Vilan Sells and Stevens Orozco in conversation during ROOTS Week: Houston. Video still from Preshxus Guide
July 2023 | Stevens Orozco
——-Over the past two years, I have been determined to cultivate joy in my life and to feel the most present that I can in everything that I do. This determination has been the result of my experience as a community organizer and political activist in Houston since 2013––with all of the accumulated mental wear and tear that comes with that work–– and with the addition of the heaviness of the news cycle. The COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine would place the majority of us inside of our homes with nothing but time to think and reflect on our lives, or at least that is how I took that season of mandated solitude. The result became clear to me: I must cultivate joy in my life. I also recognized that the path to this joy will only be successful if I love on my inner child in ways I have not in my adulthood. This past summer of 2022 continued my journey as I navigated through busy work days at Kindred Stories bookstore, collaborative photography sessions, and intimate gatherings with like minds to activate our artistic practices for resistance. In August I was honored to continue this collective practice even further at ROOTS Week in Houston. My search for joy was affirmed even further by this opportunity to build community with new faces.
ROOTS Week Houston 2022. Photo by Eric Michael Ward
——-bell hooks establishes her most celebrated work all about love by “echoing” the words of Erich Fromm to define love as “the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.” The practice of nurturing the well-being of myself and others became both the focus of my path and also how I recognize the community that resonates with the same journey. This helped me connect with those who became my chosen family during my active political organizing days. It also guides my artistic collaborations in Third Ward, where I live. Third Ward is one of Houston’s historically Black neighborhoods, where gentrification is mixing with artistic renaissance and a community-organizing boom. In this setting, I witnessed more of this nurturing practice of love made possible by the invitation of my friend Leticia Contreras to host a workshop for Alternate ROOTS. The experience reaffirmed my focus and validated my practice to continue this path for joy.
——-Leticia asked me to expand on previous conversations we have organized over the past year around activating community art and resistance. Organizing and documenting talks has become one of my favorite practices of community building. I’ve been part of panel discussions, radio interviews, podcast sessions, and in most of these, I have helped facilitate the conversations. With all of the political shifts occurring in the U.S. and especially here in Texas, the dialogue around resistance through creative means has become my refuge from mental stress. Even though I don’t succeed in pushing back on burnout every day, I can recognize that my practice of self-love has helped me avoid the downward spiral of doom scrolling and pessimism. With Leticia’s invitation to curate another dialogue on activating community resistance through the arts, I reached out to Vilan Sellsa, a friend and source of inspiration, to join me for ROOTS Week in Houston.
——-I have known Vilan close to five years now. She is a poet and American Sign Language teacher. I thought about her when I was reflecting on who I would like to share a dialogue with during our workshop time at ROOTS Week. Vilan also lives in Third Ward and we often see each other at events throughout Houston. She stands out as an example of an artist who cultivates a nurturing environment and also practices resistance in her own unique way. I wanted to hear her speak on her experience as an ASL teacher and the many ways her work as a poet overlaps. During our dialogue, as Vilan spoke on her experiences and lessons, I looked around the ROOTS community and fully soaked in the moment. I had walked away from the active work of organizing in the Spring of 2017, and to be present in a space where cultivating loving relationships between members through the work of organizing and community building brought joy to my heart during that moment at ROOTS week. I was reminded of the reasons why I was able to push through difficult times as an activist. The space for nurturing during my talk with Vilan and ROOTS members gave me a sense of relief, knowing that there are groups of people out there who can do this work the right way.
——-By the end of the workshop I felt that I had received more than I gave during our session. The Q&A portion gave me a moment to reflect on my decision to stop identifying as an activist: I yielded that title to those who do this work every day, and felt the title had become overused and co-opted. The ROOTS membership pushed back a little and reaffirmed to me that I still get to claim that title because we all do what we can with the time that we have. The work we do and the intention with which we do it will always speak louder than empty claims of titles. That was the most powerful moment I walked away with that day.
——-My inner child has always wanted to be helpful and is my source for deep empathy for others. It is that part of me that led me to organizing and activism. The realities of the work had made me confront anger and depression after years of active resistance, and today my focus on nurturing myself and others has strengthened my practice of cultivating joy. Opportunities to continue to build community through dialogue, artistic collaborations, and play have been my source of renewed inspiration. The time with Alternate ROOTS was the latest affirming example that this has been the right path to follow and one that I will continue to advocate for.
Photographer unknown
Stevens Orozco is a Writer, Organizer, and Archivist who lives in Third Ward, Houston. Currently he works at Kindred Stories, a Black Woman owned bookstore, as its Operations Lead and Community Liaison. In addition, Stevens currently is teaching English courses at Lonestar College as an adjunct professor. Stevens self-published In These Black and Brown Hands: A Political Memoir in 2017.