Preview of the series "Can't we stick together?"

Last semester I started this series of Untitled drawings called"Can't we stick together?" I started this project with just the drawings, and I sort of put it to the side for a while so that I could focus on the Yellowbone piece and the other works. This semester I re-visited them and found so much in each drawing that I hadn't seen before. I found a way to express how I was feelings about the colorism issue in a way that felt right to me, using flesh tone color pencils( There is a funny story of my buying all of these different flesh tone pencils at my local art supply store. The black guy at the register inquired as to what type of project was requiring me to buy so many "black skin tones." I replied by saying I was working on a colorism project, he smiled while saying "hmmm... that's sounds interesting") Originally,  when I was making these drawings I had a different mindset about what they were suppose to mean. They were suppose to be the "answer" to the problem. Then as I began to do so much extensive research on the subject, I felt overwhelmed by the complexity of everything. I realized how deeply embedded this concept has been implanted within our culture, nearly 400  years ago!! So I felt this sense of reality of how huge this issue really was. I imagined the fact that so many black people of darker complexion have died believing a lie, that because of their complexion they weren't beautiful or capable of succeeding. I really hated the fact that our society has almost built an extensive concept around  this to keep their false idea into existence. I mourned the fact that so many people deal with these issues, even me! So I started drawing these "answer" pieces to show how we could reverse the curse. As niave (this is the word my old mentor Jane Marsching used when I talked about this with her) as this concept may sound, I really have a passion for all black people to love how God created them no matter how culture has tried to polute us. It's just that serious to me. I realize that friendships have ended, families have been broken, and people have lived in depression over skin tone because of the lie of colorism. So if I seem obsessed with this concept it's because it's real.

 Sunanda Sunyal, one of our MFA faculty, made a statement about my work at the last residency about colorism being a internal issue (inside the black community), and he questioned why I'd want to talk about it. Now given please believe that I respect Sunanda, but I felt that question was so disconnected from the stories that I put together in the colorism spread. Anyone who read that piece would understand the necessity to discuss this type of topic, regards of how much people don't like to talk about it because it's painful. But I had a lot of trouble dealing with that statement, because to me it was an excuse to not say what you feel. I don't think we can afford in this day in age to not say and speak our hearts( in love of course), and I've made up in my mind that I'm going to continue to discuss the issues that require us to step into righteousness. 

I recently finished reading a book called Cane River by Lalita Tademy( it was on Oprah's Book club list some years ago). It was a really good read to me because the author Lalita, had done extensive research on her family history and wrote a fiction novel based on her research findings. This was a creative approach to me, and I actually started some years ago doing something similar though I had no idea about Ms. Tademy. Maybe you'll see it published one of these days. But anyway, it was a great projection of this idea that "light is better,"stemming back to the time of slavery. The women in her family made significant decisions in the story to have relationships with white French men in Lousiana, and produce in some cases a dozen mulatto children from their extended relationships. They seemed to do this to gain wealth and access to priviledge, only to be betrayed when the same men would deny those same children as being reasonable heirs to their inheritance. It was a tragedy to see these women believe that they would have a better chance in life( in which some of them did though bitterly), and to find out tradegically that they were still black no matter how light they were. It was also interesting to see some of their offspring choose to pass because of this frustration. All in all the book was a engaging read, and I found it to be helpful to look at the history of colorism in America. The story also caused me to think of a film I saw some years ago called  "A Feast of All Saints"(2001) which even intersects with references of the creole of color on Cane River. There are other films I could name as well, but it's all very interesting. Well, I'll be sure to pause here for the moment and we will continue on later. Stay tuned to some new upcoming images...on the next blog post.

Black Womanhood Symposium

The Davis Museum and Cultural Center is currently showing Black Womanhood: Images, Icons, and Ideologies of the African Body  until December 14, 2008. I had the privilege to go to the Black Womanhood Symposium this past weekend. It was an awesome and  overwhelming experience to see so many black scholars in one venue. It's a rarity and yet at times one doesn't know how to handle that much "black power" at one time. I was so encouraged  that my husband also decided to tag along with me, as I know it's not one of his favorite subjects. I think it would be a challenge for me too if I were a man entering into the room with all of these black women talking on the issues and challenges of being a black woman in society. 

To my surprise my husband and I came to agreement about two particular people who presented at the symposium, that was scholor Dr. Abena P.A. Busia and artist Renee Cox. Obviously, we had missed the whole set of presenters in the first session, and we were only able to catch the second half. But we were taken by the boldness of Renee, and the passion and intellect that Dr. Abena shared with everyone. Dr. Busia did a very extensive talk on Saar Bartman and it was so compelling. For me the mention of Saar Bartman was a first since I've been in grad school. NO where else have I heard a name mentioned so much, in terms of black art. This is because before I entered grad school I wasn't aware of the separate genre of black art and works from Africa that are beyond African masks and primitiveness. So I found Dr. Busia's talk so insightful for my study because she talked about so many issues in the exhibiting of Saar Bartman in London, and the tragedy of her death as well. She also brought up some interesting points in regards to how black women are portrayed in art by non-black artists. And how that has caused even some black critics to accept certain ideas on black women. There was one particular image that struck me in her presentation. It was an image of a white women on the left, two light-skinned Algerian women in the center, and a image of a dark-skinned black woman at the far right. I wasn't able to catch the name of that painting, but Dr. Busia said something so profound about that image. It had to deal with a comment that was made about the painting that totally silenced the darker complexioned woman on the right. It made me think about a lot of the issues that I'm dealing with my current work, and I thought "Wow that's so interesting."  I did manage to speak with her after the session was over so I'm hoping that I might be able to inquire about the name of this image. She also seemed to be well versed in African, African diaspora films so that's another thing I'd love to ask her. 

I was also able to speak with Renee Cox which I thoroughly enjoyed. She had some really good insight as well, and unconsciously pin pointed a major issue that I'm dealing with in my most recent works, the brown paper bag test. I was asking her advice or asking about her challenges with studying and making art with the minimum amount of writings on black art in her day. We were speaking about issues that she faced in people not understanding her work, and she was so free in expressing the need for new people to step up to the plate and write about art. She particularly expressed the need for black people to write about art because in her eyes we need to be more vocal in the arts community. I really felt that so strongly as I've been thinking a lot about that lately. But, she went on to talk about her reasonings for choosing to date outside of her race. I don't exactly remember how the conversation went in that direction but I found her reasons very intriguing. She talked about not wanting black men to make her feel inferior because she wasn't lighter than a brown paper bag. I thought to myself  "Wow!" I say this because looking at her I don't see her as being dark, so I wasn't expecting her to actually reference the "brown paper bag" itself. I think it stuck with me because I've been doing a lot of work with brown paper bag so I thought it was amazing to hear her reference that. Unfortunately,  we weren't able to finish that convo as I began to tell her that I was dealing with those particular issues in my work. But I walked away thinking "Hmmm...If Renee Cox has experienced anxiety and rejection in regards to colorism than what I'm talking about isn't silly at all." I felt quite compelled to write more about black art after talking to her, though I have been contemplating it more often anyway. I felt that the symposium really left me with alot to think about, and really gave allowed me to see how right my presumptions had been about the way black issues are perceived.

After the sessions there was a presentation by the Wellesley African Student Association that my husband and I did not like at all. There seemed to be an overwhelmingly anti-Christian rhetoric going on which was really quite uncalled for. It seemed to me that these women had a negative connotation for Christianity because of the influence of colonalism on their country. I really felt bad for these ladies, as I can definitely understand how this type of deceptive concept could be misinterpreted. I think it's quite sad that because there were white people  who used Christanity as a means to rationalize their motives of trying to take control and dominate other countries, has caused some Africans and other cultures to dismiss Christanity all together. It's just like all the hypocracy within some people in ministry has created difficulty for some non-believers to come to Christ. All of this shouldn't be, because man's sinfulness shouldn't be looked upon as if God wants to see people in pain. This issue is a  different blog entry though,  but ultimately they brought up some intense issues such as ploygamy, female circumcision, and sexual education in African countries. 

And to close out there were performances by Boston-based artist Magadelena Campos-Pons and another artist Dineo from South Africa, who caused some confusion for some of the viewers because she didn't originally come out. However, the presenter did give us a disclaimer that the performance would begin in one place and end down stairs. I guess we weren't listening. On another note, it was a pleasure to speak with the exhibition curator Barabara Thompson, who has now moved on to Stanford University. She has become a truly helpful, and insightful friend since I've met her. It was great to be there to celebrate her hard work, and see how deep being a black woman can be. 

Colorism and then some

This has been a challenging and great time all at once. I'm really enjoying the ability to dig into research because I feel that it is giving me additional ideas for what I'm doing. Right now I'm reading a book called Cane River by Lalita Tademy, that is about "old Louisiana" and the relationship between the French whites(Creole), the gens de couleur libres( the free people of color), and blacks slaves there. Believe it or not but this book was on Oprah's Book Club list! I've been really enjoying it because it gives a very vivid account of the challenges of slave living. In fact this is probably the first book that I've read that details slave life. This is a sad thing I know but it's true. I think sometimes black people feel it's enough to feel the physical pains of slavery and the persecutions of being black every day. But nevertheless, I've been enjoying it because it helps to give more of a picture of how these hardships that you heard from your grandparents, parents, aunts, and uncles played out in this story. What is interesting about Lalita Tademy is that this is actually the story of her family, and how they came to be what they are today. It's heartbreaking and interesting all at the same time, but I'm not quite finished!! I am probably like half done with it. There are many situations that occur in this story that relate heavily with my topic of colorism. Often there were some of her characters that exhibit the behavior, that I've always been told about in the black community. The uppity black folk. In my life people have attempted to put that label on me  for whatever reason. I don't understand. Anywho, the main characters are black house slaves who are privileged to live in less harsh conditions than the other field hands. I've been told this story many times growing up about the phenomenon of the "House slaves" and "Field slaves" and how this created division in the black community even then. Particularly, this story shows how some slaves tried to use certain advantages as power because of their closer connections with their masters, in some cases their lighter skin. One of the mulatto children in the story was even instructed to never be in the sun, because she was going to be the one who brought their family out into a better situation. They even told her and each other that she was "better than anyone else". This is quite alarming to me, because it was like all of the stereotypes of the light-skinned slave put into one.  But all the less, I'm enjoying the story. It's our history.

As far as my work, I am really enjoying all the exploring I've been doing. It's somewhat scary yet good at the same time. My mentor Ceci, has been really encouraging the investigating in my work as it's becoming more rich. Right now, I'm at a point of looking at how all of my mediums can work together. It will be interes

ting to see how

 that happens. These images are examples of me looking 

at arrangement and surfaces that can create meaning. In the top image I started to work with flesh tones and it's arrangement, playing with the idea of hierachies of skin tone( which is colorism). My investigation of d

ifferent arrangements were used to question the idea of hierachy in that sense. 

The second image is an arrangement of some of the images that I took from the piece that I brought to the last residency, and I arranged

 it with text that associates with the flesh tones. Oscar had pointed out a similar connection 

at the residency. I plan to do more studies like this with the other spectrums of the colorism system: yellow and red.

The third image is an experiment with painting on tracing paper. I started painting 

with flesh tone colors, and had the idea of arranging these papers in order from light to dark to illustrate the typical hierachies of skin tone. It is often thought that in terms of opportunities whether it be career, economical, or socially 

lighter skin is considered to come before others of darker skin tone, as was proved in Race, Gender, and the Politics of Skin Tone by Margaret Hunter. So this was an more abstract exploration of this idea. 

The fourth image was one that I've contemplated for quite a while, as I began to study the history of colorism. In that study I learned about the various ways that class and priviledge is determined or identified.  For example, here I'm investigating the creation priviledged groups such as the Blue Vein Society and procedures like the brown paper bag test. The three images look at the visibility and color of veins which have functioned to determine class in the history of black "high" society, as well as the brown paper bag. Using these two tools together in one composition, I attempted to question the empasis on judgement and comparision in our community. To me it's so crazy that things like the presence of visible blue veins and being lighter than a brown paper bag  were used to judge class, but it shows how desperate people have gotten. After much of my study, it seems that colori-

sm has more to do with the oppression from whites than anything else. The psychological damage of slavery and how it affected the way people of African decent began to think of themselves because of their physical and verbal abuse. Colorism during the time of slavery had more to do with survival in the African American community than anything else. It became evident to some that the more connected they were to the white culture the more free or powerful you could become. Meaning you were able to have more opportunities for freedom or to stay connected to your family, which were aspects of life that the typical slave did not have. In Cane River, the house slaves had a better opportunity to stay together because some of them spoke French like their masters because they grew up in the house. If they had mulatto children they were able to negotiate better living arrangements for their families, in addition to opportunities for education and a higher standard of living.

What this has done to the black community as a whole as produced much low self-esteem and bitterness because of the "advantages" of lighter skin. Now in this day in age there are many who compare themselves because of their skin. This brings us onto the last images here. 

I've used these to images in my colorism spread because I felt they were the best illustrations of the extreme ideas of this issue. The first image compares the same person in three different skin tones. Here I'm looking at how skin tones are compared, particularly in inner turmoil of one who struggles with the notion "if I was lighter" or "if I was darker." As silly as that sounds there are people who actually feel that way, and this shouldn't be taken lightly. When I was younger I used to think if I was a little darker my black friends wouldn't be so skeptical of me. I wouldn't have to deal with the "light-skin girl is a gold-digger" or "light-skin thinks their better" perception. I saw the way some of my friends who were around the same color interacted with each other. I've noticed that many of them have close relationships with them today. Disagreements between them didn't have the same outcome that my disagreements had. For me I had one strike and I was out. My judgement was much more harsh. My friends who are similar skin tone or lighter ,ironically, I still have associations with regardless of disagreements. This has been a interesting phenomenon to me. The exception of that for me have been friends of mine that I was able to reconcile through Christ, which means that through Christ each party found it within ourselves to forgive and move forward. Those friendships I'm thankful for.  It seems to me that in Christ, is where people are truly able to come to grips with these types of issues as it should be.