Whale Whispering Blog
We are one.
We are one. That is the central message pulsing through this web that’s spinning forth from me and that I’m being woven into, this confluence of sound and image through and across waves of various types (marine, sound, brain…) that, for now, is called Whale Whispering. I’m singing to and with humpback whales in Bahia, Brazil, birthing songs to contribute to the mending of the shattered collective spirit of humanity and support the protection, recovery, and homeostasis of the environment we share with the other beings of Earth--by tuning in to water. I am healing myself in the process, which is integral to the process, and learning more and more from water about how to heal water and heal with water. Training my attention on the messages contained within the humpbacks’ songs. Tapping into whale medicine, this music of the seas, as a way to address and transmute the trauma and systemic brutality that the legacies of colonization and enslavement have wrought globally on people of African descent and indigenous folks while fomenting institutionalized disregard for and harm to the planet itself. Trolling the Atlantic for aural remedies to the disastrous delusion of division.
I’ve said in the past that the initial flicker for this undertaking appeared decades ago when I first heard the singing of humpback whales, though what’s more true is that this is (part of) an ancestral assignment I was born to fulfill. The sonant imprint of my ancestors trills unmistakably in my blood, which is why I can identify its traces without hesitation in the songs of the whales (the source of the Blues…the Middle Passage moan)…And why I know too, without a doubt, that those ancestors who made that crossing came ashore with strains of whale hymns incorporated into the singing they would need to do in order to sustain a current of certainty in miracles flowing toward multi-directional freedoms and transformations.
The shape of this project as it currently exists has sprouted from a collective visioning process between myself and the whales; their intentions and ideas are as integral to it as are mine, and as difficult as it will be for some people to accept, the realization of this vision can only occur as a result of the telepathic communication that exists in this evolving relationship. This is totem work, and I am clear that not only is interspecies communication possible, it is necessary for what must be a collaborative effort to mitigate the effects of climate change on the ecosystems of the planet. While humans are responsible for causing the harm that has been inflicted, we must understand ourselves as part of the natural world in order to effectively participate in healing the damage to it (ourselves included). Listening to nature is key to developing that understanding. This is an elementary component of the vast majority of indigenous worldviews, but the modern, Western, corporate mindset and the media it fuels have worked wonders at erasing/blocking this awareness from far too many minds. The whales are speaking in the “language we all understand,” to quote Stevie Wonder—music. I am among those who are listening, and am compelled to combine my songs, which are seasoned by the songs of my ancestors, with theirs, which are seasoned by the songs of their ancestors as well as mine. We sing songs together, the whales and I, come together on the open sea to share them, and invite the world to listen and watch and sing along.
This is a holistic process leading to more holistic processes and products; it spans the reaches between the surface and the depths, just as the whales do. In order for me to effectively complete my part in this creative mission, in order to truly tune in to the language of the whales and bring through lyrics, melodies and arrangements that do justice to their expressions, in order to be impactful in supporting the detoxification of the waters, I must dive fully into my own process of detoxification, and share that through this work. Detoxify my lifestyle of practices that are harmful to both the external environment and to my own person. Make the point that this is what is required for us to truly transform the situation in which we find ourselves globally—we must transform ourselves in order to transform our environment. We must heal ourselves in order to heal the world. I want the sharing of my journey of transformation (truly committing to being much less dependent on oil and plastics, overcoming sugar addiction, and doing the ongoing spiritual, physical, emotional and mental work of freeing myself from the twisted knots of ancestral trauma, for example) to be part of the story that is told through Whale Whispering. This blog is one of the ways I intend to share the process as it unfolds. Eventually there will be recordings and a documentary film related to this project, but I’ve come to understand that this work is about so much more than those specific outcomes. (For those who are new to Whale Whispering and would like to read the original description of the project and trace its trajectory from its inception, follow this link. I invite readers and supporters to journey with me, to accompany me as I peel back successive layers of this creative work, the whales’ songs, and myself. I invite readers and supporters into this healing space with me; We are One.
Ambassador (Part 1)
Whalesong becomes like a carrier oil for the fragrance of our sung prayers, our voices like the scents of sweet olive, angel’s trumpet, jasmine, magnolia and gardenia commingling in the dense damp of underwater air on a July night in New Orleans, an oil that is not blubber, that is not crude, that is not extraction, but offering, tribute to the living temple upon which we dwell in our living temples. We send it wafting through tributaries to reach the oceans where everything connects; confluence is the goal and the guarantee. From Rock Creek we float prayers to Palestine and Israel, because the river does indeed join the sea, which is Red and was parted once for freedom’s sake, so the Torah says. We wade in the water as Harriet insisted/insists we do, for freedom’s sake, for Love’s sake, for survival, for blue. and green and aquamarine and all the colors no human has ever seen
Aquamarine* (for Earth Day 2023)
There are so many images of obsidian sludge smothering the wildlife of the Gulf of Mexico imprinted on my mind, and I remember my neighbor May, a young lawyer who represented her Vietnamese community in New Orleans like a boss as the fisherfolk reeled from the impact of the disaster on their livelihood. I recall the sea running black and then, during another oil spill just two years ago, the water itself catching fire. Fire on the water, what a strangeness…And somehow, beauty in it all: that blazing ring of marigold only enhanced the art already emanating from the waves. In Bahia, I love all the colors that the waters of the bay relay; the indigo information in the more profound reaches of the Atlantic move me immensely, as do the teals and turquoises of the spans between the coast and the deep. Still, something about the liquid gem that the ocean becomes close to the shoreline stirs a primal force in me, one that feels integral to the very core of my identity.
What It Takes to Breach
The treasure I dive for isn’t one I can touch or feel with my hands but my heart, my soul, my mind can expand to hold the heavy of all that this song is encrypting into me. Every atom in my 3-D form thrums with the whales’ emanations and I don’t yet know that it’s exactly what I will need in the moments to come, but I don’t have to know. I am Present…Here…inside the sound…
Lamento/Interstellar
“Lamento” is the name of this song. In Portuguese it can be understood as the noun form of “lament” or the first-person conjugation, “I lament/I am lamenting;” here both meanings apply. A lament for the condition of the waters that are so disturbed, so desecrated, so dishonored daily, like the chemical plant-pocked Mississippi River and the Earthblood/crude oil-soaked Gulf of Mexico…
Soundtrack for a Red, Black and Green New Deal
I’m so honored to report that the first song given directly to me by the whales (as in: “Sing this”) is featured as the soundtrack for the “Water” video that is part of the Movement for Black Lives’ Red, Black and Green New Deal Initiative (A National Black Climate Agenda - The Red Black and Green New Deal (redblackgreennewdeal.org), which was launched in conjunction with the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy (Home | GCCLP) last month.
A Brief Detour to the Gulf of Mexico…
In my last post I mentioned a dolphin encounter that turned out to be one of the seeds of Whale Whispering, and since then a few people have expressed their eagerness to hear the story, so here’s the follow-up. When I began to think about writing it down, it occurred to me that it would be much more interesting to add a little variety to the format and record a conversation between me and the person who was actually the impetus behind that fateful journey out into the Gulf of Mexico long before Whale Whispering became even a concrete idea, my dear friend and brilliant artist, Torkwase Dyson. Her work, as we discuss, has many parallels to this project (learn more here: https://www.torkwasedyson.com), and I wanted to get her perspective on how things went that day since it’s been years and as much as we marveled about it afterwards, we never sat down to share our memories of it with each other in any detail. Feel free to witness our session full of giggles (with a few tears folded in) as we recount the magic and its transformative, uplifting, inspirational impact below.
Over My Head
Somehow six weeks passed in the time it takes a wave to kiss the shore yet 2020 started eons ago, and the Whale Whispering time warp remains in full effect. I started so many blog entries during my stay, but have yet to post any because they’re all incomplete; as much as I tried, I could not get to the words about what I was living, I could only breathe through and be present for the living of it. This time around there was heartbreak that blew my chest wide open like an exploded dam, all for the sake of the flow, shattering the last vestiges of my resistance to complete surrender to my path. I had to go elemental, submerge, truly begin to establish fluency in the language of water, sometimes with words, sometimes without, and be much more focused on that exchange being with the whales, the water itself, the spirits accompanying me than with other humans. I had to listen intently as those Middle Passage journeyers really began to make themselves heard and felt, and be quiet within myself to absorb everything and expand with it, be taken by the current to the healing source inside.
Jam Session, Part 2
Photo by Marcos Rossi Santos
Take a leap of grace. Right now, today. That’s the Whale Whispering memo as I type this after rising at the edge of dawn to a luminescence so insistent that it pulled me out of sleep well before the sun showed its face. I opened my eyes to the shaft cascading through my window to splash onto the wall above my bed like a beam from some heavenly projector, and images of leaping whales filled the screen that the moon had made of my dream sanctuary, though I was most definitely awake.
Omi-O!
Omi-O! This simple Yoruba salutation to water (which is also used to praise the orisha Yemonja and/or Oshun in different branches of the Yoruba spiritual tradition) is my mantra these days. I’ve also been testing out using it as a greeting more and more—a way of saying, “the water in me honors the water in you.” While some of the songs emerging through this co-creative process are very personal expressions addressing my specific healing needs/journey, most of them are intended as offerings to be sung collectively to water.
Jam Session, Part 1
Dreaming couldn’t top this, I’m sure of it. I could be defying all the laws of physics, seeing the notes prance up from the water’s surface one-by-one as tiny faeries, watching UFOs bob and weave to the cadence of the music the whales and I are making together, and it wouldn’t be any more miraculous than this moment. Crouched down on the floor of a fishing boat with a pea-green towel draped over me so the CB I’m singing into will pick up less wind interference, I project my voice through the fathoms between me and the humpbacks.
“Tell them we’ve been talking to you through the bones.”
That’s what I heard when I finally sat down to try to shape this into something communicable: this answer from the whales—a starting point. I have been, for the most part, stunned into wordlessness, dumbed by the awe that has crested over me in wave after wave as I’ve surrendered myself to this Whale Whispering journey, this ancestral journey, this Nature walk, this water way…
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