Women by Women Open Call: Meet the Grantee Laila Annmarie Stevens

Your work is, in your words, about the longing for ancestral remembrance. What aspects of Black women’s ancestral knowledge do you want to cherish?

If I were to pinpoint one aspect of Black women’s ancestral knowledge that I find most vital to cherish, it would be attuning to the somatic and listening to intuition — because we hold incredible intelligence in our bodies.

It’s a living experience passed down through feeling — through the heart, the ears, and the gut. It’s a deeply embodied wisdom that I see as a critical counterpoint to our increasingly digitised world.

We hold great knowledge stored in the body’s very movements — the warmth of soul in planting and harvesting, the specific sway of the hips in dance, alone or with others. These are not performed gestures; they are histories, catharses, prayers, and maps of cultural continuity. The body is a powerful vessel for memory, alongside words, photographs, and sculptures.

There’s also the “gut feeling” — the intuitive discernment for truth in people and in making sound decisions. It’s a hyper-perceptive sense. To cherish this somatic knowledge is to honor a lineage of those who have felt the same. When I began to realise I was not the only one to experience my troubles, I came to see myself as one-of-many, not one-of-one. I view the reclamation of this bodily knowledge as a radical act of ancestral remembrance — and a guide toward a more embodied future, as long as I’m willing to reach that deeply.