Care, Embodied

Originally Written for Stillpoint Magazine

In the water at Southend-on-sea
Covid lockdown day 77
Making a party when parties weren’t allowed
Queering gender, desire, and gaze in Brixton
Experimenting with digital fashion
A nine-months pregnant model
A boxing stadium in Accra
A ceiling made out of money

These are moments from all of the shoots I directed for Stillpoint Magazine, a project born out of the need to write, make, think, dream, and move in and through the ongoing crises of our white-supremacist-hetero-patriarchal times. The harms caused by these dominant hegemonies are currently being felt in climate destruction and the so-called cost of living (cost of greed?) crisis, but in truth they have for centuries been bringing worlds to their end. Stillpoint Magazine, albeit a small world, is one of them.

For my farewell piece I have chosen an image from behind the scenes of each editorial shoot – Apocalypse(s), Day 77, Rocking Time, The Need to Know, Vanishing Point, A Study of Bare Hands, Spectator Sport, and Remedy. These shoots are where, in these white-supremacist-hetero-patriarchal-cost-of-greed-crisis times, I got to live otherwise, to experience care in action, embodied through experimentation, joy, and love. I learned about myself and others. I gained beautiful friendships. I made the most wonderful memories.

Living otherwise isn’t always easy of course – we worked together through racism we were faced with while shooting in Essex. We weathered homophobic comments hurled at us in Brixton, we grappled with the challenges of Covid-19, and more.

All the while our practices of care, curiosity, critical thought, courage were ongoing. ARE ongoing. Worlds end, new worlds are born.

I am thankful for some of the worlds that have opened up for me after this experience, including being able to move on to work as a Head of Fashion in a black owned publication and agency. These shoots, the people I collaborated with in making them happen, and the Stillpoint Magazine team were part of what made this possible.

Here’s to Stillpoint Magazine; an embodied experience, an ongoing practice, a nurturing ground of black feminist emergence; a lens of looking at the world, a way to exist.

Lots of love,
Rashida