Kamra Sadia Hakim is a Black American transgender person hailing from O'odham Jeweḍ land, resourced by Munsee Lenape land (so-called Brooklyn, NY) and Bethel, NY (Hebrew translation “house of God”) situated in and near Kauneonga Lake (apocryphal Munsee translation “like the wings of a bird”). Hakim has a graduate degree from New York University Center for Global Affairs School of Professional Studies. Hakim is the author of Care Manual: Dreaming Care into Being, musician behind Kamra, and founder of Activation Residency. They think, feel, make and perform to storymake garden futures and participate in a lineage of care weaving themes of remembering how to talk to each other with respect, reverence, beauty, and skill through art ecosystems in music, movement, literature, and permaculture design.

We first met Kam in 2019 back when we first got the SoMad studio space set up. Lucea Spinelli was collaborating with Carla Maldonado for an installation at the first Film Fest at the Farm, and Kamra joined in to perform as a tree goddess. The projection installation was beautiful and bountiful, with the tree goddess adorning herself in honey, feathers, and branches. As we got to know Kam, more possibilities opened up. In the summer of 2020 when we were looking for a way to channel our energy, we started talking with Kam and asked if they would be interested in curating an exhibition. They came back with a fully realized idea for the show Bathing in Blackness: A Necessary New Order. In Kam's curatorial debut, they selected 12 Black artists that provided a fresh perspective into the viewpoints of these individual artists, many of whom we are now lucky enough to count as friends. We raised funds through the proceeds of art sales, and supported organizations such as Kam's own Activation Residency and Warriors in the Garden.

As we knew that working with Kam was Magic, the SoMad team was eager to do it again. We approached Kam with the idea of creating a channel on our TV, all original content, open to their suggestions. What Kam came back with was ActivationTV, a channel with three shows: The Black Gaze, Black Feels, and Show & Tea. In the young months of 2021, we filmed 21 episodes with iconic artists, thinkers, poets, musicians, producers, and anything in between. Creating this content still goes down for all of us as some of our favorite things we have made together as we learned so much by meeting these incredible people who came to take part in this project - which by the way you can stream here exclusively on our site! We knew that we wanted to continue working with Kam and are excited to announce our next collaboration will take place in person at SoMad on December 1st and 2nd, 2022 as they open for Love Lessons Live with Lester Mayers, someone who we met through ActivationTV. That's what we like to call full circle! Thank you Kam for bringing so much light to our space, we love you!