CREATIVE HOUSE, COMMUNITY ARCHIVE, THIRD SPACE
ROOTED IN BLACK MEMORY
WHAT WE DO
THICKER THAN WATER (TTW) POLYMEDIA IS A CREATIVE HOUSE, RESOURCE, AND THIRD SPACE ROOTED IN BLACK MEMORY BY TANGINA STONE AND DJALI BROWN-CEPEDA.
IT IS EQUAL PARTS BLACK DIASPORIC ARCHIVE, LIBRARY (HOUSING AND PUBLISHING LITERARY ARTS, PRINT MEDIA AND ANALOG MUSIC), SONIC SPACE (MONTHLY RADIO SHOW) FILM, AND PUBLIC PROGRAMMING (BRINGING THE WORK TO THE PEOPLE ). AT TTW, WE BELIEVE THAT ART CAN FUNCTION SIMULTANEOUSLY AS A VEHICLE FOR CULTURAL PRESERVATION AND WORLD-BUILDING. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE USE ART AS A TOOL AND A WEAPON FOR OUR COLLECTIVE LIBERATION AND IMAGINATION? THIS IS WHAT WE AIM TO EXPLORE. AS SCHOLARS OF RACE, ETHNICITY, MUSIC, RELIGION, ART, AND CULTURE, WE ARE HERE WITH HOPES TO BUILD A SANCTUARY SPACE THAT PROTECTS THE LEGACIES OF THE BLACK HISTORY CONTINUUM: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE.
PARTNERING WITH LIKE MINDED INSTITUTIONS ROOTED IN BLACK MEMORY WORK, ACTIVATING OUR COMMUNITY AND EXISTING STUDIO SPACE, OUR LONG TERM GOAL IS TO RECLAIM ONE OF THE MANY ABANDONED BLACK CHURCHES IN BEDSTUY, BROOKLYN AS OUR HOME FOR THIS PROJECT: A SPACE TO FOSTER RADICAL IMAGINATION, CREATION, AND ARCHIVAL PRACTICES.
ETHOS
BLACK STORIES: FROM OUR MOUTHS TO GOD’S EARS, TO BANNED BOOKS, TO THIS LIBRARY.
UNLEARNING: WE ARE COMMITTED TO DISMANTLING THE LIES THAT THEY HAVE TOLD US ABOUT OURSELVES.
MEMORY WORK: WE WILL REMEMBER AND DOCUMENT. OUR MEMORIES ARE OUR ALCHEMY.
ACCESSIBILITY: EVERYBODY EATS AND GETS ACCESS.
SANKOFA: WE’RE GOING BACK TO GET IT Y’ALL.
REIMAGINING THROUGH
OUR GROWING, LIVING ARCHIVE
is a growing collection dedicated to Black print media. Geared toward all interested in exploring and studying Black creative expression, we aim to level the playing field by digitizing works and making them accessible online. Our growing collection includes poetry, history, photography, theory, magazines, and journals.
our library houses analog music (vinyl, cds, cassettes, 8-tracks), focusing on recordings by Black and Brown artists across time, genre, and the Diaspora. To showcase our collection, we will host radio nile, a monthly radio show taking place in-person, and available to stream on our website.
MUSIC & ORAL HISTORY
THICKER THAN WATER, THE FILM
Is a visual, sonic, polymedia exploration of the significance of blood ties within Black families, and the culturally-specific shame that so many of us feel and hold, even though the weight is always too much. Taking place across Brooklyn, Ohio, North Carolina, and Alabama, Thicker Than Water is a feature-length documentary and poetry album that counters shame through fostering intergenerational relationships, inviting all to access the concept of chosen family as a tool toward collective healing, and encouraging audiences to embark on a journey of self-discovery by asking important questions that often go unspoken in family dynamics. Directed by Tangina Stone. Produced by Djali Brown-Cepeda.
by partnering with local bookstores, libraries, cafes, and businesses, TTW will host monthly gatherings for the public, exploring the intersections of memory, archiving, material culture, and community storytelling.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Who We Be
Tangina Stone (Tan-Gee-Nuh) is a tenderhearted Piscean crybaby, with a conflicting Leo Ascendant that shows up on stage. She is a musical artist and performer who sings, composes, produces, and writes songs for her personal projects and for others. A poet, essayist, filmmaker, and sound selectress, she is also an Endometriosis advocate and warrior. A previvor. A dog mama. God mama. Auntie and big sis who hails from the Midwest, South and New York. She enjoys full bodied biodynamic wine that she usually can’t afford, and Miller High Life like her Great Grandmother. A first generation college graduate who prefers her phone on DND, and bikerides to the beach. You can usually find her where the water is, the love is, and where the advocacy is needed. Where there is inspiration to make art. Not just as catharsis or for joy but making art as a means to survive. Using art as a vehicle for meaningful, systemic change. Sometimes she takes herself too seriously, but truly acts up, and carries on.
Djali Brown-Cepeda (Jah-Lee) is a Capricornian cultural preservationist and visual storyteller. Rooted in the tenets of reclamation and rematriation, her work as a film and television producer centers oral tradition and lived experiences as a tool of cultural restoration. An archivist, she is a book worm and self-taught public historian, with a penchant for all things red, black, and green. An Olorisha Yemayá, memory worker, alchemist. A steward of remembrance. A Mother to a Sun. A vinyl collector of Caribbean, Afro Native, and Southern heritage. Fifth generation Gullah Geechee from unceded Wecquaesgeek territory in Lenapehoking (Upper Manhattan, New York City). She enjoys tending to her altars and conspiring with the Universe for all good things. You can find her annotating her books while, too, sipping on wine she usually can’t afford, and any pilsner or lager. Prefers a cup of dark roast coffee, speaking to spirit, and being barefoot on the grass. Wherever she goes, so do her ancestors.
Eldest Daughters. Mothers. First of Our Names. Aquarian Moons. Making Dope, Important Shit.
ILE OMI
(ee-leh o-me)
DUE TO GENTRIFICATION AND AN AFFORDABILITY CRISIS, BED-STUY, BROOKLYN IS LOSING MANY OF ITS BLACK CHURCHES ALONG WITH ITS BLACK RESIDENTS. SIMILAR TO THE WORK THAT ARTIST THEASTER GATES IS DOING AT THE STONY ISLAND ARTS BANK IN CHICAGO, IL, WE AIM TO CONVERT AN ABANDONED BLACK CHURCH IN BEDSTUY INTO ILE OMI (HOUSE OF WATER), A CREATIVE HAVEN. AN INCUBATOR AND THIRD SPACE FOR BLACK CULTURAL PRESERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT, ILE OMI WILL BE HOME TO OUR COLLECTIONS AND PROGRAMS, INCLUDING: OUR ARCHIVE, LIBRARY, FILM SCREENINGS, PUBLIC PROGRAMMING, AND INTERGENERATIONAL GATHERINGS.
swim good, swim deep
swim good, swim deep
hit our line: alafia@thickerthan.com
follow us: @thickerthancreative