On Alternative Time
BoA 2026 Themes, Chpt 1 - Time, in summary
Hey BoA Fam,
Throughout these past few months, we’ve been re-examining how we move within and alongside cadences of time. Expanding our vision beyond anticipating each minute and hour, we are understanding time as an infinite channel for our realities. Instead of racing against the numbers, playing the counting game, grieving each moment as it meets and leaves us, we are beginning to acknowledge and build a rhythm of time that is just as multidimensional as we are.
“If you listen closely, you may hear memory call you forward. It’ll be undeniable. A resounding wail of all that has been lost, and all that will soon return.”
– excerpt from “In Loving Memory” by Jasmine Lewis
I have been grappling with my relationship to time for as long as I can remember. Constantly juggling the urge to unveil the future, and (as I’ve gotten older) reeling in the grief of nostalgia. I always think about how deeply I resonate with that viral clip of K-Ci & JoJo singing “Life,” like “time is slipping away from meeeee!”
Throughout this chapter of time, I’ve been imagining what time can look and feel like when it’s not restricted to the ticking of clocks. Because how we move through this life is way deeper than the circling of hands and numbers. These are some reckonings of time that have been echoing in my life this chapter:
Time is Ancestral — Meaning that memory itself is a form of time travel. It is Sankofic (the Sankofa principle, originating from the language and Adinkra symbols of the Akan people of Ghana, translates to “go back and get it”), meaning we revisit and carry each fragment of our history into our futures. Time is enspirited, just as our ancestral pathways are, mirroring all that has happened as our reflections guide us into the “now” and into the dimensions that await us.
Time is Arkestral — The fluidity of time embodies the rhythm and cosmic nature of Arkestral music, or as Sun Ra calls it, “the omniversal language.” Jazzy, spiralling, gravitational. Equal parts erratic, elusive, and celestial. Time can’t be tamed.
Though the times have been incredibly demanding and unpredictable, I’m trying my best not to let myself steep in the chronometrophobia for too long. I’ve made it a ritual to carve out moments for what I like to call “the practice of envisioning” while being outside. Bearing witness to the weather, the rhythms in the movement of the clouds, and the ways that the wind is devoted to breath and constant movement. Nature moves through time with ease, and sometimes, even defiance, so I’m learning a lot from fellowshipping with the Earth.
Amongst the team and larger community, we have been having conversations and gatherings to ground ourselves in designing new timeframes. Though the status quo suggests that time is in control of our everyday actions, as Sun Ra said, we’ve been actively “work[ing] on the other sides of time.” Engaging with memory itself as a form of time travel. Witnessing the whirls of past, present, and future memory as something that we feel through, a source of “willed creation” (word to Toni Morrison) and the process of becoming. The first seasons of our new year have been moving to create intentional, fluidly-paced methods to reclaim our time as both deeply ancestral, and alive.
“2026 Themes, Chpt 1 - Time” an open channel by Blacks of Are.na
This year’s AFROCONNECTION → was brimming with conversations about the practice of memory, of community, and making meaning with each moment.
To kick off this year’s programming, we hosted a virtual Are.na channel walk through and Q&A with Sharon Neema exploring their curation of “igoro/rero/mambi.”
The following day we hosted a communal journaling workshop in Chicago with Emerge Psychology Group, Inside Then Out, and a channel walk-through of Camille Bacon’s “for black writers.”
For our Cinema Club screenings during this chapter, BoACC resident film programmer Paris Vincent curated viewings for Fluid Frontiers (2026) (a film that measures the rhythm of time through place and poetry) and, most recently, Keeping Time (2024) (a film that observes the rhythms of time through jazz and the practice of gathering) which included a discussion with director, Darol Olu Kae.
Internally, our team has been setting (alt)Time-intentions to guide us as we move forward:
Being more conscious of the language we use surrounding time – like calling dates “dead-lines,” despite our work being very much alive – and becoming more familiar with how malleable and ever-changing its patterns are.
Giving ourselves and one another grace, and leading our work with memory and reflection each time we meet.
Although we still mark our calendars, we’re aligning our movement more with the seasons instead of the typical quarterly division of time. Opening ourselves to “windows” of time (embracing flexibility and the everchanging nature of our day-to-day) instead of time “blocks.”
While we move between time and place, we are also entering into portals that peer into the connections between movement, newness, and life. On Saturday, May 30th, we will open BoA’s very first art exhibition – SLAPTROP. Carefully curated and designed by Makéila Nevette and Cody Lockyear "Loc", this virtual experience will spotlight artists within our community that offer their creativity as a bridge into visiting new worlds. Read the full announcement here and be sure to RSVP to gain access to the gallery once it’s made public.
As Zora Neale Hurston once wrote, “there are years that ask questions and years that answer.” And this year, we are asking ourselves and one another what it means to embody Migration as a method to rediscover our rhythms.
As we enter this next chapter of Place – reflecting on our relationships to home, refuge, and return as we navigate all that surrounds us (both digital and physical) – we invite you all to share the ways that you have been moving through time and space! Join us in our Are.na channel, “2026 Themes, Chpt 2 - Place,” and listen to the On {Alt}Time playlist to time travel with us through sound.
Until next time,
BoA Editorial Writer
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Beautiful ♥️🫀
Time can’t be tamed- wonderful words