Braided Prophecy: Passed & Present
For Black History Month, we are honored to share
“Braided Prophecy: Passed & Present” by Phoenix "PHNX" Amaterasu (@phnx.wav).
PHNX created this work as a reflection on Afro-Indigenous identity, belonging, and wholeness. It speaks to the deep knowledge carried through our lineages and the reality that our DNA does not separate, even when colonial systems attempt to divide or other us. For many Afro-Indigenous people navigating diaspora and recognition, belonging can feel contested or conditional. This piece affirms that we already belong and that unity must be cultivated not only in community, but within ourselves.
Mixed Media Collage + Poem | Materials: Magazine/Book Cutouts, Acrylic Paint, Thread, Yarn, Paper, Ink, Modge Podge
This piece begins with the cosmos, our first home. It reflects an understanding shared across Indigenous, African, and diasporic cultures that we come from the stars and remain in relationship with them. The sun appears as a shared source of life, light, and melanin, symbolizing both gratitude and a brighter collective future. Spirals woven throughout the work represent DNA, hair, and the double helix of existence, reminding us that our connection to the universe lives within our bodies and lineages.
At the center of the piece, figures weave and carry threads of gold and red through sky, land, and community. These threads symbolize soul and blood, memory and responsibility, connecting elders, youth, warriors, and caregivers across generations. Hair and braiding appear as sacred acts of knowledge keeping, resilience, and love, honoring the ways Black and Indigenous peoples have carried seeds, stories, and survival through their bodies and traditions.
Trees, roots, and fruit extend across the composition, symbolizing the patience and care required for justice and renewal to grow. Seeds planted by elders become nourishment for future generations, emphasizing our shared responsibility to protect the land and one another. Titled Braided Prophecy: Passed & Present, the work reflects what is passed down through lineage and what is carried forward, reminding us that our connections remain strong when tended together.
Braided through Black and Indigenous generations, our truths endure beyond violence, beyond forgetting, beyond time.
Phoenix created this piece using images from donated magazines and books discovered in a Little Free Library in Austin, Texas, along with salvaged yarn, spare paint, and simple materials sourced locally. Her practice centers sustainability by up-cycling raw materials into meaningful art.
“We are caretakers of the land from all our lineages, that knowledge is deep, ever present & very special. our DNA doesn’t separate so we must remind ourselves that we are whole. This is not just about unity in community but within ourselves.”
— Phoenix “PHNX” Amaterasu
Braided Prophecy: Passed & Present
by Phoenix “PHNX” Amaterasu
The colors we wear
in our skin-
the Struggles,
the stories,
revolutions we share,
are kin.
Patterns forming maps,
woven together,
and tied to the end.
Threats attempt
to fray our threads,
yet not one string
will go unraveling.
Their knives can’t cut the truth.
It’s braided deep into these Roots,
that our seeds are tucked into,
for generations to bear its fruit.
Take a bite my child-
with sharpened teeth.
Let the sweetness of justice run down your cheek.
Savor the taste; our history,
reach its core,
down to the seeds.
You will be the ones
to set them free.
Lay them in your mothers palm.
Do so, as you sing a song.
It won’t be long,
till’ we push through the dark
To touch the sun,
With roots remembering
where we belong;
To each other,
and to the land,
all along.
This feature was developed collaboratively. Context and editorial framing by José Giovanni Gomez. Artwork, poem, and artist reflections by Phoenix “PHNX” Amaterasu.
