“We know you want us to hate our skin,” declares poet Jasmine Mans in PANGAIA’s new short film. “To trade our sexuality in for the bending, closests, the fitting in. We know you want our obedience, our silence, but our voices weigh too heavy on the pendulum.”
Titled Wè, the film is a defiant celebration of Black queerness, created to mark LGBTQ+ History Month, which began last week.
The brainchild of material science clothing brand PANGAIA, the short also aims to highlight conversations around the intersection between climate and racial justice – with the environmental crisis disproportionately affecting communities of colour, you cannot have one without the other.
With this in mind, PANGAIA hand-selected five people whose work integrates community and creativity. Dressed head-to-toe in the brand’s brightly coloured clothes are 2020 Dazed 100er McKenzie Freedem – AKA the Trap Gardener and founder of The Underground Plant Trade – urban educator Isa Jamira, stylist and Public Assistants founder Akua Murray, and model, actor, and musician Matthew Addison.
The film, which premiered on NOWNESS, is narrated by Mans, who reads an original poem, and directed by Rodney Passé. Watch it below.