notes on The Clearing no.1
process notes, clearing n salt
The following list is of themes and ideas swirling through clearing n’ salt, a track I made for the Black August Mix Tape, BLACK NOISE fuh BLACK AUGUST VOLUME 7. I started working on the track in June 2025 and finished it sometime in July 2025. The process list was made on August 25th, 2025 and sits in my notes app sandwiched between other art ideas & notations from hospice nurse visits for my mom, who passed on August 28th, 2025.
Creation, grief, love and care taking surround this work, quiet literally. While not detailed in the track, or in the notes, the shifting of my own world is laced throughout the recording and the list.
clearing as a portal
the break - reset, the break is also a space, and a queue, like a tether keeping you from getting swept up, a protection in the clearing of it all
soothing repetition
grief work
rhythm as soothing, groove as soothing
storm
salt in the earth and tears and oceans
salt for healing
vocal repetitions - repeating the soothing sound; embodied soothing through vocals
repetition and starting over, repetition as starting over
the clearing is an active space, not a space that you can stay
repetition in movement practice to go deeper into movement into embodiment.
something in the chant really spoke to me - clearing, conjuring up community and inviting in community, the chant feels like a reminder - something to keep exploring
“Dom tete teke dom diir
One side of the Hill calling to the other.
Bateke teke bembe wahh
The call and response, drums on the move, a gathering summoned.
Rada rada boom tete wahh
Echoed from the park.
Rada rede tum vida omm
Feedback and contagion.”
The Salt Eaters, Toni Cade Bambara
Toni Cade Bambara and Toni Morrison have a deep hold over me right now. I am connected with the chant, and I am drawn deep into ‘The Clearing.’ My work with these authors specifically in regard to these concepts started in 2024. clearing n’ salt is a new(ish) sound score layered with audio clips and voice recordings created for my solo rituals of becoming: chaotic reckoning, a.k.a ROB:CHAOS (2024). My mom was moving through the progression of early on set dementia and my grief for her in that journey started in 2020. Still, she wasn’t seemingly nearing end of life anytime soon in 2024.
I listen back to the origin track from ROB:CHAOS, and its strange hearing clips from Donny Hathaway’s For All We Know, the song I selected for the processional for my mothers funeral services, nestled in the chaotic score. Spirit moves in interesting ways, I did not know I would be here grieving, mourning, and amazed everyday, at how I can even stand do anything but wail. Spirit moved through me creatively to make a vulnerable work detailing my own process(es) of becoming, and the chaotic reckoning that engulfed me.
I am still engulfed, and the threshold I am moving through is still chaotic. Less of a reckoning of my own experiences and more of reckoning with grief, deep love, unsurmountable loss, pain and forgiveness. The work transforms and transformed and continues to hold me still. Spirit moves with a knowingness that I do not seek to comprehend. I am grateful for my the way deep listening and surrender became parts of my creative practice. Creation work is Spiritual work (for me), and I will continue to listen as the work and life and grief continue to move.