Art Convo with Sosa: Pleasure and Rest as Tools for Resilience

Fannie Sosa photographed by Gabriella Achadinha.

A frank and rich conversation with Afro-Latinx artist & activist & scholar Sosa (they/them). A gender/patriarchy/capitalism/race disruptor whose ethos centers on Blackness, rest, pleasure, and decolonization. Sosa is the co-creator of Black Power Naps along with their artistic partner and creative co-conspirator, the revolutionary activist & performance artist Navild Acosta. A new film, FRONTLINES OF ALL KIND, documenting Sosa’s and Acosta’s art practices during the pandemic will be virtually presented on March 3 with Ford Foundation. Also, The WIG (White Institutions Guide), an essential and urgent source by Sosa, for white art spaces that need to go beyond partnering with BIPOC artists simply for clout, is available on a sliding scale, here. Read and find joy in their words, thoughts, reflections, and goals for 2021 and beyond.

How are you feeling at this moment?

At this moment, I feel both a low hum of panic because it feels like it will be months before I can feel the warmth of the sun. Also a wiry excitement to work and fine tune my craft.  I have been in the throes of winter before and have emerged more powerful.   

Rest and pleasure are a big part of your ethos. How have you navigated self-care and your art during the lockdown months? 

I had to go through two major health crises, punctuated by having to get emergency tested several times for Covid-19 due to sheer institutional negligence and covert lies.  It’s been hard to feel that being healthy is like a personal feat, like a personal achievement, and mark of ultimate deserving-ness. And being sick is like a mark of personal failure, like one failed to keep oneself healthy.  It’s more clear to me than ever, how this regime has the « right to maim » (Jasbir K. Puar). So I’ve intentionally engaged with folks who validate ailing people as deserving. People who pick apart « health », people who assert themselves as whole, even when dealing with missing parts, mutilations of the soul, ailments, and immunocompromises.  I’ve also continued my journey with hip release and ass technologies.  Those are my friends and have saved my life more than once.

“I’ve also continued my journey with hip release and ass technologies. Those are my friends and have saved my life more than once.”

Fannie Sosa and Navild Acosta photographed by Gabriella Achadinha.

You and the phenomenal Navild Acosta created the interactive installation project Black Power Naps which advocates for Black rest. What have been some rewarding moments over time?

The most rewarding moments has been feedback from our communities, and for me, specifically, from people who are different generations than me.  To read comments like « I didn’t know art could be fun and feature people that look like me» from kids or elders praising the Black Bean Bed for its astringent, acupressure qualities on their weary legs and feet.  Seeing people actually falling asleep on the different islands (this is how we call the different structures of BPN).  Feeling how other people guard their sleep, that was priceless... Another rewarding moment I can think of is seeing our work featured in Black Futures, an anthology gathered by Jenna Wortham and Kimberly Drew.   It was touching to see all these beautiful tentacles of the future, holding the present, holding the past. 

What are your honest opinions around performative activism executed by white art and cultural institutions in this moment, and will real change happen?

Real change has always been happening.  White institutions are playing catch up with this change, and there is often a lot of dishonesty in how that happens.

I know times are uncertain, but feel free to share upcoming projects that you're excited about.

I’m excited to put out a Digital Sleep Bag that will be coupled with a physical Dream Goodie Bag, full of treasures and life hacks that Navild and I have been gathering for years.  I’m also excited to hone into more design, architecture, urbanism, and landscaping, having finalized our first green public space project Black Power Naps Park in Dallas, Texas with Ignite Arts.  Also looking to developing a bot called Emotion :) “The dreams are big, and this time they will not be deferred.” (Reference to Harlem by Langston Hughes)

“Real change has always been happening.  White institutions are playing catch up with this change, and there is often a lot of dishonesty in how that happens.”

Fannie Sosa photographed by Gabriella Achadinha.