"I talk to my students a lot about how poetry asks us to try seeing double-- that is, beyond literal. To see the molecular world (our bodies, the daily news, the earth, ect.) and to also see the powers that animate that world. I think I've spent my whole life seeing double--being fixed, mystified, and mesmerized by those powers."
-Sekou Sundiata in conversation with Ani Difranco
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Seeing in writing and seeing in art are the same. Writing requires the same diligent exploration and sacrificial giving that drawing does. What Sundiata is saying is right. Whether or not he is a Christian, he understands that there is an intrinsic value to the world around us, and seeing that world requires making the connection between molecular object and meaning...purpose. Art is about drawing connections. Art is about understanding those connections. It isn't about creating them. It's about discovering them. It's about having a response to them. I want to spend my whole life being fixed, mystified, and mesmerized by His power. And I want to make art and write about my repsonses to the connections that I make through that fixation, mysticism, and mesmerization.
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