An Intro from the author, Keisha Janae -

This piece is called “Out of the Box Home.” It defines what I feel is the experience of black bodies having “no land.” As I trace through my memories and thoughts, I contemplate on the freedom I feel in dark spaces, where I discover and redefine who I am in this existence.

Out of the Box Home

Growing up, I used to be fascinated with creating my own "out of the box home."

I'd find boxes, tape them together and stack them on top of each other.

I'd go outside and create fortresses out of trees and branches. I'd sit in it's darkness and imagine myself shaping images.

I'd go in my closet, in the crease between a tub of clothes and the wall, close my eyes and imagine myself with super powers,
flying and bending fire with my hands.

I could only imagine like that, with the loss of light and complete blackness, no distractions. I could see my slate clean. And oh I painted. I painted my world, my land, my home.

They say my ethnicity is African American, but that's wrong. I am African, but distant. Africa was once my homeland, but it does not inform this present body. I'm not American, because this land is not mine. It is defined a stolen land, and neither my ancestor nor my present body stole this land.

So i'm nameless. I'm blackness. I am a race, not a place. I have no land..... But when I close my eyes, I don't need land. I'm the space between land and space. I am space. I am black infinite space. 

I am not an imagined concept to divide the human race. I am not forced upon, stuck in an involuntary place.

I am power. I am undefined misunderstood clear meditated dark space.

Now watch me craft home in that. Watch me livvvvve in that.
Look at that.
I’m that.

That right there.

That’s that.
That, that is not black. That is that.
Dig that.

How do you interpret that.
That stolen language.
That has to be listened through that. To get that.

How can I see that.
That, that is not black.
The space between right there and that.
dark space.
I was trained to fear dark space.
That, that is too dark to see, cannot be seen to be heard. That is only felt. It is only felt.

I am Art
There exist 6 senses in space .
Where Gravity is lost.
You see. You feel. You taste. You smell. You hear light. You balance. You float.
Let us wave
Space is not earth
In between earth and space is space.

(Still)

-Keisha Janae