“Black wellness is the antithesis of state violence. ”
Lead to Life is a trans-local collective led by black-diasporic and queer artists, healers & ecologists devoted to embodying Mark Anthony Johnson’s prayer that “Black wellness is the antithesis of state violence.”
Bridging racial and environmental justice through ceremony and art practice, we explore our commitment to decomposing systems of oppression through what we call applied alchemy - wielding alchemy to provoke radical imagination toward justice.
ON APPLIED ALCHEMY
Following in the lineage of Mexican artist Pedro Reyes Palas Por Pistolas practice and the biblical prophecy of transforming “swords into plowshares”, we offer:
- a public prophetic practice transforming guns into the otherwise, in ceremony, with predominantly black families and community members impacted by the wake of police brutality and environmental racism
- host ceremonial environmental regeneration using tools made from those transformed weapons at sites impacted by violence (to black folks and/or to the land),
-and ground our work with media, pedagogy, campaigns, and experiences with local partners across our intersections to nurture organizing that fortifies black livability and interspecies liberation.
Photo by Ayse Gursoz of ritualist Adorable EarthAngel holding up a rifle we would later transform into a tool at 2019 Lead to Life alchemy ceremony at Life is Living Festival in Oakland, CA in collaboration with APTP.
on the practice //
“For all Black people who, still, insist life and being into the wake.” - Christina Sharpe, “In The Wake: On Blackness and Being”
Our healing justice work is about attending to the afterlife of slavery (Saidiya Hartman) or what Christina Sharpe calls the wake. We seek to repair the joint legacies of trauma (instigated by white supremacy, colonialism, cis-hetero patriarchy and capitalism) on black folks and the land through the “black quantum” time ceremony offers.
We are committed to restoring rituals and practices that give room for black folks to grieve and connect with the land so that we can receive co-respite, widen our collective imaginations, prophesy & orient towards a black eco-feminist politic of liberation in the midst of climate collapse. Photo left by Ayse Gursoz of ritual dancers washing and rebuking spirit of gun at 2019 Oakland Lead to Life alchemy ceremony in collaboration with APTP.
our
intention
Intention in medicine is defined as the healing process of a wound. Our intention through Lead to Life is to transform that which ends life into that which sustains life - to facilitate an alchemical healing process that can physically transform both our weapons and our imaginations.
Within the current climate of pervasive environmental racism, police brutality, and desecration of the land, our creative interventions are designed to:
bridge connections between restorative and environmental justice
restore the ecological foundations of sacred spaces where black folks live, and
rekindle relationships of reverence and reciprocity with each other and the earth.
our team
“move at the speed of trust. focus on critical connections rather than critical mass.”
The original collaborators, brontë velez + Kyle Lemle (former Lead to Life program director) met in July 2016 as inaugural recipients of the Spiritual Ecology Fellowship. Through that connection they were able to bridge their complementary and diverse histories in community organizing, art as social practice, community forestry and climate resilience to birth Lead to Life.
in 2015, brontë worked as a copy editor on a retrospective of Mexican artist Pedro Reyes’ work. when they witnessed his projects Disarm and Palas por Pistolas - in which he transforms weapons into shovels and instruments - they were met with profound healing and a deep desire to share this medicine through continuing the rituals in the united states through Lead to Life as a direct response to losing a dear friend to gun violence alongside the larger traumatic impact on black communities and environments from police brutality.
During the fellowship, they built strong relationships with leaders around the world who are bridging the gaps between faith, activism, ceremony and resistance.
Partners for our ceremonies, action days and gatherings have included: Anti Police-Terror Project, Life is Living Festival, Planting Justice, Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, Permaculture Action Network, James Brenner Sculpture, RawTools, United Playaz, The Robby Poblete Foundation, Trees Atlanta, The King Center, and The Nap Ministry.
