Above and Below

Blessings

Hey Nicolás,  

If I were anyone who could bless anything, please know that the work you exhibit here does not need my blessing. You and your work are already blessed by powers greater than anything I might possess. Yet to respond to your request in the affirmative, I certainly bless your blessed work!

all my love, Arthur Avilés

If there is a gesture I rely upon before I venture into the creative wilderness, that is blessing. In 2005, I invited The Professor of Disobedience, Alanna Lockward, to bless a two day pilgrimage I undertook from Lower Manhattan Cultural Council to Queens Museum, as part of For Art’s Sake. Other creatives who responded to my request to bless other pilgrimages of the series were Erin Donnelly, Yasmín Ramírez, Martha Wilson, Juliana Driever, Sara Reisman, and Edwin Ramoran. Alex Campos blessed the edition of the devotional guide which evolved out of For Art’s Sake. In 2019, Payge Rumler, an art student at Albion College, blessed my two month walk through her city of Albion, Michigan. Most recently, I approached Rhina Valentin about bestowing a collective blessing upon those who attended the screening of conguero Benny Bonilla’s video as part of Casita Maria’s South Bronx Culture Trail and Performing the Bronx. A section of my home in the Longwood area of the Bronx was kindly renamed as “The Holy Pilgrimage Life and Meditation Space Blessed by Saint Linda Mary Montano.” There are also the daily blessings neighbors and passersby in my community gift each other with, and of which I have been a grateful recipient; and there are the blessings from my family, which I receive with open hands. Now, after building this website and before launching it publicly, I thought of having a person dear to me send me off on this dance through healing and beauty called The Interior Beauty Salon; The Salon, for short. “Arthur Avilés,” I heard my heart say clearly, as it moved to the tune of its own beat and to the image of Arthur choreographing some movements in the streets of our beloved Bronx.

Not wanting to have the last word after Arthur’s blessing, yet inspired to keep the river of blessings flowing I, Nicolás, say to Arthur: I admire your reverence for the body, love for the Bronx, devotion to dance, gifts to LGTBQI and BIPOC communities, and your courage to be who you fully are. May you continue to move gracefully to the song of life.

Gracias

Special thanks to Jeanne Criscola for her wonderful teachings and guidance with the building of this website. Thank you also to Julie Davey, Maggie Ens, David Hinkle, Suzi Tucker, and to everyone who contributed with images, edits, comments, suggestions and love to this wacky endeavor.

I, Nicolás, thank my ancestors from various continents on this planet for their visible and invisible support, and for making me aware that, wherever I am, we are.

Photograph taken at The Garrison Institute, Garrison, New York.