The Repast: Self and Collective Love in the Face of Black Death

Abstract

Abstract This essay begins with the idea and practice of the repast or repass as it has come to evolve vernacularly over the years. Traditionally, this practice of community, food, and fellowship, usually partaken after a funeral or burial ceremony, is representative of one’s ability and the necessity to continue with life in the face of the realities of death. Attacks on black life have remained a constant, with various manifestations spanning historically from the treacheries of slavery to the social inequities that form the present conditions of marginalized blackness. Racialized disparities in health, as well as the more blatant and growing incidences of police brutality, further evidence the complex proximity of black life and death. This essay argues that articulations of self and collective black love and resilience underscore the practice and meaning of the repast for black communities and also represent an important mechanism for black mental, emotional, and ultimately physical survival. Moreover, I argue that black communities are constantly participating in the repast where, in the midst of death, there is an attempt to continue to nurture and care take for oneself and others. In this way, the repast becomes a statement/ metaphor for the black condition. This article also includes a critical examination of the roles of “mothering” and “motherwork” that serve as important anchors within processes of black collective love.