blue notes, no.1 – Isaiah Lopaz

In his essay, the writer and artist Isaiah Lopaz tells of recovered memories, yearning desires and the bitter and painful disappointment that his place of refuge, Europe, became. His text powerfully bears witness to how, despite racism and exclusion, he finds himself in his diverse and polyphonic identities, where he develops his own poetic language and power. The text is accompanied by thirteen collages from the series ‘Anthology/Appendix’, which deals with themes such as diaspora, desire, isolation and belonging. ‘Fluent in the Languages of my Selves’ opens the series blue notes. Blue notes publishes intersectional voices and invites us to explore marginalized experiences and perspectives in short literary and visual formats. Like the blues notes of the title, they create resistant dissonances. Isaiah Lopaz is a transdisciplinary artist and writer who works with collages, performances, text-based media and curated dialogue formats. Born on occupied Tongva land and raised in a working class African American home, Lopaz is a queer multilocal migrant of Geechee, Anishinaabe, and Muskogee heritage, based in Berlin, Bruxelles, and Rotterdam.