My wish was to Produce a work of Black art that moves beyond the wanton display of Black Death. And Black bodies stripped of lived experiences. A work that is less a spectacle, a provocation marketed for consumption. Rather a video meditation of embodied awareness. Focusing on character narratives that harness an awareness on how they are moving through their world. Navigating their trauma. And how they carry their trauma informed bodies through time and space. And awareness that the viewer perceives as a contemplative practice. That enables us to understand our interconnectedness beyond the mediated violence. It's a video meditation that is so much more than police violence and black trauma. It's about black movement, and reflection, all enhanced by contemplative music, traditional gospel, black spirituals and meditation soundscapes that accompanies this video with the intention of supporting viewers in dropping into a space of deep listening and feeling and supporting invitations for creative responses A video meditation that Recognize the power of a people who in the mist of life's storms continue to overcome. Psalms are the songs of the traumatized and witness barriers to the assaults and brutalizations of Black subjected bodies. Faithful, powerfully grounded and long suffering. The cross freeing us from the lynching tree. Only to be replaced by the spectacle of public brutality. Commodified Black death and racialized terror. Sentimentality notwithstanding 164 black bodies, murdered by the police during the first 8 months of 2020. For those who are called to bare witness. Like the five Black activist in this film caught in the crossfire of police protest violence. Victims, and survivors baring all the rage, hurt, and grief they struggle not to get lost in.Living life in a constant trauma fueled combustion chamber. Time moves on, but for them there's a slowing of perception and other damaging consequences. How do you put the pieces of your life back together when it feels like the rest of the world has moved on? In a country that is internally designed to be against you. We overcome as we always have and will through, spiritually, knowing we are loved, and fully immersed in its active expression. I'm a powerful religious imagination to see redemption in the cross. To discover life in death, hope in tragedy. Filed with the emotion and vitality of Black worship No where better found then in river baptism. "Wade in the water. God's going to trouble the water." "The rocks feel hot against my palm and burn against my skin, a tangible reminder of pain and grief clutched in my hand. Holding them closely, I wade out into the river as far as I can go. The storms would still come, buffeting and bruising, but I will never be alone. After having walked through the valley of death, and like them, I too have been led to the river waters. Where ancestors whispered stories of grief; decades later, I come to lay my burdens down in the powers and presence of Spirit and the word that is water, seed and blood."

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Reggie Davis Davis

Reggie, becoming a visual artist, grew out of his education and experiences in transpersonal psychology, integral studies and 17 plus year career as a social worker in direct practice, community programming policy and planning. Along with foundational and studio arts classesThrough distant learning At California College of the Arts. San Francisco State University. And City College San Francisco. Reggie was born part of the African American ethnic community collective and centers around a childhood, heir to a legacy of struggle, overcom ing, resistance and de facto segregation. During a time of catalysis and change through the Civil Rights Movement of the 60's. Rooted in an emergent collective consciousness, identity activism, and emergent art's culture.An identity activism born out of affirmations, “Say it loud! I’m Black and I’m proud!”Black is Beautiful” Joining family affiliations with fledgling black arts organizations. And “A know thyself “ scholarly identity. Amidst a Black Aesthetic of embodiment, personhood, and emboldened spirit. A centering of the Black experience in the study and application of a black syncretic faith and spirituality . And storytelling to help shape the narrative of the black experience. He believes “:One of the most meaningful, impactful and profound undertakings an artist can embark on is to create and tell a story. Our lives are planted in story, “it is how we bare witness, and are witnessed.” As an interdisciplinary artist Reggieappropriates and re-creates the art of telling stories visually through an integrated mix of sustainable found object, assemblage , new media, installation art and design with an integrative spirituality orientation that delineates an array of spiritual practices , cultural histories, psychologies , iconography and contemplative education allowing me to create artworks that become the physical expressions of a spiritual aesthetic. Storied tapestries of phenomena, agency presence. And synergies. Crossovers can be found in art hybrids combining new media with traditional art using non-traditional materials such as a series of open framework figurativess that viewers activate with their own iconography. Afro-Indigenous totemic sculptures crafted from felled urban street trees as part of The San Francisco Department of Public Works , Planning and Forestry Creative Reuse of Urban Wood Program. Recent video works commissioned by TheMangalam Research Center for Buddhist studies. present aspects of the spiritual, in video art Installations serving as points of focus for mindfulness and meditative practices. Utilizing technology to translocate traditional art into interactive, immersive , embodied imagery. Integrated into a transformative experience immersive design systems installation framework. With several of his animations becoming official selections at various national and international film festivals. The Phillip K. Dick film festival in New York City, and Los Angeles. And the Colortape International Film Festival, Australia. He’s recently been the recipient of several grants From the San Francisco Arts Commission . AFunding a video art project . A color affirmative animated telling of the black experience through a visual narrative that's a mix of 60's comic and street art aesthetics. The film “Swimming the Psalms of Seas, looks at recent black trauma through the laments and praise of the sacred psalms. In the film water acts as a source of spiritual transformation, regeneration and immersion characterized by the vibrant aesthetics of an African American River Baptism. The film providing a visceral commentary on the psychological impact of racism. Black Trauma. Explored in a way that moves it away from spectacle toward healing.chaos into vitality, painful events to aesthetic redemption and reflection , so one is able to see the whole as a changeable tide forever renewing hope. Reggie has also been the recipient of a Senior Cohort Grant from The African American Cultural Center funding that will be used for the creation of several Afro-indigenous hybrid totems.Commemorations on ancestry, and histories, that explore both the aesthetic qualities of totemic sculpture, as well as the symbolic, narrative, and trans-cultural borrowing of Afro indigenous motifs.Transforming i`nnate personal power generated from repurposing harm for creative expression. Reggie believes “For many of us creatives, a special catharsis comes with artistic autonomy. Even with trauma and pain. Because I get to tell it. And by sharing, beyond they Senses of personal freedom I get to connect with my viewers on a deeper level.”