Magical Youth Creations from Portal Orisa ✨✨✨
My gosh!!! I’m still vibing high after spending 4 weeks working and co-creating with some brilliant 7th, 8th, and 9th graders at the Heads Up Summer program 2021. Super shout out to the team at The Peoples Conservatory and Heads Up Oakland for the opportunity to make art giving honor and thanks to waters and the orishas that represent this powerful element. We spent time with three orishas of the Ifa Orisa Yoruba spiritual tradition; Oshun, Yemaya, and Oya. Each energy, each Goddess giving us reminders to honor our intuitive, ancestral, and earthly knowledges and intelligences.
Click through the gallery above to see what we made over the last four weeks and read below for brief descriptions on each orisha!
Oshun is the Yoruba Goddess of the Fresh waters, rivers, and streams. She is the orisha that represents the power in self-love, creative agency, universal love. You can find her draped in colors of yellow, orange, and gold and surrounded by sun-kissed sunflowers. In Yoruba folklore, it is Oshun, not the other male orishas, who restores life giving fresh waters back to the land ensuring the ever flow of abundance, happiness and peace. Oshun’s energy can be found in all things associated with the arts ie: movement, dance, singing, visual arts. She is the reminder to enjoy and embody the sweetness of life. Ashe.
Yemaya is the Mother of the Saltwaters, the Oceans. She is the orisha who guards all fo the waters. She is the Mother of the Sea, the Mother of the Fishes. You can find her wearing all kinds of ocean blues and whites surrounded by sea shells, sea creatures, and ripe juicy watermelons. Some patakis or stories about the orishas say that it was Yemaya who gave birth to all of the orishas. Olokun is the masculine or sometimes genderqueer aspect of Yemaya. Olokun guards the depths of the Ocean. Olokun’s energy is found in our dreams. The realm of the subconscious and intuition. In some African Diasporic traditions it is believe that it is Yemaya/Olokun who gave the ancestors strength and resilience during the MAAFA/ forced kidnapping and enslavement of Africans to the Americas.
Oya is the warrior orisha of Change and Transformation. She is the goddess of the Winds, Storms, Rains, and Lightning. She is the Change Bringer. The Custodian of Renewal and Rebirth. Her colors are red, orange, brown, deep purples. Oya is a fierce warrior and is a great protector of womxn and anyone who has suffered or experienced the harm and isolation of being marginalized. She is the Justice Bringer and Truthsayer. Oya’s energy can be found in the fierce Dahomey Warriors of Benin (the all female warrior force that repeatedly fought against the French and their attempts to colonize West Africa). Oya’s energy can also be found in present day freedom fighters, the ones using their voice to call for mass systemic, cultural and social change. Oya is also known for preside over the market place and also protects the resting place of the ancestors.
Want to learn more about the orishas????