Sea and Sky

Abstract

“Sea and Sky” is a lush, layered examination of trauma. Much of motherhood, particularly black motherhood, and more specifically motherhood in the context of the descendants of formerly enslaved African peoples, is bound up with trauma that we carry with us even as we carry on. This piece looks at trauma as an event with a definable before and after and examines the survival of our ancestors – and ourselves – as a holding of breath, of choosing the familiar discomfort of the depths over the risk and raw need of learning to breathe again. It also acknowledges the necessity of surfacing anyway and showing future generations how to swim to shore. My use of sound effects in “Sea and Sky” is intentional. I seek to have listeners in the room with me as my daughter takes her first breaths; to follow me to the water, its surface the line of demarcation between the trauma’s before and after; to dive with me beneath the waves into the weighted quiet of life underwater; to feel the panic of coming up for air in a world that’s no longer recognizable; and, finally, to choose to breach the surface again, intent on filling their lungs.