Hi Friend,

As soon as a friend sent me the trailer of Nova Scott James' newest film, I knew I wanted to invite her to be on our podcast.

I have often heard people talking about the need for more rituals to address some of the multi-generational pain and suffering caused by enslaving people, including but not only from Africa, on plantations in the U.S., in the Caribbean, in South America, and in other places around the world.

I've seen far less examples of people who have actually done so.... and, in the process, created a film about it.... in such a way that the filming was an integral component of the process itself. As someone who has long been interested in how subjects become objects (lived experience becoming a recorded object) and objects become subjects (the camera, the film itself has a life, voice, and its own kind of agency), I was immediately impressed with the position and participation of the filmmaker, Nova, and her camera.

Nova, very kindly, agreed.

The podcast episode is now out.

We ended up recording for this episode in two sessions which we stitched together into a longish podcast. We started with talking about Nova's own roots in Harlem, where her great-grandmother Nella May had made hats — beautiful, avant-garde ones — and was photographed by James Van Der Zee, one of the leading figures in the Harlem Renaissance. Nova grew up carrying that lineage with pride. She shares about how film and jazz and engaging with spirits were portals through what was sometimes a difficult and violent childhood.

Cinema became something sacred for her. She worked in a movie theater for four years. At first, she resisted cleaning bathrooms and really just wanted to watch the films. Over time, she saw the sacredness of cleaning the bathrooms too: just as one might in an ashram or church, where you recognize how the necessary act of working with toilets enables everything else to happen. "Waste" can be sacred, too.

Nova's healing journey — through severe PTSD, psychedelic-assisted therapy, meditation, Buddhism, and years of integration — eventually cracked open enough space for some powerful visions to come through. When her grandmother Lulu passed in 2017, she found herself sitting with a mentor in his home in Harlem. There, she received something of a download: a documentary about ancestral healing, land, and Black women's spiritual practice.

Visions can take time to actualize: several years of workshops, talking circles, and collective formation followed, including finding an elder after months of searching and a location for the healing ritual/filming journey. She considered seven plantations in Virginia before she felt a strong "yes." Eventually herself and a mostly queer black women cellective embarked on a ten-day sprint that entailed twelve-hour film days enfused with ceremonies that simply could not be scheduled and were often wildly emergent, even with years of thoughtful planning. The land itself was an active participant, and it was an amazing experience.

Then the editing began.

What emerged is the film: Wild Darlings Sing the Blues.

Which is now in its final stage of production, and they are seeking funding to cross the finish line. Links to donate and learn more are in the show notes.

I hope you enjoy this podcast episode about her journey of remembering and reenchanting!