Black History Month ‘22 Series
In February of this year, I spontaneously decided to create a small series of pieces in celebration of Black History Month and document them on Instagram. Having recently taken the leap to running my art business full-time, I hadn’t created any new work in awhile, and this felt like a good self-imposed prompt to get me started in making again, and provide me with some much-needed social media content!
The process of creating these and sharing them along the way was a new experience and the first time I really connected my art back to me as a person. This made me feel both very vulnerable and empowered. I was putting a part of myself out there for judgement, but I was also struck by how cool it was that I had this avenue to express myself through visual art and a platform to be able to share it with other people and hopefully connect with them on some level. Could this be what it felt like to be a real artist?
The design of the pieces actually came together pretty quickly. I knew that I wanted to them to express different facets of my experience as a Black woman, and that I wanted them to be both serious, but also celebratory. I had a very clear picture of the color palette from the beginning - black, gold and white. As I started laying out the shapes and color transitions, certain words started coming to mind, like “rise” and “solitude” which led me to think about poems by the great Dr. Maya Angelo. From there, the idea to link the pieces back to poems by Black woman poets came naturally.
Throughout the process, I revisited old favorite poems and discovered some new work that I was able to reflect on over the course of those several weeks.
As I finished and glued down each piece, I created an Instagram post about each one - with an excerpt from the relevant poem and my personal thoughts on the meaning of the sentiment of both the poem and my work. The whole process ended up being very fulfilling for me to explore these personal ideas through both visual and verbal expression, incorporate input from other artists that I admire, and then to see how it resonated with other people.
The first piece in the series (1 of 3), "Rise" is titled after Dr. Maya Angelo's poem "Still I Rise." I envision this piece almost as a rising star, pushing ever upward to achieve its true potential for greatness, leaving behind pain and hatefulness:
An excerpt from Maya's poem:
"Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise."
The second piece in the series (2 of 3), "Alone" is titled after Maya Angelo's poem of the same name. I wanted to express the dichotomy of two different parts of being Black - one being the sense of "onlyness" that you become quite accustomed to in daily life. The other being the idea that none of us really go through, let alone, succeed in life, alone. We are each the sum of the people and experiences that shape us:
An excerpt from "Alone" by Dr. Maya Angelou:
"Now if you listen closely
I'll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
'Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone."
The third piece in the series (3 of 3), "Climb" is titled after Amanda Gorman’s poem, “The Hill We Climb.” This piece is a reminder that in order to move out of darkness and towards the light, we have to be willing to challenge the darkness within ourselves and within our communities, even when, especially when, it feels like an uphill battle. Real change happens when we choose to do the right thing, even when it is the hard thing, the uncomfortable thing, or the scary thing:
An excerpt from "The Hill We Climb” by Amanda Gorman:
"That is the promise to glade,
the hill we climb
if only we dare it,
because being American is more than a pride we inherit —
it’s the past we step into
and how we repair it.
[...]
But one thing is certain:
If we merge mercy with might,
and might with right,
then love becomes our legacy
and change our children’s birthright.
So let us leave behind a country
better than the one we were left with.
[...]
When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid.
The new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it,
if only we’re brave enough to be it."
While I created this series in February, I did not figure out how I wanted to release them until May. After the shooting at the Tops grocery store in Buffalo, NY, in which 10 people were killed, I felt a strong desire to do something meaningful.
With an upcoming art market in Cambridge, I came up with the idea to donate the sale of my BHM pieces to support the Victims & Survivors Fund for Tops Buffalo Shooting. It occurred to me that I could not only give financially, but that I could also use both my art and my identity, to show support and solidarity with the community in Buffalo and the greater Black community.
This also became a means for others in my community to contribute as well. Together, we were able to give $330 to the employees and families impacted by this horrible act of racism.
As of 6/1/22, the fundraiser is still accepting donations, if you are interested in donating.
