Thank God for blood-memory

Thank God for blood-memory

A poem called “The Purple Dress, Circa 1992-1993” that reads, “In this picture, my mama know she fine-lavender sweater clinging all her curves sitting right. Glory be her exposed thigh earrings licking her shoulders her hand a cocked smirk at there hip. I squint when I see lavender sequins fitting her curves like lingerie. Teenaged me couldn’t picture my mama a woman dressed to pull her hand a cocked smirk at her hip cabernet colored lip-curved like a fishhook dragging men behind her. Before this picture I

Brittany Rogers

The Purple Dress, Circa 1992-1993

2024

 

“The Purple Dress, Circa 1992-1993” 

 “In this picture, my mama know she fine-lavender sweater clinging all her curves sitting right. Glory be her exposed thigh earrings licking her shoulders her hand a cocked smirk at there hip. I squint when I see lavender sequins fitting her curves like lingerie. Teenaged me couldn’t picture my mama a woman dressed to pull her hand a cocked smirk at her hip cabernet colored lip-curved like a fishhook dragging men behind her. Before this picture I didn’t see her as just a woman though I know she must have been those hips curved like a fishhook dragging men behind her. We don’t discuss who she was before children though I know she belonged to herself once. She says she is too old to wear miniskirts, run the streets now that we wore her down. We don’t discuss who she was before. What picture will I show my kids to prove I still got it once I’m tricked into thinking I’m too old for miniskirts, the glory of exposed thighs, large hoops? I imagine my children squinting at old photos proof that I was a woman before them, thinking in this picture my mama knows she fine.”

Brittany Rogers

Reprieve/The Beginning

print

2024/2022

 

"I am the daughter of Katherine, daughter of Gloria, daughter of Lucille, daughter of Mama Carter. Everything that I am is because of my matrilineal, but as Ajanaé Dawkins proclaimed, no one teaches us how to be daughters. My poem “Ode to the Purple Dress, Circa 1980’s-1990’s”, along with the collages Reprieve and The Beginning were a result of me considering the personhood and autonomy of my mothers, as opposed to the role and responsibilities. Each piece represents a different transition in the lives of many women, including becoming a mother, abandoning the ‘sexiness’ of youth, and approaching the end of life."

Two collaged photos: the left collage features a cutout of a black woman on a purple background with cutouts of furniture, a ceiling light, a vase, and the outline of a clock in the background. The right collage has images of women’s manicured hands with the REPEATED text, “HAVE YOU EVER SEEN MY NAILS THIS LONG? NOT SINCE YOUR DADDY WAS ALIVE? GET A MAN? WHATCHU THINK A NEW MAN GONE DO WITH ME? THIS HWO I THEY BETTA HURRY UP AND GET ME OUT OF HERE. NAILS NEAR OUR LONG AS YOURS.”
A collage of Brittany Rogers and Ajanaé Dawkins. There are two photos of them in the upper left and lower right corners with gold details overlayed on top and a black staircase in the middle.

Brittany Rogers

Sacred

print

2024

Brittany Rogers

Burial Clothes

2024

"Burial Clothes, after Ajanaé Dawkins" 

“I expect that it won’t be much different from now. Three options laid out on the bed before the concert the reading the date I want to get extra cute for; I call from the store to ask mini skirt or high waist jeans? I almost always want to look like Spring. I almost never want to look like a mother or a teacher, though I am. It has been twelve years of her knowing what look will make me feel most like I belong to myself. If I go to meet the Lord first, it is her that I want to dress me one last time. To say she would want her nails polished pastel. Her hoops round as halos. Lips lined and wine red. My best friend, her burial clothes should be yellow. Yes, yellow. Make her look like she’s in bloom.”

A poem called “Burial Clothes-after Ajanaé Dawkins” that reads, “I expect that it won’t be much different from now. Three options laid out on the bed before the concert the reading the date I want to get extra cute for; I call from the store to ask mini skirt or high waist jeans? I almost always want to look like Spring. I almost never want to look like a mother or a teacher, though I am. It has been twelve years of her knowing what look will make me feel most like I belong to myself. If I go to meet the Lo
A collaged photo of two black women with wedding imagery collaged on top of a grassy field. The woman on the left is wearing a white outfit and a wedding veil, the woman on the right is wearing a yellow-green floral dress.

Brittany Rogers

Bound

print

2024

Brittany Rogers

What Has a Lover Seen That You Have Not?

notebook/table

2023

A white stand with a notebook and pencil for participants to write in.
There are two black and white photos: the one of the left shows two black girls dressed in white in a lake baptizing a third while a fourth watches from the right. The one on the right shows six black girls dressed in white standing in a lake together with an alternate version of the photo overlayed on top.

Ky Smiley

Last Century, Last Week

photographic inkjet print

2024

"This photo series is acting as an escape into the nostalgia of a girlhood that goes uninterrupted. I have decided to depict the space I dream of Black girls to be when they go missing, because we all know they go missing…and they find a peace they are more often than not, kept from, when they are here. A paradise that allows for innocence to exist fully and undisputed by a world that is quick to encourage the suppression of it and end enforce their neglect both in childhood and as women."

Ky Smiley

Last Century, Last Week

photographic inkjet print

2024

"I pull much of my inspiration for visual choices from the words of songwriter, singer, and poet Jamila Woods. Even the title is taken from her song “Blk Girl Soldier” which celebrates the Black girls in our history who, despite having many forces against them, counter injustices daily. The full line: “Look at what they did to my sisters, last century last week” intends to evoke the feeling that all of the violence they’ve endured, then and now is happening all at once and is evidence of it being a systematic issue as opposed to singular isolated events."

There are two black and white photos: the one on the left shows four black girls dressed in white sitting on logs with one black girl reaching out to another. The one on the right shows two black girls dressed in white holding each other in a field with a tree in the back.
There are three color photos: the one on the left is a portrait of a black girl dressed in white. The middle is a wide shot of a black girl dressed in white standing in a field. The one on the right is a medium shot of a little black girl dressed in white playing with flowers in a field.

Ky Smiley

Last Century, Last Week

photographic inkjet print

2024

Ky Smiley

Last Century, Last Week

photographic inkjet print

2024

A color photo of a black girl dressed in white playing with sand on a beach.
A video projected into a frame on the wall with a bench to sit on.

Matthew Pitts

This is where we tell the Story

2024

 

This is where we tell the story is a series eager to engage fantasy, comedy, grief, struggle and triumph on our own terms.

Tyesha Radford Shorts

The Legend of John Henry

3:00

2024

A rocking chair in front of a projected video of nature. To the right of the rocking chair is a table with a bottle and assorted items.
A close-up of the rocking chair and table: the table has a bottle with brown liquid, a brush, pennies, and hair gel.

"The Legend of John Henry is an oral folkloric tradition that warns of the impending perils of industrialism and radicalized labor exploitation. Variations of the tale include descriptions of childhood, conception, musicianship, vigilante violence, fugitivity, and labor that paint broader pictures of Black Appalachian people — not as standard-bearers of rugged survivalism but as people who loved, who lost, who lived. Stories that center Black and other minoritized voices from Appalachia reveal how grossly over-represented whiteness has been from within the region. Appalachia is not solely a land of the white mountain man. In fact it is not even primarily so. Instead it is home to the hills and hollers, the railroad and the mines. Appalachia is the creek bed, ebbing and flowing, rising and falling, searching fro where it used to be and for where it has always been. Searching, lord willing, for where it will continue to be. The poem 'The Legend of John Henry' maps the author’s own familial connection to Appalachia and the generational ties that extend beyond the region."

Imani Mixon

Tina Turner Holds Herself Together

vinyl, photo

2021

 

"I’m Imani Mixon, an award-winning journalist and screenwriter, whose multimedia work frequently and enthusiastically centers Black women, our wellbeing, and our cultural impact. While reporting on Black woman icons including Aaliyah, Aretha Franklin, and Tina Turner, I noticed that their origin stories, artistries and legacies are rooted in and marked by trauma. Over time, these diva’s discographies and biographies engage fans in an age-old game of “do as I say, not as I do”. Their distant yet desired lives have become portals for Black woman (myself included) to interrogate the gendered expectations and performance of womanhood, especially in interpersonal relationships. Although these superstars are shielded by the fragile and porous veil of celebrity, their experiences of abuise and exploitation are not unique — it’s apparent in the everyday lives and interactions of Black women everywhere. This poem represents the ways I endeavor to honor the interiorities, complexities, mundanity, and sacredness of life as a Black woman."

A photo of Imani Mixon and Tina Turner.
A poem titled “Tina Turner Holds Herself Together”.

The poem “Tina Turner Holds Herself Together” 

“We been here before-Wrapping our arms around each other Our lace gloved hands Kissing our shoulders Hair a honey black brown Like the teacup terriers the fashion girls wear In their big big purses-As they steal their way bigger I dream my way Out of Nutbush, onto the road At center stage Away from him Away from home And call it a miracle They look at me As I vaseline my glisten I am all legs and hair but somehow no human Just glimmer Just legs and hair and shimmering somewhere Not feeling."