I search for balance in life. Between the internal and external, you and me, mother and father, tangible and mediated, the past and the future. I try to stay vibin’ in the middle.

I perform “Balance in Life” as a public ritual. I publicly claim the in-between of my identities. I am biracial, Somali/American, an out of practice Muslim, queer but in a heterosexual marriage. I embody contradiction.

Performed in my home through digital meeting platform Zoom, I perform this ritual in a bejeweled diraac (a Somali dress) gifted by my mother worn under my fathers black leather jacket from the 80s. I greet the audience as if I were in a video meeting “Hi! Thanks for taking time to join us this evening. I’m going to share my screeeeen. Caneverybodyseeit?” I share my screen to show the view from another camera, revealing a lower quality image but otherwise no change. I sit at a small altar with incense, candles, a bowl of water and small talismans. I deliberately engage with each object, the final being a can of Budweiser. I switch back to the Zoom camera on an iphone held by a selfie stick, changing the camera angle and image quality. I then press play on Led Zeppelin’s “Good Times Bad Times,“ remove the jacket, shotgun the beer, and enthusiastically play air guitar until I lip-synch the final lines of the song with my face very close to the camera. I laugh with the audience as I return from the ritual.