We had a grand row house over there at Chestnut Street,

but we grew lonely and decided to seek the company of other Negroes.

- Isn't it obvious? - -I do realize that many think

my gaze is directed at the wrong race,

- Hm... - but I do sincerely believe

that this is a chance to study Black folk.

To create a portrait of the race

that will show exactly

what our place is in the community.

The bottom.

That much is obvious.

Why? But how?

What are the plexus of social problems,

some new, some old, some simple, some complex,

that engulf Negro life.

A whole group of problems

amass around us and what do they have in common?

Where to next? The object...

So that's it? That's your grand theory,

that Negroes are plagued with problems?

Well, shit. Call me Dr. Lady.

Well... what do you propose?

We've only had a problem.

- Evil-eyed folks. - Color prejudiced?

No. Something stronger.

Hatred, it makes your skin crawl.

Makes you wonder how anyone could treat a person like that.

It touches every aspect of life, and death.

It threatens our homes, our children... our hopes.

All I needed were the facts.

I thought the scientific method

might prove robust enough

to solve the problem.

I was a fool then.

I had not read enough Marx and Freud to know better.

I visited and talked with 5000 persons.

835 hours of Negroes reflecting on their conditions.

This is the moment when the ghetto emerges.

This racialized enclosure will define Black life

for the next century.

Oh, got him! Whoo-hoo!

There's a whole fleet of 'em. Look on the ASA.

My gosh.

They're all going against the wind. The wind's 120 knots to the west.

Look at that thing, dude.

You know, art...

And I don't want to sort of, you know,

fetishize, you know, art and become patronizing

the way we become patronizing

you know, towards art and artists,

or-- it's-- it's--

It's so lovely. It's so amazing.

You know, it moves you,

changes your entire perspective,

which it does. I mean, it can,

you know? But I think it's really

to bring it down to the every day.

This space between the spectator

and the work of art is a very important one.

And I think we neglect and ignore this all the time.

It is not just simply a frontal relationship

standing between-- you know, before a picture.

You know, it's that, you know, space in between.

Oh, oh!

This art hurt me! This art sucks!

You're living a lie! This art is terrible!

BLKNWS would like to take this moment to remember the inimitable

Okwui Enwezor. Okwui is credited

with pushing the art world

to embrace an international,

and specifically African,

perspective of art and art history.

The Nigerian-born curator is known for being

the first person of African descent

to curate the Venice Biennale

and the first non-European to curate "Documenta,"

widely considered the most important art exhibition.

The Biennale, the exhibition

was also part of a process of thinking.

And this process of thinking had to do

with what one could call "the state of things."

The state of things around the world

that demanded, not only just, you know, response

but also demanded an analytical lens

through which the exhibition

can become a kind of thinking machine.

Welcome to the Shirley Du Bois suite.

Your journey to Ghana is two nights and three days.

There is one stop on your second day

in Garveyville, New Jamaica,

before heading to your final destination in West Africa.

For maximum comfort and safety,

this vessel will travel using graphene velocity

guaranteeing the safest and smoothest ride.

For travel onboard the vessel,

the extremely efficient Hyperloop tubes

are located at the end of every corridor.

A reading docent will stop by your room before departure

with a collection of the latest books,

magazines, and newspapers,

free for all passengers during the journey.

The Biennale exhibitions

are open 24 hours

and free for all passengers.

Okay, okay.

Along the coastline of the British Isles,

Lloyd's Signal Stations watch the ships of the world go by.

Big ships and little ships alike,

their movements all recorded

by the men of the signal station.

Lloyd's, of course, occupies a very important place

in the shipping world.

Important and unique.

But the members of Lloyd's don't build ships.

They don't sail ships.

They don't, as a rule, own any ships.

Lloyd's itself, as a body, does not insure,

but its members do.

A broker, also a subscriber to Lloyd's,

has been instructed, on behalf of the owners,

to insure a ship's cargo.

Before the underwriter will issue

an insurance policy on the cargo,

he must know something about

the ship carrying the cargo.

He'll look it up in the register book of

Lloyd's Register of Shipping, which classifies

all the ships of the world.

They've approved the workmanship at every stage

in the ship's construction down to the marking

of the pencil line.

Proof that when the vessel is ready

for sea, she is thoroughly reliable

and seaworthy.

Worthy of the classification given her

in Lloyd's Register...

The classification of the ship allows for a more accurate

assessment of its risk.

Twist locks physically secure goods in the hold...

...locking them to the hull and to each other.

The certification of lashing equipment

is established to ensure the value of the goods

regardless of their potential loss.

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ You are now tuned in ♪

♪ To W.E.E.D ♪

♪ I am your host ♪

♪ Mr. EZ Rider, ya dug? ♪

♪ Always rollin' up Back-to-back ♪

♪ But right now we gon' Take you on a smooth ride ♪

♪ Straight outta the 412 ♪

♪ My man Wiz Khalifa here ♪

♪ Something y'all can All sing along to ♪

♪ I be rolling, rolling ♪

♪ Riding, riding ♪

♪ Oh, so fly ♪

♪ I be so, so high ♪

♪ She say I'm that guy you wanna ♪

♪ Ride with, ride with ♪

♪ Like my car? Get inside it ♪

♪ Inside it, inside it, Inside it ♪

♪ I don't blame you, Everywhere I go ♪

♪ All them hoes act The same, too ♪

♪ I don't wanna date you ♪

♪ I just wanna take you home ♪

♪ And do somethin' grown folks Can relate to ♪

To stop the destruction of this magnificent planet,

this conference is one of the most important meetings

in history.

You have the chance

to make decisions and reach agreements

which will affect the lives of generations to come.

You are in a position of extraordinary power.

Anyway, it's great to be on

television. I'm actually shocked

'cause it ain't even near Thanksgiving.

And, uh...

Or Earth Day, that's another time they call me. Yeah...

I grew up in Oneida, Wisconsin.

You know, I could make a good living going, uh, "B27..."

For some of us, from our society,

where Christianity has intruded,

not al-- always in very positive, uh, ethical ways,

intruded for the sole purpose, very often

of preparing the way,

a kind of, eh, avant-garde for the real stormtroopers

of commerce, imperialism, colonialism,

exploitation, etc., etc.

And the history of Christianity in our society,

as you know, uh, yeah,

that's not been of the best, even till today.

The stories of survivors and the details

of the 884-page grand jury report are difficult to hear.

The two-year investigation lays out in graphic detail

allegations against...

One very important, eh, example, culturally

when the Christians came,

determined to spread the Gospel,

and they looked around, they couldn't find--

they needed the devil.

And so they took one of the deities--

Yoruba deities, Eshu, who happens to be a trickster.

You know, very complex,

but I call Eshu the master dialectician.

And he-- he can upset the best-laid plans

you know, of mice and men, and they took Eshu

and decided, "That is the devil."

And they distorted the entire ethical structure

that was based on the Yoruba pantheon,

the various deities of various departments

or existence, phenomena, conduct, relationship

on which a whole ethical structure had been built.

Soul rebel don't really mean

he gonna war with you physically.

He's warring with the other spirit.

What are the two things you would do today?

- In fact I will get-- - Then it wouldn't be money.

-What is money? -Weighed against what? Because money--

American money is weighed against what?

Gold.

You search on your internet. Check.

They don't have any.

It is just paper. It's backed up by tanks

and F-- F-15 fighters.

They have no gold.

Ain't nobody got this.

Ain't nobody got it. You ain't got it.

Yeah. I mean, you know, style.

You know...

What a prosaic term, but also a very elusive term.

Um... I do believe that style, you know,

is the resistance to confine oneself

to where...

circumstances say that you belong.

It's to go beyond that,

to live with a sense of constant affirmation of...

...with incredible...

It's-- it's in a-- is a style that really is inherent in--

in going beyond.

Here's the Rich family. What'd you think about that?

You know, style in-- in an African context

is really not homogenized.

It's so individual

in-- in the kind of conventional way in which we think about style.

It's so individual, because if you are going to--

so talk about the way you greet people to go to Bamako,

and you run into somebody on the street and, you know--

and of course, the exchange, you say hello,

and the person say hello back to you.

And they will spend the next two minutes saying hello,

asking you about each member.

Then at the end, you return the favor.

What for me is very fascinating

about that type of greeting is the-- in-- the time invested,

is the-- the-- the dimension of slowness to it.

It's not-- it's not high. You know, the dimension of slowness

and that sense, that space, between greeting

and slowing down is really incredibly attractive

in-- in a moment where, you know,

quote, unquote "time," you know, uh, is money.

There have always been...

you know, an endless number

of beautiful models

of living otherwise, right,

um... that...

...encounter defeat and then m-- must re-emerge,

you know, again, so it's not,

um, that you're, like, you know, insufficient...

What if it turns out that--

that the particular kind of history

that-- that we're tryna work through or talk about,

you know, you as a historical thinker

and me as a profoundly ahistorical kind of thinker,

you know, is-- but the particular history

that we're working through in these different ways...

...it's not even really something

that you can talk about within, again,

within a calculus of victory and defeat.

The concepts that we have been given...

...to you to talk-- you know, in order to try

to think about and talk about the stuff

we try and talk about just don't work.

You know, they're-- they're inadequate.

They're-- they're-- they're inoperative.

I mean, it might even be the case

that the concept itself

is an inadequate,

sort of mental construct,

or-- or conceptualism itself is an inadequate sort of

intellectual disposition with regard-- I mean--

What is the social poiesis

of the dispossessed?

How is it that we live these lives...

...in the context of this racialized enclosure?

It seems that we're always involved

in this incredible making of a way

where there is no way,

and rather than that be celebrated,

it's often disparaged.

Black folks...

Even just that language they...

And I was like, "Wow, what does it mean to be

so transported by the idea of freedom that

you're kind of having this ecstatic experience, right?

It's not just a past history of displacement.

It's a present history of displacement.

How do these social bonds form?

We tend to want to imagine

that these social bonds form somehow

against the grain of displacement.

What if, in fact, displacement is the condition

of these social bonds?

What if it's displacement

that makes these bonds possible?

This is the fucked up dialectic that we have to be

theorizing and experimenting about.

What if there's something about the way we dance

that bears within it a secret

about how we should live and take up space?

Or that, better put, how we should not take up space...

...but be embedded in the places that we are a part of?

With regard-- I mean, it's just like, we working on

some other kind of stuff.

You know, I have such a complex relationship

to Du Bois, you know? I mean,

uh, he's a father figure

with all the ambivalence

that the father figure, you know,

or is it-- it's both, you know, um--

you know, love and disagreement.

And I think of, you know, him in the midst

of the Seventh Ward,

um, you know, trying to describe the historical forces

that have produced his now.

Um...

One of the things that I was trying to do in the book

is that, I mean, basically, the discourse of pathology

is a way of naming

ways in which people are toppling hierarchy

and practicing otherwise in the here and now.

I mean, the-- the deviation of Black,

you know, intimate and familial life

from heteronormative family forms,

I mean, people... you know, have been doing that.

I mean, I think that that was part of the--

the concern of the Philadelphia Negro,

uh, is that, you know, after slavery, um, you know, Du Bois says that--

that the-- that the Black church is actually older

than the Black family form,

and then, what is going to be the shape that it acquires?

Is it gonna be, you know, a patriarchal family?

And what happens if it's not? And I think that what we see

is that people creating, you know,

structures of love and support

that bear no resemblance to that,

but usually that's only described as, you know,

the failure to achieve a norm...

...as opposed to being described

in the terms of what it in-- what it is.

So, I think that partly, um, attending to these lives

should make, you know, I mean, I--

I guess one of the grand ambitions, you know,

would be that, you know, people who then would suture

some notion of Black, you know,

advancement or progress or futures

to the achievement of those norms

or the actualization of that

would abandon those kinds of projects,

you know? So, it's not about...

...us kind of replicating the structures

that are, you know, harming us, right?

Um, so I think that

for me that's about thinking about that

the everyday anarchy of, you know,

Black life that people are living in ways

that are utterly recalcitrant to capitalism.

They're not thinking about well-being in these ways

that kind of, like, fetishize, you know,

private property and ownership.

And so, that's, you know, food for thought for us.

That's an example of living otherwise.

It's not about-- it's not unfolding in the future.

It's happening now, and it's how we've survived.

I have a cousin that's very sensitive

when it comes to racism.

He called me one day 'cause he was quite upset...

...that he went to a tuba recital

where he was one of only three Black tuba players.

And he thought that was racist.

And I wanted to agree.

But then, I realized...

three Black tuba players

is a lot of fucking Black tuba players.

I heard Fannie Lou Hamer on the radio...

Are you good?

Mm-hmm. What do I do?

Are you in pain?

I'll be all right.

I'll be okay. I just need to relax.

Okay.

Okay. Can you help me?

I would say to the--

the beautiful audience out here

to me this afternoon,

because I always liked people.

A couple of weeks ago, I was doing a show

in New York City, for NBC Studios on the role of a Black woman,

and somebody asked a question...

How did I feel talking to a lot of people?

I said...

Hello?

Yes.

Hi.

No, he's not.

No, he's-- he's-- he's determined to finish it.

That's what he's determined to do.

Well, you know he's stubborn.

Yeah.

I think that would be good.

But let me ask you, what, uh, was the doctor saying

about his chances, uh, you know, his age, and...?

No, I understand.

Well, that's pretty obvious, but--

but, you know, he's strong as an ox.

In that regard, he has a will.

Then let's do it.

This might be the answer, yeah.

Well, thank you.

Thank you so much. Bye-bye.

Thank you for staying with us. Now,

over the weekend,

hundreds of demonstrators

gathered in the Ghanaian capital, Accra,

for a third day of anti-government protests

linked to economic hardship.

Protestors are speaking out

against the high taxes

and cost of living.

Here to discuss some similarities

and differences found throughout the history

of strikes in Ghana

is investigator journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas.

- Great to be here. - -So, Anas, this is not

the first time

Ghanaians would be protesting

high cost of living.

We've seen that Ghana has been battling

a series of economic crises dating back

since the very birth of independent Ghana.

What can you tell me about what's at stake?

Our very livelihood is at stake.

Our well-being, our ability to survive in such circumstances...

Who is it?

It's Funmi.

More strikes. Who is it now?

The transportation workers.

striking.

Cousins, uncles, most of my family are involved.

We don't have enough money to buy basic goods because

of the new taxes on flour, sugar.

Even salt is sky high.

What scares me the most are the arrests.

Can I ask you a question?

What made you want to come here today?

To the Marcus Garvey Memorial.

That's Garvey's Pan-African flag there, is it?

-No, that's Ghana's flag. -No, I mean,

the one next to your photograph.

Ah, yes.

I never realized they were so similar.

Essentially, the same flag.

Garvey's Memorial is my favorite site in the city.

His vision of Africa was tremendous.

One million people worldwide. It's unbelievable.

The largest Black movement in world history.

He had his eye on something

they never thought to look at.

He knew the freedom America had to offer

was a freedom he didn't want.

He simply wanted a place where his body drew no questions.

A home for all Africans.

Garvey's beliefs were powerful enough

to bring him to a new home...

...even if he never set foot here.

But I have never felt so lost.

Did you know that America has refused to renew my passport?

They call me un-American.

I always imagined I'd be buried in Massachusetts.

Next to him.

I did not know you lost a son.

To lose a child is its own kind of death.

If he had lived...

...he might have looked like yours.

Oh, that's not my son.

That's my daughter. Yaya.

Yaya.

Yaya...

If you're just joining us, I've been speaking with Ernie Abara,

- Hello. -otherwise known as the Rum Tycoon.

- Thank you for having me. - - We were just

speaking about his grandmother, Yaya, and her connection

- with the Nautica, - Mm-hmm.

the famous ocean liner which houses

the Trans Atlantic Biennale.

Now, earlier, you mentioned

your father's Nigerian roots,

and I wanted to dig a little deeper.

As I understand it, your great-great-grandfather

amassed extraordinary wealth and power

- by being a slave trader. - Yes.

He captured and sold enslaved Africans

across the Atlantic,

first to the Portuguese

and then to the American traders,

with the most ending up

in Brazil.

How have you been able

to reconcile the fact that

that is how your family

made their fortune?

Or is it something that even needs

to be reconciled?

Hmm. Tsk.

You know...

...I remember asking my father one time

if he was ashamed of--

of what his grandfather had done.

Now, the fact that I even asked him

irritated my father.

He said, "I can never

be ashamed of him.

W-- Why should I be?

His business was legitimate at the time."

I mean, he was respected by everyone.

I'm just coming from an event.

Now, keep in mind that my father is a lawyer

and a human rights activist who spent much of his life

challenging government abuses in Nigeria...

Did you hear Dad on the podcast?

He talked about great Granddad

and the slave trading and all that.

And you? What do you think about

how your grandfather earned your family's fortune?

- Why do you ask that? - During my school days,

if a friend asked the meaning of my surname,

I would give them a-- a narrative instead of a translation.

He's selfish. I don't know.

I mean, he's not wrong.

But in the past decade, I felt this

growing sense of unease.

African intellectuals tend to blame the West

for the slave trade, but I knew

that white traders couldn't have loaded their ships

without the help from Africans...

...like my grandfather.

So, I-- I read arguments for paying reparations

to the descendants of, uh, American slaves.

And I wondered if...

Art will not outlive us.

This time, there will be no remains.

All that we can see from the world now...

...is the disappearance of evenings.

And in this disappearance...

...this long gray, blue light...

...this poet's recommendation...

...is to each night dwell on this...

...and dwell on each "not whereness,"

"not thereness."

And I can only recommend the interstices...

Waves that occur in the wake of the ship

move at the same speed of the ship.

From at least the 16th century onward,

a major part of the ocean engineering of ships

has been to minimize the bow wave...

...and therefore to minimize the wake.

But the effect of trauma is the opposite.

It is to make maximal the wake.

It's likely, then, that those Africans thrown overboard

would have floated just a short while

and only because of the shapes of their bodies.

It's likely, too,

that they would have sunk

relatively quickly...

...and drowned relatively quickly as well.

And then there were the sharks that always traveled

in the wake of slave ships.

The amount of time

it takes for a substance to enter the ocean

and then leave the ocean is called residence time.

Human blood is salty,

and sodium has a residence time

of 260 million years.

There've been studies done on whales that have died

and sunk to the sea floor.

These studies show that within a few days,

these whales' bodies are picked almost clean

by benthic organisms.

It's likely, then, that a human body

would not make it to the sea floor intact.

The atoms of those people who were thrown overboard

are out there in the ocean, even today.

They were eaten, organisms processed them,

and those organisms were, in turn, eaten and processed.

Nobody dies of old age in the ocean.

And what happens to the energy that's produced in the waters?

- Holy... - Oh! Oh!

Please tell me you got that, Julie.

Aah!

It is late night on the deck of the Nautica.

The full moon illuminates the passage...

...as a turbulent storm rages in the Atlantic Ocean below.

There is the hum of the ship's motor...

...and the distinct soft sounds of a jazz trio

playing in the background.

Lady leans slightly over the ship's railing

looking pensively at the ocean.

She is wearing a shimmering dress, sequins,

or perhaps something blue and luminescent.

There should be a strong visual connection

between her body and the sea.

Du Bois/Funmi steps onto the deck

a few feet from Lady.

After a minute, Du Bois turns toward Lady.

"Ruby, My Dear" concludes in the background,

and we hear faint clapping.

It's sublime.

That's one word for it.

It is so vast.

It's hard to look at this ocean without thinking about...

About crossing.

Yes.

Thankfully, it isn't exhausted

by our human history.

It's just a small part of it.

True.

So it doesn't haunt you?

No past in the present?

So, are you a historian or a sociologist?

Am I so easy to figure out?

An historical sociologist, a curator, and archivist.

History isn't the measure.

There are other calibrations...

No tidy sequence of past, present, and future.

My time scale is different.

Forget the past. Live in the now.

Celebrate the death of man.

So, am I a cliché?

An elder died on the boat in her sleep

just after we left port in Los Angeles.

Her granddaughter flew in from Ohio to identify the body.

After we spoke on the phone,

I tried to learn as much about your grandmother as I could.

She was a volunteer.

She worked in the library as an afternoon reading docent.

International protocol would have her return

with the body to California.

But the granddaughter wants her grandmother's body

to finish its voyage.

She's asleep right now in the bed

where her grandmother died fewer than two days ago.

Doctor?

Doctor.

Can I ask you a question?

What made you want to come here today?

Do you ever remember the future?

A philosopher or a scientist?

Wait, no. A mystic?

An oceanographer.

Ah! An oceanographer.

You still haven't answered my question.

Do I remember the future?

I remember the past.

That small room in Philadelphia,

the lace curtains in the window.

A porcelain cup of tea spiked with whiskey.

The long lines of your neck.

You were merciless with me. You called me a snob.

I believe the word I used was "siddity."

You remember that?

Perhaps.

She won't even give me that.

Okay.

So what do you remember about the future?

Hmm.

If you... try to hear me explain it--

You're just gonna laugh.

-Try me. -No.

Do I have to beg?

Your hand in mine.

Your white suit was almost incandescent in the sun.

You looked both young and old

at the same time.

And...

...it was almost as if the sun was arrested in the horizon...

...trapped there.

Feels like a beautiful day that would never end,

and, oh, what a beautiful day it was.

Who are you?

I'm drifting between categories.

Everybody was asleep. And now what?

Nobody was watching.

I'm talking of sleep.

Look at this beautiful woman, Sleeping Beauty.

You're sitting at the perfect table.

And just like my rum. Taste it. Taste it.

- For me? - Correct, girl.

It will clear your eye. Your eye will shine now.

You understand me?

- Mr. Abara, what you doing bothering this fine journalist? - Hey! What's the matter?

-Are you up to your old tricks again? -Tricks? Me? Hey!

Shayla, you must be starving.

Let's leave Mr. Abara to his peace.

Oh, please, my friend. You're always throwing

salt in someone's game.

I beg. You're a hostile man.

Shayla, come, dear.

...see me. They didn't want to see me.

Did you see what they were doing?

Take a seat.

Ooh.

I met chefs, poets, DJs,

artists, fighters, nurses,

hair braiders, beauticians, and college students.

That night, I met a man named Omar from Dakar,

a refugee who was rescued by the Nautica safeguard

off the coast of Senegal.

The Nautica has a program

giving refugees rescued at sea automatic asylum.

During this grace period,

which can last as long as six months,

provisional health care and education

are provided for all children.

Temporary paid work and training

are provided to all adult men and women

aboard various Nautica vessels.

That is how Omar found himself on the Nautica.

It was this encounter that would lead me down

an unexpected rabbit hole...

That is where my story begins.

One minute.

Ah-- Desmond.

- Hey, girl. - It's late.

It's the right time for this, though.

-The second? -The second one...

When the Secretary to the Treasury

in America wants money, he asks them,

"How long will it take you to print this?"

Why do you think they are having trouble with, uh--

with, uh-- with Russia?

Because Russia is buying gold,

and it is moving away from the dollar.

And China is the same. China is moving gold.

Look at the countries that have now

the largest collection of gold.

They want a currency that is backed by gold,

and Uganda has gold.

What they would do

is they would make our

currency gold.

And we have gold.

So, instead of letting this gold hemorrhage

out of the country, would get this money

and turn it into gold.

The Gold Stan--

Peking, a world-famous city,

ancient yet young,

the capital of the People's Republic of China.

This spring, we have the honor

to extend our hospitality

to Dr. William E.B. Du Bois,

eminent Negro scholar of the United States

and member of the World Peace Council,

together with his wife, the writer Shirley Graham.

It's Dr. Du Bois' 91st birthday.

A birthday celebration is held for him

by more than 1000 professors and students

of Peking University.

At Wuhan on March 13th,

Chairman Mao Zedong has dinner with the guests.

I think the problem with your generation is that you guys...

-You-- you're waiting for us. -Waiting for you to do what?

You're waiting for the young people to do things--

You should carry your leg and do things.

The young people are standing--

No, no, no, no, no. Do y-- young people are standing

-on who's shoulders? -Whose shoulders should I be standing on?

should be the people before us.

- You can't say that. - You can't say that.

Okay, let me do one for you. The young people

are standing on the shoulders of somebody.

The people that-- the shoulders

you're standing on, I have to

look in the history book and

-find them. -Hey, look now.

Awolowa is there. Kwame Nkrumah

is there.

Nnamdi Azikiwe is there.

They're all there.

Ah, this thing is not spitting any...