We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alie Jones. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alie below.
Alie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
Beloved, An Insistence is the most meaningful project I’ve ever been a part of, because this is an issue that needs more hands and hearts.
Beloved, An Insistence is an activist movement to end sex trafficking of Black girls and women. Beloved, An Insistence believes in the transformational power of community art and collective action.
Founded by healing artists Regina Evans and Alie Jones.
This movement has inspired community members, local organizations, politicians, churches, and schools to take action. Beloved, An Insistence is a movement rooted in love and compassion.
It is meaningful to me because my mentor Regina Evans had a vision and called me. She saw love gardens, altars in an area of Oakland that folks often throw away or vilify. I said “Let’s do it!” and we got to work, organizing donations, volunteers, and lots of plants and flowers. We transformed the street into a love letter for the “Beloved” experiencing Human sex trafficking on E. 14th aslso known as International or “The Blade” in Oakland. We chalked the street, wrote affirmation posters, and adorned the altars in PPE, snacks, water, condoms, and other essentials. This was our way of saying “We see you and we love you”
Mama Regina has alchemized this work into something that is both fixed in a moment and ever evolving. I think it is important to support our elders in pivoting even when that means walking away. I watched as Regina poured what she didn’t have to give and I still remember when she told me she was leaving California I celebrated her choice. I love her in that I would visit her wherever she went. I wanted her to be healthy, housed, and abundantly supported. She’s going to hate that she’s mentioned in this but I think it is important. On her way she asked me to carry on the legacy of Beloved, An Insistence in whatever way spirit called me to. In that space I was met with folks who asked why we weren’t out of E. 14th. Some of those folks had been out there with us and others wanted to claim that their organizations were doing this work. This movement had been explicitly outside of the nonprofit industrial complex because of the way that space tokenizes and re-traumatizes folks. We received donations and volunteers for local community members, organizations, politicians, dancers, singers, artists, etc.
PRINCIPLES:
Beloved are centered, always.
Beloved are Black women, girls, and nonbinary folks.
Beloved are children, youth, and women survivors.
Beloved are folks who have experienced human sex trafficking.
Beloved are warriors of love, awareness, and connectivity.
How do you listen to survivors?
How do your actions align with your beliefs?
How does white supremacy impact your every day?
Healing Arts are generative
“Black women are inherently valuable, that our liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else’s may because of our need as human persons for autonomy.”
– The Combahee River Collective Statement (1977)
We believe that art has the possibility to shift consciousness when done with intention. Healing arts are creative practices that promote healing, wellness, coping and personal change. Our impact focuses on preventation, awareness, and education. These spirit led expressive arts linked to Black feminist principles around liberation and care. Generative spaces are capable of (re)producing or creating with infinite mediums.
Examples: Install garden altars, lighting design, street pole art, poster art, sidewalk affirmations, music, food, dance, poetry, social action plays, multimedia videos, and murals.
People Power is the only way
We know that healing happens together, all installations and activations are done in groups. Intergenerational and multicultural coalition to end child sex trafficking. We believe in intentional collaborations between heart centered beings. This work is an act of witnessing andimpactful creative activations. At the core it is about spreading love and not focused on individual people, organizations, initiatives or egos.
We embrace the support of our community advocates and allies and we ask that folks reflect on their positionality. Decentering whiteness, maleness, and savior complexes.
ALL should be Protected
We know that safety is subjective and aim to strategically design realities that interrogate the norms of the dominant narrative by cultivating environments. We struggle to question “safe spaces” and call in holistic protection; physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional.
Who is protected? Who is not?
Alie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Alie Jones is a writer, artist, and Creole mermaid. She is the author of Saltwater Moonshine, a poetry collection that honors her matrilineal Creole heritage through poetry, music, and reflections of love. Alie is passionate about centering our breath work as sacred and hopes to build a legacy of awareness and expression. She is the Director and Co-founder of Black Freighter Press, a revolutionary press committed to the exploration of liberation. Alie graduated with a BA in Cinematic Arts & Technology from CSU Monterey Bay & a minor in Creative Writing & Social Action. She received her MPA from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies as well as a MFA from Mills College in Creative Writing. Alie is the host of the podcast called Chit Chat with Aliecat, exploring self-care practices & journeys of self-love
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
I believe society can support creatives with resources and sharing their work. If you have the means, pay artists well! and if you love and appreciate an artists work share with at least 5 people and ask them to do the same. I think about how if we celebrated and supported artists the way we used to send those text chain messages so many folks would be housed, fed, overflowing. Artists crack our hearts open and share the rawest version of ourselves and are often met with pennies. Pay artists and share our work! Speak our names with love in rooms that we aren’t in. Allow us space to evolve into new iterations of ourselves with love.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist for me has been resonance, when someone connects on a deep level to something I have created and shared with the world. Building something with others speak to your soul in a way no solo accomplishment could.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://aliejones.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aliejjones
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_njXgJZ7SfAoYY8_mqd6pxmLGy0c-jiYxY
- Other: https://www.belovedaninsistence.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqSDEuRDbOQ&t=4s
Image Credits
Ashara Ekundayo https://www.instagram.com/blublakwomyn/
Mural by Collective of artists
Cece Carpio https://www.instagram.com/cececarpio/
Leslie “DIME” Lopez
Franceska Gamez
Priya Handa
Angie Lopez
Alie Jones https://www.instagram.com/aliejjones/
Bethanie Hines https://www.instagram.com/bethaniehinesphotography/
Matthew Evearitt https://www.instagram.com/beholdcreators/