house of lionheart presents: the first horizon

While the overall goal of House of Lionheart is creating bridges for humanity’s diaspora, the theme of the House is simple—relationships.

However, here, relationships don’t end between people, but extends to nature as well; learning to recognize that we are not separate, but woven together.

Creation to creation.

For creation is not a background subject in humanity’s history, rather, a witness. So when you begin to perceive that the world is alive beyond its usefulness to you, it lends you to ask not “What can this do for me?” but “What is the world saying when I am attentive to it?”

And that is the heart of House of Lionhearts inaugural voyage—The First Horizon.

The voyage begins along the East American Coast in Atlantic waters and continues through the Caribbean. Documentation of writing, film, and photography being captured along the way that will, in turn, produce the first publication for the House; along with a mini documentary.

This isn't adventure for the sake of adventure.

It is proving ground; not just for myself, but for the House, and for you—those I hope to lead on expeditions one day.

Evidence that I can prepare well and lead in a way that fosters relationship between humanity and the natural world alike. Choosing to build that foundation in kinder waters and lands that still hold so much memory and history.

Today it is coastal shorelines and small overnight or multi-day passages, but one day it may be the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade route, atolls in the Pacific, or passages to Antarctica.

For a woman who is an engineer to turn her eye from the anomaly of aerospace to the anomaly of the sea, and to build an organization meant to bring together creation in all its forms, means taking the first step on her own so others can see that if she is capable, then they just might be too.

The First Horizon is House of Lionhearts first opportunity to turn expedition into public documentation and artistic storytelling, exercising the skills required to bring those who cannot come with, into the voyage.

The voyage will follow a multitude of questions to keep in mind while leaving the docks.

What relationships did the ocean create, sever, transform, and preserve within the diaspora of humanity? And what happens when we follow those relationships today?

How does the ocean shape the lives of those who live beside and upon it? How do people shape the ocean in return?

While water separates us, where do we recognize ourselves in others?

How are, and what, human histories are entangled with the natural world?

If relationship turns into responsibility, what do I owe you now that I’ve encountered you?

And yet, I am positive the voyage itself will bring along some of its own that could only be created through experience. Uncertainty isn’t weakness in this mission or in life—it is simply methodology.

Though I am an African American woman who has her own connection of ancestry that runs through the Caribbean, the African and Afro-Caribbean diaspora is just one thread of the voyage. It is what I currently know.

This is about humanity as a whole—whoever it may be, of whatever culture I may encounter.

My background may be technical and scientific (I started studying science specially in elementary, focusing on engineering in middle school, and took special interest in planes and space in high school and college, even learned how to fly a plane), but at the root of all these endeavors and curiosity was a deep passion for the world in general.

Science and engineering taught me to explain it, to utilize it, understand it in the sense of numbers, graphs, scales, and equations. I made a career out of it in the military. But now? Now, I’d like to focus on the opposite scale. Relationship with the world and those who reside on it, beyond the level of technicalities.

Then again who says that science has to exist without relationship with the natural world or vice versa?

As a woman deep in her faith, at this stage all I can do is ponder and pray for the encounters to come and the outlook I will return with, because that is part of the mission as well.

Encounter

Listen

Tell

Serve

Repeat

It is why House of Lionheart is broken up into pillars the way it is.

Pilgrimage takes you beyond the horizon. It teaches you to encounter and listen beyond the scope of seeing what is simply in front of you.

Publication and Production is how we tell, how we share. Where we create showcaseable work to invite others into where the expedition took them beyond the horizon.

Philanthropy is where where serve, falling under a question stated previously—“What do I owe you now that I’ve encountered you?” Because now that you can see the colors of the wind, you don’t get to call it invisible anymore.

So, I invite you all along for the journey, from prep to sail to return. To allow the questions and mission of this voyage to follow you through life as well.

As of moment of this article publishing, I have been actively preparing for eight months, with many more to come before this voyage can cast her sails to the wind. Between trainings, readings, and meetings, much must still be done for The First Horizon is set to sail in spring of 2027.

Life has taught me much about problem solving, yet continuing to look to the distance. It has taught me to be unafraid to question, no matter if the subject is the world or faith. To seek, meet, and report.

Now, I look forward to bringing the ideals and skills over to House of Lionheart; for it was built for that distance between knowing and encountering.

Jasmine Q