Paper Short Abstract:

In this presentation I reflect on the creative mechanisms of support offered by Angelica Moreiras, an Afro-descendent creative. How do we address unwritten scripts that encompass bias, further racism, and enact marginalization? What unspoken acts counter this kind of historical hegemony?

Paper Abstract:

Loss often goes unwritten in ethnographic studies. How do we engage the space of fieldwork from our multiple positionalities? In this presentation I reflect on the creative mechanisms of survival and support offered by Angelica Moreiras, an Afro-descendent creative and business-woman, who died too young. Unwritten are the questions of medical access. Did she get appropriate attention, or were her ailments ignored by a system renown for its marginalization of Black women? How do we address unwritten scripts that encompass bias, further racism, and enact marginalization? What unspoken acts counter this kind of institutional and historical hegemony? As I mourn the too-early loss of her life, I remember and honor her strength, intelligence, and presence. I examine the unwritten, but emotionally captured/captivating, relationship between us, ethnographer and community leader; and explore our interlacing practices cultivating and salvaging, minoritized traditions. I first met her, selling jewels of the Orixas at the Caribbean Studies Conference held in Bahia, Brazil. I bought earrings of Oshun, and wore those earrings for years. She was present throughout my first five months of research opening doors and making my work possible. She valued and advocated for bodies in motion --dances of the Orixas, afro-religious practices, and the culinary arts of Afro-Bahia that anchor identities in Transatlantic spaces. I meditate on our relationship as history in motion, by which object lessons are garnered from bought/shared/gifted items, which are shared among women who, thus transcend marginality through their creativity and solidarity.