hey beloved, my name is ajanaé dawkins

i’m a poet, conceptual artist and christian theologian. i was born and bred in the Black apostolic church—reared by artists, preachers, prophets, and educators. so imagine my surprise when i became an artist in the world and realized people treat the artist’s craft like a secular practice instead of a spiritual technology. i saw the way critics treated the art i considered prophetic, sacred, and Spirit-filled—like it was all a matter of metaphor, politics, magical realism or flesh. i saw the way fundamentalist christians treated that same art and those of us who made it—like we were getting away with the devil—like we were abandoning God instead of finding Him. all this because we could articulate pleasure, anger, doubt, and love with the same veracity that we praised Her with. i decided that i wanted to deal with art and artists as i saw them—believing they create radical spiritual encounters. 

OILY is the culmination of a lifetime of spiritual encounters with Black art and the Black church. it’s the culmination of years of deconstruction, of reconstruction, of almost losing my faith, of miraculously maintaining awe for the Holy Spirit and the Gospel despite, despite. 

so, welcome. the doors are open.

yours, 

ajanaé dawkins