Artwork > Soft is Strong

SHE GATHER ME, titled after a line from Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, is a poetic meditation on the resonance of different physical and mental landscapes of the African Diaspora. Through analog and digital film, video, and audio, this piece presents alternative ways of considering place and the search for a space of belonging & refuge.

Written, Directed & Edited by Miatta Kawinzi
Sound, Composition & Vocals: Miatta Kawinzi

HD Color Video & 16mm Color Film Transferred to Video
Two-Channel Audio: Vocalization, Cassette Tape Recordings, Synthesizer, Original Electronic Score

Appearances by:
Jamal Jordan
Kiyan Williams

Filmed & recorded in:
Detroit, Michigan
Johannesburg, South Africa
New York: Alfred, Brooklyn, Harlem, Manhattan
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Tulsa, Oklahoma
&more

“Dat Old Black Gal” is a Black American work song (railroad spiking), archived by Zora Neale Hurston in 1939 and here re-interpreted & re-sung.

“She is a friend of mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It’s good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.”
- Toni Morrison, "Beloved"

This piece received support from the Barbara Hammer Lesbian Experimental Filmmaking Grant administered by Queer|Art.

Full screener available upon request.