Arc of Return and the sanctuary of wound

The Arc of Return is a life-size wooden boat covered in hundreds of hand-etched and patinated copper plates. Each plate is inscribed with Afrofuturist writing codecs, spirit writing, prayers and sacred symbols of the diaspora. The written scales serve as homage to the erased and stolen languages of African diasporic and Indigenous peoples. The boat is both a symbol of eternal return for African diasporic bodies and an active site of Black perpetuity.

The center of the boat holds a 72-inch solid copper plate. The plate is hand-etched and patinated with a single three-headed figure called The Black Goddexx of Time. She is the matriarch of time—past, present and future. She is the conductor of Black and Indigenous bodies through our endless returns, the Afrofuturist “Harriet Tubman’’ ferrying us across the treacherous and potent waters of our histories.

The Sanctuary of Wound serves as a symbolic membrane and protective enclosure for The Arc of Return. This 20-foot vertical partial enclosure is made of 108 yards of loose weave cotton, the equivalent to a single day’s work for an enslaved Black ancestor. This cotton membrane is infused with wheat, sugar and corn.

-Nikesha Breeze