Ashon Crawley explores themes of racism and oppression while contemplating on the power of resisting with joy and the “aesthetics of possibility” in his thought provoking essay “Do It For the Vine”. Crawley deftly navigates through the pangs of denial and the potential of social refusal, intertwining both with Vines – Vines that allow us to escape cycles of violence by thwarting the hegemonic structures that seek to chain us down.
This essay is about the nature of resistance and the reinterpretation of subjugation in creative ways that celebrate our ability to say no. Crawley emphasises the Black Radical tradition, one which he portrays through various Vines, and its ability to find joy in the act of refusal through dance, music and poetry.…show more content… The attacks against Palestinians are assaults against the sociality of folks in Gaza and the West Bank—an attack that takes places in parallel and in cooperation with the assaults on the sociality of black folks in the US. Gazans choose to live, to paint, to fuck against Israel’s purportedly totalizing modality of violence and violation. Gebreels is an architect. So is the little girl, understanding the density and inertia of her flesh, the grounds of her existence. At its best, architecture is a solicitation to imagine otherwise worlds on grounds already