S3 Ep024 Designing Space for Healing: with artist Lehna Huie, Pt3
This is the final part of our conversation with artist and activist Lehna Huie. In the previous episodes, we have talked about BIPOC intergenerational healing, reproductive justice, her personal experiences with medical apartheid and work as a doula. She returns to explain:
Some of the essential qualities of a healing space;
Why we should be creating spaces for dialogue on a foundation of emotional respect vs one of emotional safety;
Her experiences with the MoCADA and Asian American Arts Alliance Bandung Residency and its emphasis on allyship and global human rights;
Why we should make space to celebrate friendship.
Bio:
Lehna Huie is a multidisciplinary artist, mother and cultural worker of Jamaican heritage from New York City. Huie works in painting, installation and video on diaspora, memory and fragmentation - creating atmospheric portraits that document her lineage. Concentrated on the soul, non-linear time and ritual, her works are composed of fabric, paper, projections, textile scraps and everyday objects.
In 2022 Lehna was named Artist Changemaker with Global Fund for Women and was an Inaugural resident of Stoneleaf Retreat Art Mamas Residency. That same year, she represented the USA in The Hague Contemporary Art Fair at Quartair Gallery in the Netherlands. Lehna has received multiple awards including the Space for Creative Black Imagination Makers & Research Fellowship and Artist Changemaker Award with Global Fund for Women. Trained through the Joan Mitchell Foundation, her practice includes work as a Legacy Specialist, preserving intergenerational artists archives and oral histories.
“Just conversation alone is such a powerful thing. And that can happen through literal conversation, or through just seeing something, or asking a question, or leaving someone with a prompt, or something to think about. And so I hope that my work does that, bring those stories out to different spaces.”
-Lehna Huie
Transcript
Season 3, Episode 24 (Part 3 of 3) Designing Space for Healing: with artist Lehna Huie
Lehna Huie:
Just conversation alone is such a powerful thing. And that can happen through literal conversation, or through just seeing something, or asking a question, or leaving someone with a prompt, or something to think about. And so I hope that my work does that, bring those stories out to different spaces.
[Rhythmic sounds of electric train pulling into station]
[Subway chimes arpeggio played on mandolin]
Cevan Castle, Host:
Welcome to Towards a Kinder Public, a podcast dedicated to designing kinder public space that better meets our interconnected needs. I’m Cevan Castle, and along with Annie Chen, we are Kinderpublic.
This is Part 3 and the final segment of our conversation with Baltimore and New York based multimedia artist Lehna Huie. Lehna’s work has been shown and commissioned across the United States and internationally. She is a constant contributor to grassroots community work and humanitarian causes, including the African American Policy Forum’s #sayhername campaign, Doctors Without Borders, and Ancient Song Doula Services Decolonize Birth conferences, among many other initiatives and organizations.
Lehna received the Artist Changemaker Award from the Global Fund for Women. She is currently participating in the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts and Asian American Arts Alliance 2023 Bandung Residency, to foster and uplift allyship between Asian American Pacific Islander and Black communities.
In this episode, we speak in more depth about the Funk, God, Jazz and Medicine interactive art installation wellness space, where Lehna unexpectedly found and formed a lasting relationship with a women’s health provider. And we talk about what that space felt like. The health provider that she met there ultimately helped her and her newborn daughter safely through their birth experience.
Lehna shares more of her journey into activism for women, pregnant people, reproductive justice, and human rights. We talk about healing, allyship, and about friendship. Together, we look at the question- what are the characteristics that create space for human connection? And how can we create the time and space to celebrate that connection?
Thank you so much for being with us.
[Subway chimes arpeggio played on mandolin]
Cevan, opening interview:
Can I ask, and I just want your honest answer, but what was it that made that space so welcoming, and so… made you so able to take up the information and be vulnerable with the people, and have that relationship form?
Lehna Martine Huie:
Yeah, I think the most incredible thing about that space was just the level of vulnerability that we all had with each other, and trust, that is a rare thing to find in New York. <laughing> It's not common. And so just to be able to get into a casual conversation that all is starting through like, “Tell me about your healing.” You know, like, “Tell me about what's going on with you. What are your strengths and what are your weaknesses? What are things that you're hoping to work on in this season, or that you're hoping for in this next season?”
And I think that because all of us were mothering people, who have all gone through our issues with the society, and the ways in which the society treats mothers- and, you know, that's a huge range of attack on… <laughing> where that comes from, the attack on mothers, on women in general, and on children and on families- and so just to be able to share those realities in a space and not feel isolated in sharing that, or not feel shame, but to actually be comforted in knowing that you weren't alone, and being given the tools to be able to manage and navigate yourself through the society that is saying this, and how do you speak for us? Once you have an experience like that, a shared experience like that, you can't not speak up.
And so it just became that for me. And everywhere I went, people would know about this. I would bring it up, “Did you know that this is what's going on among our communities?” And so just over the years and just seeing how expansive that's been and how I guess more folks are having the conversation, it's really inspiring. It's becoming more mainstream, but it's still a problem and it's something that isn't supported enough.
And, you know, families and mothers are still not supported enough in our society, and it's really tragic. But to be able to have folks who are out there advocating and, you know, sitting with folks as they're birthing, and after they give birth, and the whole process of transitioning, like, you know, into… not just into motherhood, because for folks who have more than one child, just knowing that you have a support system and a community and a network.
You know how they say that it takes a village to raise a child? It's really true. And so for me, that's where I found the village. I was like, “Oh, this exists… I'm not alone!” <laughing> It made such a difference. And even when I would meet folks who were also parents in other spaces, there were limitations to where that conversation would go, but in this space, there were no limitations. You would just go into all of these different subjects that are impacting all of us and in a way that is needed and in a way that is really growing us as individuals, but also collectively.
And I think it also is a great way for others who might not identify as mothers or parents or families, it's a great way for them to understand the importance of the work as well.
Cevan:
And it's like, a nice way to wrap up with your idea of going generations back, and generations forward.
Lehna Martine Huie:
Yes. And so much of that, so much of those practices of gathering together in a circle, that really is how a lot of our ancestors communicated, and how they got things done. And so I feel like that was also kind of a, yeah, just bringing everything full circle again.
Cevan:
I love that. Thank you very much.
Lehna Martine Huie:
Yeah, of course.
Cevan:
Safety for mothers and children, it needs to be talked about, thank you for sharing all of the details that you did. It's so important that we talk about this more because we are, like you said, we're throwing people away, we're throwing people away, and that's not the commitment that we made, that we should be making to each other.
I have two areas where I'm super curious about your answer, and one is just, the kind of vulnerability that you experienced, and your conversations in that healing focused space is not the same, or is the same as a kind of allyship?
In a way, you were having a moment of vulnerability with people who had experienced many of the same things. And, is it possible to get to the place where you can have that kind of vulnerability with people who may not have the same life experiences, but have a real determination to form a real commitment?
Lehna Martine Huie:
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's another really powerful tool of, another amazing thing about art in general is to be able to connect with folks from all walks of life, and understanding that our differences are really not that different. They're not as different as we think they are. And so I think for me, allyship is more about accountability and just being able to advocate for people who might not be in the room, but it doesn't mean, like, yeah…. So I definitely believe that there is a lot of work to be done across difference, and I think that's where the most powerful work can happen in a lot of ways.
And so I hope that my work can do that, at least as a starting place for conversation. And I think that just conversation alone is such a powerful thing, you know, and that can happen through literal conversation or, like, through just seeing something and how someone responds or reacts to something, or asking a question, or leaving someone with a prompt or something to think about. And so I hope that my work does that, and I have been able to meet some wonderful people across differences.
And I think even my doula work over the years has transitioned in a lot of ways, whereas at the start of it, I was doing much more on the ground work, whereas now it's kind of more symbolic and, like, in terms of the voice. So, how am I exercising that, those same voices and representing them, but also being able to share them out with others. And so, bringing those stories out to different spaces and just through meeting other folks, other women from other identities who are also doing advocacy work to ensure that our voices aren't erased. So many incredible people, so many wonderful things…
And like, really, we need all of it. We need everyone. We need our spaces for us to have conversation among our personal identities, but also with each other. And so just being able to stretch in those new ways. And oftentimes it's uncomfortable, but I think if it's created in a space where that's safe, and I don't know if safe is even the right word, because sometimes things come up that are painful, but it's more like, just an honest space. Being able to get an honest space, that's respectful, that allows all of us to be able to reflect and grow is important.
Cevan:
Yeah, <affirmative> hmmm.
Lehna Martine Huie:
Yeah, I think that art has this ability to break these boundaries or barriers between people. And so yeah, you brought up the Bandung Residency, just among between Black and Asian solidarity, and thinking about solidarity in general, is a theme in my work.
Through our differences, we still believe that everyone deserves justice and deserves to live in their fullness, and so, yeah, to their full expression. And so to just be able to honor that with a wide range of people is incredible. It's just amazing. So I hope to do more of that.
Cevan:
Yeah, thank you for bringing that residency up. Yes. That's an amazing thing. And it's at the MoCADA, the Bandung residency. Could you say a little bit about the residency work that you do? And I know you're also participating with the Global Fund for Women, you've got all of these connections that you're making, sending out ripples in the water.
Lehna Martine Huie:
I think with Bandung, it's really an amazing reflection on the power of international solidarity and thinking about what I was just sharing, so many of our differences are really kind of illusions, in a lot of ways, because we do have a lot more similarities among our communities than we think. And very often there is, at least between Black and Asian folks, there's a lot of tension, right? But there's also been a lot of historical interconnectedness that is really important to celebrate.
And so, yeah, just to be able to kind of continue to break down those borders that are surrounding so many of our communities like Black and Asian, but it's also pointing out to all of the other identities that are kind of isolated among, like, in silos. And so when we are working together in solidarity, there's so much more that can be created and so much more impact that we can have. And so, we do that while also honoring those identities that we carry individually as well.
Cevan:
We just finished, sorry to interrupt, I was just going to say quickly… speaking of the siloed groups of people… we just had an interview with the co-founders of Historicons, who spoke specifically about the strategic isolation of groups.
Lehna Martine Huie:
Yeah.
Cevan:
And yeah, it's really powerful to recognize that this is done specifically to keep people from experiencing that solidarity and overturning the system that advantages itself.
Lehna Martine Huie:
Absolutely. And it's something that they don't want us to do. There's a lot of fear built into how we're seeing one another, how we're seeing ourselves and limitations that we put on ourselves that are imposed by the society. And so, just like being able to deconstruct that, being able to identify it, but also take it down, is super important.
And so for my work, and all of our projects are happening at different times, but really coming up towards the end of summer, like August, and in the winter time, is when we'll be presenting our works. And so my work is called Divine Intervention, and it's all about celebrating healing modalities throughout our communities. And so thinking a lot about global freedom struggle, and highlighting a lot of the themes that I brought up in my work, and including interpersonal relationships between our families, and communities and the realities of that spectrum of emotion and humanity, without hiding anything.
And so it's also uplifting how people are coping through all of these times that we're in, and addressing the very real anti-Black, anti-Asian attacks that have been happening…
Cevan:
Yeah.
Lehna Martine Huie:
…but how we can also come together to recover from that.
And so a dear friend and I are also collaborating on an element, she's from Sri Lanka, but we're working together to just celebrate our friendship. And so a large part of that residency I feel like is celebrating friendship and how rare is that, that we do that.
Cevan:
<affirmative> Mm-hmm.
Lehna Martine Huie:
And I think that's something that's so special to me is like, I hold people that I love very dearly in my heart, and carry them with me through everything I do. And so, to be able to have a residency that was so much centered on relationships, and not it being like this competition or anything, it was really just about a loving creative space we're sharing with each other through this really challenging time in our world.
And so, yeah, I'm really looking forward to putting that piece together. So it's like an installation piece that is collage-based and has an interactive element, but it is also like, almost like an altar or shrine space, which is what a lot of my work… how it's represented is in, like, an altar. And so there are offerings, but there are also ways that others can leave things, or leave their stories, and things that are important to them.
Cevan:
I love that.
Lehna Martine Huie:
Yeah, I'm really excited about it.
Cevan:
Yeah!
Lehna Martine Huie:
I'll keep you posted on all of it.
Cevan:
Please do!
Lehna Martine Huie
That one is going to be in August. And then the final presentation is going to be in February, but we're still finalizing all the details.
Cevan:
Wonderful. Wow.
Lehna Martine Huie:
I'm all about celebrating friendship, deep friendship, deep conversation, and just like really enjoying that, and appreciating that space. And I feel like that's something that's lacking right now in our world. And so any opportunity to uplift that is incredible to me. So, I'm all for it.
Cevan:
It's been so many years since I've had a deep conversation with you, and I've just really loved this so much.
Lehna Martine Huie:
It's so wonderful, and I definitely look forward to more of it. And I'm happy to meet with you again, anytime. So we'll work it out.
Cevan:
Thank you, thank you very much.
Lehna Martine Huie:
Yeah, of course!
[Audio recording of “Tuning Forks on Resonators” demonstration of the interaction of sound waves with physical objects (from the Physical Science Collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History) begins to play in background]
Cevan:
This concludes all three parts of my summer conversation with Lehna- and we leave you with these ideas about a celebration of friendship in public space.
While the August Bandung Residency exhibition has passed, you can watch for the winter exhibition early in 2024.
Be sure to check out our website, kinderpublic.com, for more information about our guest and the topic, as well as a full transcript of the conversation, which can be found on the podcast page. A captioned episode is available on our Youtube channel, where we are @kinderpublic.
You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
If you have enjoyed an episode of Towards a Kinder Public, we would love your help in sharing the episode with others. Please also consider leaving us a rating and a review, it helps us make our topics more visible, and we really appreciate your support.
I’m Cevan Castle, my guest has been contemporary artist Lehna Huie. Thank you for joining us. Please take extra care. We’ll see you next week.
[“Tuning Forks on Resonators” fades out]
Mentioned in this episode:
Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts
African American Policy Forum #sayhername Campaign
Ancient Song Decolonizing Birth Conferences
Funk, God, Jazz and Medicine: Black Radical Brooklyn
Sounds/Visuals in this episode:
“Tuning Forks on Resonators“ demonstration video of the interaction of sound waves with physical objects, care of the Physical Science Collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History