Fieldnote 2
archiving rest in our bodies
Good morning and happy Saturday.
This February has had a beautiful symmetry to it; I enjoy an easy pattern. Two migraine episodes, each one a double whammy of back-to-back 3 days.
The first one circled the visit to the school I told you about in the last field note. This second one circled a conference I’ll be presenting at (remotely) in 10 minutes- the annual conference for the Friends of the Huntley Archives at the London Archives (FHALMA) in Clerkenwell.
There’s a lot of talking to/with myself I need to do to figure out what those two experiences had in common, so I don’t fall here again. But as with every painful experience in my life, I gained a bunch of things from this past week.
A rare successful practical of the long life lesson: I don’t have to push through pain.
A reminder of Sweet Medicine’s gospel that-
Integrity is actually a really lovely thing, one of the best things about life. (One of the best gifts I give myself, and on most days the only thing I want to receive from myself. For the sake of coherence. Peace of mind.)
Integrity stands no chance without awareness/knowledge-of-the-thing. Know and accept the capacity/the tendency/the substance, set a standard in accordance with what’s there, hold the standard.
About my coming presentation at the FHALMA conference:
I’ll be screening my heart-filled 2025 film ‘Our Bodies, Nigeria’s Ghosts’ followed by a discussion facilitated by Amarachi Iheke PhD.
Rose Abba’s memoir-documentary traces how rhythms of living—movement, discipline, survival and care—are inherited, imposed, and consciously chosen across generations. Set in present-day Nigeria, the film reflects on the afterlives of British colonialism and the ways power, punishment and community continue to be inscribed in the body. Blending documentary, performance and reimagined archival footage, the work approaches history through rhythm rather than spectacle, positioning the body itself as archive.
‘Our Bodies, Nigeria’s Ghosts’ was made through the post-Memory post-Archive fellowship at the Goethe-Institut Lagos.
My whole thing with Studio Styles is cultivating social healing through projects that deepen our relationships with ourselves, our communities, our histories and our environments.
In the way that Restful, the anthology, the newsletter, and the publishing company is my way of inviting deeper relationships with our selves and our communities, my films ‘You Matter to Me [youtube link]’ (2022) and ‘Our Bodies, Nigeria’s Ghosts’ (2025) are about inviting deeper, deeeeeper relationships with our communities and our histories.
One of my sisters is helping me sell copies of Restful at the conference’s book stand too, yay!
About FHALMA:
The Huntley Archives is born from the legacy of Guyanese-born political activists, Jessica and Eric Huntley, co-founders of the radical publishing house Bogle-L’Ouverture Publications (later Walter Rodney bookshop), one of the first black-led independent publishing companies established in the UK.
The archive’s mission is to promote Caribbean and African heritage through education and arts projects from the Black British narratives found in the Huntley Collections at the London Archives, City of London.