SAMAD RAHEEM GUERRA
Emeryville, California, USA / African Diaspora
~My Movement Is Resilience~
Photo: Olivia Eng
“I see the scars on my body as beauty marks because I accept the experiences that have scarred me as tests of my strength and resilience.”
“If I wiggle my toes enough, maybe the cast will come off, I wondered. After trying multiple times without any luck, I took a sigh and sat back in my stroller. No one was around to see my frustration so it eventually passed. I stared out into the street where a few children were playing and a smile began to form on my face. I’d found some pleasure in watching them enjoy the outdoors even though it would be months until I could join them. Although I had no recollection of what happened to my leg, I certainly knew that I didn’t belong sitting down in a stroller. After some time, I tried wiggling my toes again and felt a tingly sensation in my feet.”
Samad Raheem Guerra S.C.A.R.S. Story (Emeryville, Ca, USA)
BATHE IN SILENCE
"I’ve grown accustomed to the noises inside my head
They bark at me
Hurl epithets
Narrow me down
While widening my load
Of voluminous work no shoulders should labor to carry
Why do I insist on listening when nothing is being said?
So I bathe in silence as though it were my last cleanse
Peeling every article of sound from my body
Phoneme by phoneme
Until reverberations of who I no longer am lie at the bottom
Amplify that!
Amplify that!
Amplify that!
And play it loudly for my ancestors to hear!"
Photo: Tyrone Domingo
Samad Raheem Guerra is a multidisciplinary performing artist and arts educator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He received his BA in World Arts and Cultures/Dance from UCLA in 2014. During this year, he was also awarded a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad scholarship to study Arabic Gnawa culture in Morocco. He collaborated with local artists on a multimedia project which was featured in his thesis work. Since graduating, he has worked as a teaching artist, program director at a youth homeless shelter and toured internationally with CONTRA-TIEMPO Urban Latin Dance Theater. He has also performed at the Hollywood Bowl and Ford Amphitheater with Viver Brasil and Sergio Mendes, and co-produced his own work at the LACMA, Main Museum in downtown Los Angeles, Hamburger Bahnhof and Daadgalerie in Berlin, Germany.
In 2017, Guerra began collaborating with longtime friend and artist Olivia Eng, who, in 2012, developed S.C.A.R.S (Strength, Courage, and Resilience of the Soul); a multimedia project with a mission to highlight the power of art in helping overcome and heal trauma. After a traumatic leg injury that resulted in severe nerve damage at the age of 2, Guerra has had drop foot, which makes it difficult to balance and perform dorsiflexion. While working closely for over a year, Guerra was able to tell his story for the first time, record and archive it in the StoryCorps database, and release a documentary film about his experience titled, “My Movement is Resilience.” It was the first in a series of documentary films that will be produced this upcoming year. Guerra’s involvement in the project has been a life changing experience that he is extremely grateful for. Since the release of the film, he has received an outpour of support and praise his courage in telling his story.
When Guerra isn’t teaching or working on art projects, he enjoys spending his free time in the wilderness, at the beach and with loved ones. He finds it very healing to be in nature and goes on hikes where he can escape the everyday hustle and bustle of living in the city. A big part of his healing practice also includes sweating, which involves prayer, meditation and the use of tobacco as a medicinal plant. Being inside the sweat lodge has helped him heal from childhood trauma and connect to his higher purpose in life, which is to work with children and make art that inspires change and positive growth. He is very grateful for the community of Navajo elders and teachers who introduced him to the practice and continue to be a source of inspiration and light.