Welcoming Text by Cy X

May we remember,

We are all bodies of water carrying the memory of all that we encounter and everything and everyone we have been. When I remember, I allow a spell to greet my inner being, transforming everything that touches me, inside.

touching my insides with words, with love, with stories.
An erotic thing.
An erotic thing.

I spent two months crying by the East River after having my heart broken by a mercurial being back in the first two months of 2022. Marsha P. Johnson State Park became my home and the river became my mother.

Somehow no matter how much I cried, my pain was not too much to be held by the vastness of what surrounds this island so there was no need to feel sorry for myself. I was encouraged to feel.

In March 2022, I performed a ritual for connecting with this land and water that held me so tenderly. My bare feet exposed opened me up to stories of ancestral human and other-than-human violence, struggles, and eros. The wind introduced me to the whispers of spirits. Fresh water poured on my crown revealed future dreams manifested.

Still Image from “Water Me,” (2022) by Cy X

In April, “Water as Technology Open Residency,” was born and with it new mythos emerged.

Drip, drop, water drop. We cried.
Drip, drop, water drop. We thirsted.
Drip, drop, water drop. We pissed.
Drip, drop, water drop. We bled.
Drip, drop, water drop. We acknowledged.
Drip, drop, water drop. We dreamed.

Inspired by Sonia Kiran’s “Gatebreaking Manifesto” and a tenticular continuation of my “Intro to Cyber Witch Practices,” piece, the residency was an invitation and open residency for collective engagement with water as technology through a series of synchronous and asynchronous and in-person and online activations (readings, journal prompts, rituals, performances, conversations, medicine making, dreaming, etc) free & open to all.

Gatebreak Diary designed by Sonia Kiran

We do not and should not have to rely on the mysterious gatekeepers of the art world, academia, or any institution to grant us access to resources or give us permission to gather, to share our knowledge, and to nourish each other.

The dream of the open residency was to demand my right to love and to proclaim my need to not be alone through the remembering that we are never alone. It is this seed that I gave to all “Water as Technology” residents and the seed that I give to you.

May we remember,
We can gather.
We can share our knowledge.
We can nourish each other.