[vimeo 63987075 w=500 h=281]

Here’s the premiere of The Black Constellation’s short film (Sparkles)…Recollections of the Wraith, named after (and featuring) two songs by Shabazz Palaces, the Seattle-based hip-hop collective led by Ishmael Butler and Tendai ‘Baba’ Maraire. This film is the twelfth part of An Ode To Octavia, a thirteen-part adornment, performance, and object-based ritual that began in the fall of 2010 and is dedicated to science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler. See more in our interview with Ishmael Butler in the upcoming July/August Believer music issue.

“Words—the older you get, you realize they’re just concepts, and they can be mixed and matched, juxtaposed. Flipped, inverted. Nothing is concrete, necessarily, in terms of the meaning of things. The mood of things varies, not only from person to person, but within the same person from minute to minute, however situations carry and deepen.” (Ishmael Butler)