Beginning is the first installation to the Origen series. Origen: Beginning, follows a single mother’s story, whose life changes on her 35th birthday. Croney uses Origen: Beginning to highlight the protagonist Leslie’s purpose as she is propelled through memories and moments to follow her new found destiny. Leslie is taken on a spiritual and physical journey as she connects with a prophetic lineage of her original ancestry, the Elohii. Origen: Beginning highlights the beginning of not just Leslie’s story, but the creation of humanity and initial encounters with various forms of existence across both space and time. Leslie has to learn of the beginning, only to find out her destiny is to unleash its end.
My intentions as an author are to explore the gaps, the shadows, the exclusions, the silences of Western history by confronting the moments where struggles for Afro-descendants is at its most crucial. – Croney
The Origen series is built from a framework of redeeming Afro descendant and other oppressed cultures from Western narratives. Leslie’s purpose is tied with changing the course of historical narratives for her family, the Elohii, and even the Creators; gods of all creations. Croney has intentionally rejected Western constructs of race and identity in Origen, to then reintroduce race based on the principles of morality, purpose and function. The exploration of Afro descendancy, through the Origen series provides the multi dimensional space needed to analyze and support the authenticity of Afro descendant existences, so authentic work can continue to thrive.
Can you imagine a world without the idea of race? Can you imagine a world where skin color, hair texture, nationality and ethnicity are not determinants of power, class, beauty or access? -Y. Womack (2013)
Origen Creators 