Reclaiming the Sacred: Black Queer Cosmology and the Art of Remembrance

Echoes of Ancient Wisdom

Across the African diaspora, various spiritual traditions have long celebrated the union of masculine and feminine energies. From the Dogons of Mali, who speak of Amma, a creator with both male and female attributes, to the Fawn people of Benin, who honor Ma Lisa, a twin deity embodying both masculine and feminine faces, these traditions recognized and revered the fluidity of gender and sexuality. In Haiti, the creator is Dambala, a rainbow serpent, symbolizing that diversity itself is divine.

Within these cosmologies, queer individuals were not seen as outsiders but as central figures, embodying the crucial energies of both male and female. They were the gatekeepers between the visible and invisible worlds, bridging the earthly and the divine.

The Disruption of Empire and Erasure

The rise of empire and colonialism brought disruption to these traditions. In the 4th century, Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire and launched an attack on other forms of cultural and spiritual expression. Constantine's laws outlawed African rituals, banned the creation of sacred images, and sought to exterminate entire groups, such as the queer priesthoods of Egypt who honored the river through "effeminate men."

These laws were an attempt to erase entire ways of being and knowing, severing the connection to memory, imagination, and sacred selves. The trauma of this cultural genocide continues to resonate today.

Rainbow Serpent: Reimagining Black Queer Cosmologies

Rainbow Serpent was born as a response to this erasure, an art, technology, and spirituality collective dedicated to reimagining a cosmology of Black queer wisdom for today. With members across the United States, the UK, Brazil, Nigeria, and Romania, the collective shares a conviction that the sacred lives within and that Black queer creativity is a portal into what has been hidden, forgotten, or erased.

Through sculpture, performance, film, virtual reality, photography, light installation, and painting, Rainbow Serpent gives form to that which empire tried to erase. One of their signature projects, "Myth Science of the Gatekeepers," is a series of 16 glass sculptures of Black queer ancient Egyptian deities who were pushed out of history. One such figure is Hoppy, the personification of the Nile River's abundance, depicted as a man with a full pregnant belly and large breasts. Hoppy embodies both masculine and feminine energies, a queer river god celebrated by a queer priesthood.

Marques Redd chose to be the model for the Hoppy sculpture and felt a profound connection to the deity during the process. It was as if Hoppy was saying, "I never left. I was waiting for you to remember."

Opening the Gates: Performance and Virtual Reality

Rainbow Serpent's work extends beyond sculpture to performance and virtual reality. In their performance, "Opening the Mouth," they restaged an ancient Egyptian ritual of animation and resurrection in a contemporary gallery. With performers, offerings of flowers and ribbons, sacred poses, and light projections, the sculptures became living icons.

In "Black Star Sanctuary," they built a temple in virtual reality where visitors can walk alongside the rainbow serpent, towering deities, and even enter the tomb of Nyankanum and Kumateep, the first recorded same-sex couple in human history from approximately 2500 B.C.E.

These works have deeply moved audiences, evoking a sense of connection to something ancient and still breathing.

A Growing Movement

The Rainbow Serpent Collective is expanding, with artists like painter Devon Shimayyama reimagining deities like Nu, the god of the primordial waters of creation, and digital collage artist Granville Carroll crafting cosmic visions of these figures within a futuristic Black cosmos. Each work is another thread, each artist opening a new gate. Together, they are building a movement and weaving a new pantheon for our time.

Remembering and Reimagining

The laws that sought to exterminate and erase Black queer identities did not succeed. The knowledge of the queer priesthoods was not destroyed but flowed underground and rises again today. This work is not just about Rainbow Serpent; it is about what gets erased and what we choose to remember. What we remember, we can reimagine.

They tried to silence us, but we were never quiet. They buried the sacred, but the roots lived on. We remember. We reimagine. And the gates are open.