Black Body Productions

@blackbodyproductions on ig and YouTube

Founded by Imani Noel Ford, Black Body Productions (BBP) seeks to cultivate collective healing through spirituality, creativity, and somatics for queer and trans folk.

Imani Noel Ford (they/he/she) is a black, trans-masculine, genderqueer interdisciplinary artist, writer, expert teaching artist, and aspiring yoga teacher, born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, now based in Queens. They teach visual art, music production, creative writing, and healing-centered art workshops to students and families across NYC. He earned degrees in African American Studies and Visual Arts in Sculpture from Princeton University in 2018; an MA in English & Comparative Literature from Columbia University’s PhD program in 2020. She began making music shortly before being accepted to Berklee College of Music. They decided to self-teach and continue to make and learn music. He is currently cultivating a digital video art practice that allows him to continue to investigate the abstract visual language he did in painting and mixed media in a more financially accessible way. They have been practicing both Vipassana and Anapanasati meditation since 2016. They are Reiki II attuned and are currently training to become a Focalizing Practitioner under Nick Werber and Jo Miller, both of whom continue to pass on Dr. Michael Picucci’s groundbreaking work.

Although Black Body Production’s concept has existed for some time, Imani has tweaked and expanded its purpose. Without the necessary safe containers for healthily processing rage, grief, loneliness, feelings of unworthiness, and shame due to the ongoing effects of transphobia and retaliation, Imani did not have all the resources inside and outside to healthily cope. Their experiences with self-sabotage while they were at their most vulnerable, navigating housing precarity, helped them see what they wanted to offer people with the skills and knowledge they have and want to cultivate with others: spaces that would have really helped them. The truth is that we are fighting for a lot of BIG, BIG, BIG things right now, but we are also fighting for small joy, small wins, and basic, personal, human needs like peace of mind, a sense of safety in our bodies, and access to dignity, self-regard, self-respect, self-compassion, and feelings of worthiness.

The heart of Body Talks lies in the belief that collective creativity, spirituality, and somatics can be a vehicle for social change, personal growth, and healing from isolation, loneliness, and the ongoing effects of systemic harm. Although many competing unmet needs have distracted them from the most sacred, mundane aspects of these three practices that bring them joy, Imani realized that their belief in these practices has always kept them fighting for something, whether with others or for themselves. They will create spaces that ensure those who are welcomed are certain they belong. Despite the hardships we face, Imani embraces the intersection of these disciplines to curate innovative, collaborative, creative spaces that foster tools for deeper connection with self and others inside and outside of Body Talk’s safe containers.