NOWNESS presents a profound examination of political resistance and existential grief through the lens of sound and poetry, captured in the work, "A sonic meditation on grief and the voice of resistance," by creative duo Rohan Ayinde and Tayo Rapoport. The piece dissects love not merely as an emotion, but as a visceral, uncompromising commitment to engagement with the world’s deepest pain, juxtaposing extreme vulnerability with relentless political purpose.
The core definition of love hazarded by the speaker is deeply rooted in torment and perseverance, described as "the night and gale flying into the heart of the earth into its torment". This love is characterized by a fragile but unrelenting presence, exemplified by the nightingale "flying into the heart of the earth into its torment into the depth of the womb". The voice remains steadfast—"fragile as the last Nightingale song unrelenting in the grove unafraid"—even as chaos reigns around it, with people standing together near its song while others "raid the city" and send families out. This unwavering presence stems from a fundamental "need to grieve," a love tied inextricably to loss: "I want the ones that grew these trees, the ones that left me water the ones that echoed my calls to stay". The speaker expresses being "in love with the world and its waves with the tender night and Gale wetting it not yet knowing it's the last".
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This personal capacity for love and grief forms the "final frontier" of the political commitment articulated in the meditation. The speaker explicitly states: "my capacity to love is my capacity to fight animates my political commitment to building a world premised on human flourishing on being free". This vision of freedom is defined specifically by its opposition to current global structures, demanding a world "devoid of the logics of capital that dictate how we currently think move act and relate to one another".
The meditation ultimately pivots toward the future and hope, even in anticipation of global catastrophe. The speaker vows to "cross straight back," flying to the children, their families, and return their souls while they sleep. The piece concludes with a powerful image of preserving memory and seeding the future: when the earth ends, the speaker will hold a hair from an animal running in the garden of their childhood, shaking it until a "smaller one emerges: this one is the future". This emerging future entity, placed on the speaker’s shadow, is prophesied to "never tire," to "exist longer than your nations," and to "outdo it all time fear the light". The work thus defines resistance through enduring affection and a determined focus on a liberated existence that transcends current political and economic limitations.
