Hey y'all! Pleasure to be around these parts, and just getting to peruse these sorts of spaces to further understand the communal possibilities that psychedelics open. I won't deny that a piece of the work I'm doing hear is hiding behind the opacity that is my existent within this spatio-temporal plane that is bound by Western enterprises. But I will share what I find critical, and pray that we can open a new door of relationality that manages to see potentiality within the discourses that occur here.
Just an introduction to me: I am a fledgling academic who has only recently started presenting professionally and writing for journals. A lot of my work centers discussions of race, gender, sexuality, ability, colonialism, psychoanalysis, notions of madness, aesthetics, and imagining the Beyond. I find myself to be in the intersections of all things black and indigenous (as I am afro-indigenous), and see to psychedelics within the cultural homage that has laid forth both many a solution and many a problem. In that, my place here is both to continue the work of Indigenous Studies and understand the common engagement with plant-teachers on those not culturally woven into the folds of epistemic understanding. And through my heavy expertise in Black Studies, I dare to see what sorts of weaves are truly being made through the relational, especially with regards to black folks use of psychedelics (which is seemingly minimal). I will admit, I speak from a mad perspective, and my psychosis was initiated due to my own psychedelic experiences. And so now, I see my madness as a mere conversation with a psychedelic realm of understanding, not entirely effable yet still approaching the tangible.
I really do hope that my time here can be generative, both for myself and all of you. And I am happy to answer or try to answer any questions that might be had as to what I am doing with research, and what kind of thoughts I have been weaving together that have yet to be discussed. All I can say is this, the approach I am taking has yet to be even conceived of, and it has been a perilous journey attempting to find those willing to support what I am doing. But through this new "psychedelic renaissance" a lot of opportunities are certainly opening up.
Anyhow, with care, and with the hope of constantly perceiving the Beyond, can't wait to meet y'all and become apart of this very interesting and eye-opening community.