{"id":29776,"date":"2026-10-03T12:47:55","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T16:47:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=29776"},"modified":"2026-10-03T18:59:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T22:59:40","slug":"franklin-cabin-in-the-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2026\/10\/03\/franklin-cabin-in-the-sky\/","title":{"rendered":"Ife Franklin’s ‘Cabin In The Sky’: ‘Going To The Other-Other Side’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cLook up,\u201d announced the programs for \u201cCabin In The Sky\u201d by Boston artist Ife Franklin,<\/a> \u201can immersive exploration of heritage, resilience, and community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crowd\/audience\/congregation gathered at Valley Gates in Boston\u2019s Franklin Park last night, just down from the zoo entrance. They had been asked to dress in white, which glowed in the darkness. Franklin arrived on a golf cart, attired in a white dress and carrying a wooden staff. She greeted all with hugs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCabin In The Sky\u201d builds upon Franklin\u2019s five previous ancestor slave cabins\/praise houses and her 2024 \u201cEgun Ancestor Procession\u201d at Boston\u2019s Copp\u2019s Hill Burying Ground. \u201c\u2018Cabin In The Sky\u2019 is also deeply rooted in the aesthetic of Afrofuturism,\u201d Franklin wrote in the program. \u201cIt envisions the slave cabin as a portal to a time-slip world in which the past, present, and future can be healed and re-imagined through a lens of Black liberation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The free performance\/ritual\/Afrofuturist church, presented through the City of Boston Mayor\u2019s Office of Arts and Culture\u2019s Un-Monument project<\/a>, had been scheduled for Sept. 25 to 27, but last weekend\u2019s nor\u2019easter postponed it to the rain dates, Oct. 2 to 4. (Register to attend<\/a>.) It was a lovely night, clear and in the 70s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Opening
Opening processional of Ife Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

About an hour after sunset, around 7:30, Franklin led the group in an \u201cancestor procession\u201d along a paved road, between trees on the low hills on each side, their canopies lit blue and orange and purple, and with vintage photos of Black ancestors projected on some tree trunks. \u201cPeople of color will lead the processional,\u201d a project coordinator emailed the group beforehand. \u201cAllies and abolitionists will respectfully walk behind them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the group turned right, into the Overlook Ruins, an outdoor room of stone stairs and walls, and now at the front left a stage with microphones and at front right a simple wooden cabin with more images of ancestors projected upon it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Cabin In The Sky\u2019 seeks to honor Black ancestors as holders of ancient technologies, as the first astronomers, as navigators who used the stars to chart freedom-bound journeys for themselves and descendants far into the future,\u201d Franklin wrote in the program. \u201cI envision the cabin as a rocketship readying for lift-off, sending my ancestors into a stratosphere of safety and love using the cultural launch codes they themselves invented: dance, song, story, and a unifying, diasporic visual language.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo remember is to pray,\u201d Dzidzor Azaglo chanted on the stage. The crowd sat in rows of white folding chairs as performers danced at the front. Franklin joined the woman on stage and said into a microphone, \u201cLet us say the names of those who loved us here. \u2026 Can you say their name?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then Charles Murrell III played a saxophone \u201cTribute to Coltrane\/Solo\/Cabin Dance Offering.\u201d After, Franklin returned to the stage to invite the crowd to dance a ring shout: \u201cYour energy feeds the energy of Egun, the ancestors.\u201d People rose and danced in a line ringing the chairs as Franklin sang \u201cEve and Adam \/ Run Mary Run\u201d: \u201cEven Adam picking that cotton \u2026 you\u2019ve got a right to be alive. \u2026 You\u2019ve got a right to the Tree of Life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then drumming by Kera Washington. Then Franklin sang \u201cBuzzards Lope\u201d backed by Carlos Alonzo, Angel Brooks, Cassandra Cato-Lewis and Milly Henry: \u201cThrow me anywhere in that old field. \u2026 We\u2019re picking cotton. We\u2019re picking indigo. \u2026 We built this nation in that old field.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ife
Ife Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A masked dancer (Charles Murrell III) slowly crept along the rows of seats, eyeing individual audience members, then danced at the front, fringe flying, then back through the audience, then with Franklin, before exiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have decided that is all,\u201d Letta Neely proclaimed in a closing sermon\/rant\/\u201cspoken word offering\u201d\/prophesy \u201cThe Other-Other Side (Version 3.2).\u201d \u201cWe have decided to leave. We have been here long enough to know. \u2026 We have buried enough. \u2026 A country we have never been allowed to live in. \u2026 We gave them cotton. They made money. \u2026 We gave them cool. And they sold it back to us. \u2026 We gave them our dead and they gave us back statistics. \u2026 We\u2019ve done our share of the impossible. Let someone else hold this mother fucker together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe crossed water because somebody forced us,\u201d Neely continued. \u201c\u2026This time we choose the water. \u2026 We are going past the other side to the Other-other. \u2026 We are trying to go somewhere nobody has ruined yet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The audience responded with yeses and mmm hmms and uh-huhs, like church call and response, and by repeating Neely\u2019s words: through! earth! gone!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are not carrying the old world into the new one and calling it freedom,\u201d Neely said. \u201c\u2026We are becoming weather. \u2026 We are becoming something you cannot redline. \u2026 We are going to the Other-other side.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We have carried \/ what was not ours \/ to carry. \/ We have stayed \/ longer \/ than love \/ required,\u201d Neeley said. \u201cSo now\u2014 \/ without knowing, \/ without permission, \/ without proof, \/ without map, \/ without master, \/ without guarantee\u2014 \/ we go. \/ Not away. \/ Beyond. \/ Not other. \/ Other-other. \/ Not free \/ from. \/ Free \/ toward. \/ [Almost gone now.] \/ And if they ask \/ where the Black people went\u2014 \/ tell them: \/ we finally believed \/ there was somewhere \/ we had never been \/ that needed us \/ more \/ than this place \/ that never learned \/ how to deserve us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ritual was re-imanging the \u201cAncestral Slave\/Freedom Cabin\u201d as a version of George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic\u2019s Mothership<\/a>: \u201ca vessel carrying the souls of our ancestors toward freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A giant plume of smoke billowed out from in front of the cabin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Franklin spoke into a microphone on the stage: \u201cThe cabin took off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Previously:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2017: Ife Franklin\u2019s Ancestor Slave Cabin and Ring Shout<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2021: On Juneteenth, If\u00e9 Franklin Debuts \u2018Slave Narrative\u2019 Film<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2021: If\u00e9 Franklin\u2019s Juneteenth Celebration<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2023: Artistic Responses To Inequities In Cancer Care For People Of Color<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2024: Honoring The Enslaved And Healing At If\u00e9 Franklin\u2019s \u2018Ancestor Processions\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2025: Ife Franklin\u2019s Healing Hoodoo<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2026: \u2018Crafting the Mind\u2019 At Somerville Museum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2026: Remembering Three Enslaved People Who Poisoned Their Captor: A Cambridge Symposium<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

If this is the kind of coverage <\/em>you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9 Greg Cook 2026 or the respective creato<\/em>rs.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ife
Ife Franklin (center) leading the processional that began “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Opening
Opening processional of Ife Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Franklin (right) and Leeta Neely arrive at the cabin concluding the opening processional of Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Franklin performs “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ring
Ring shout during Ife Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ring
Ring shout during Ife Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ring
Ring shout during Ife Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ring
Ring shout during Ife Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ring
Ring shout during Ife Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Franklin leads ring shout during “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Letta
Letta Neely reads during Ife Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The cabin “takes off” concluding Ife Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Franklin concludes “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Franklin’s “Cabin in the Sky” at Boston’s Franklin Park, Oct. 2, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Franklin “Cabin In The Sky” poster, 2026.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cLook up,\u201d announced the programs for \u201cCabin In The Sky\u201d by Boston artist Ife Franklin, \u201can immersive exploration of heritage, resilience, and community.\u201d The crowd\/audience\/congregation gathered at Valley Gates in Boston\u2019s Franklin Park last night, just down from the zoo entrance. They had been asked to dress in white, which glowed in the darkness. Franklin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29745,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,109,110],"tags":[513,1496,878,1495,1497],"class_list":["post-29776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-performance","category-performing-arts","tag-afrofuturism","tag-george-clinton","tag-ife-franklin","tag-mothership","tag-parlament-funkadelic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29776"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29812,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29776\/revisions\/29812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}