mourning my girlhooD..
..MOTHERING mYSELF
THE BLACK WOMAN GOD [TBWIG] - FEATURED INSTALLATION - CURATED BY DR.REELAVIOLETTE & BLACKWOMXNHEALING . 10/2023. SAN FRANCISCO, CA.
WELCOME
dear sis, welcome to this sacred space designed with you in mind. take a moment to exhale, settle in, and make yourself comfortable to the extent that it feels safe for you.
im ree, founder of blackwomxnhealing and curator of this instillation, and it is an honor to host you here.
BLACKWOMXNHEALING
blackwomxnhealing offers black feminist healing arts for everyday round the way black womxn healing through curated courses, exhibits, sister-circles, and publications. we center the homegirls and the hood chix, and we affirm our right to find wellness in our own way, on our own terms. stay in touch! join our listserv and follow us on the gram @blackwomxnhealing <3
BACKGROUND
this instillation is inspired by the birth of two interconnected creative projects - my first book, mourning my inner[blackgirl]child, and my latest blackwomxnhealing exhibition, entitled #blackgirlquarantine (#bgq).
my book grapples with the somatic, spiritual, and ancestral trauma of my childhood, and offers an invitation for radical healing among black women with inner black girls inside them.
#bgq features 100+ quarantine arts made for and by black women. it celebrates our life sustaining art-making, and mourns the lives we lost in 2020.
i birthed both of these projects during the pandemic, and it has been an honor to hold space for black womxn to journey alongside these works over the past three years.
im so grateful to be sharing a glimpse of these projects with you through The Black Woman is God 2023 Exhibition on Motherhood! tbwig is literally the reason why im an artist and a curator, so it is truly, truly an honor.
INTENTION
mourning my girlhood, mothering myself invites you into the interior of my home(s) & welcomes a sort of iykyk nostalgia for black girls who get it - door knocker earrings, baby hair tooth brushes, ballies and beads, cd's, and everyday round the way '90s artifacts of ghetto girls' material culture.
it is an ode to us, to our mothers, to our grand mothers, to the women who made us, and to the mothers we are becoming for ourselves today.
it is hood meets holy, ratchet meets divine. it is my grandmother's metal heirloom alongside pink foam rollers and star dust stickers, unicorn crowns and bottles of sparkle lip gloss. it is girly and girlish and grown girl too. it is gossip and gracious and hearing good news. it is ancestral, astral, extraterrestrial, and at the same time, oakland, philly, georgia, urban, folk, slang, twang.
it is the hood girl chorus affirmation that the ghetto is sacred and the sacred is ghetto, and we get to ree/mother ourselves here by loving all the things we had forgotten.
DEDICATION
I am honored to dedicate this instillation to Janeen Irving, a beloved mother ancestor who love Black women and love Black art.
Janeen was a brilliant scholar and curator who received her BA from UC Berkeley, and was pursuing her MA in African American & African Diaspora Studies from Columbia University before her transition. As the first Mellon Arts Graduate Fellow in the department, she worked diligently to support their Black Arts Dialogues during the pandemic. Her research on Black Studies, Museum Studies and African Diasporic Art continue to guide and inspire artists like me.
To learn more about Janeen's life and legacy, click here.
THE ARTISTS
im so deeply grateful for every single black woman whose art made #bgq possible! thank y'all for sharing your sacred gift with our folks, and for trusting me to honor that gift in community.
*the artworks featured in this instillation offer a glimpse into the #bgq exhibit. for a full overview of artists featured in this instillation, view below. for a full overview of all artists featured in the #bgq exhibit, click here.
. . .
Purple Wall, Larger Pieces
1.. reelaviolette botts-ward,
inspired by Janeen Irving
2.. Sera Smith
3.. Nimot Ohunfemi
4.. Zhanè
5.. Hazel
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Purple Wall, Smaller Pieces
1.. Mariam Mouna Guessous "Mar"
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Red Wall, Larger Pieces
1.. Sera Smith
2.. Olivia James
3.. Joymara Cajoya Coleman
4.. Reanna Norman
5.. Melany Amarikwa
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Red Wall, Smaller Pieces
1.. Bria Bailey
2.. Alexis Mayfield
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(all art on the pink wall is by ree +
her inner child(ren), unless otherwise indicated)
Pink Wall, Larger Pieces
1.. Sydney Forneret
Smaller Art, Pink Wall
1.. Book Party Photography
by Teddy
2.. Very Black Fan by
Andrè Singleton
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QR code Collage by Courtney Lett
THE ART
Janeen was a brilliant scholar and curator who received her BA from UC Berkeley, and was pursuing her MA in African American & African Diaspora Studies from Columbia University before her transition. As the first Mellon Arts Graduate Fellow in the department, she worked diligently to support their Black Arts Dialogues during the pandemic. Her research on Black Studies, Museum Studies and African Diasporic Art continue to guide and inspire artists like me.
To learn more about Janeen's life and legacy, click here.
SERA SMITH
BAY AREA
NIMOT OGUNFEMI
Illinois
ZHANÈ
Bay Area
Zhané is a Black queer visual storyteller based in the Bay Area. By exploring one’s experience with mental health and healing, she uses photography, videography, and text to produce a full range of storytelling. For some viewers, Zhané's work may evoke a sense of enlightenment and curiosity. However, for viewers who share similar identities, her work may evoke reflection and complex emotions of pride, sorrow, a sense of kinship, as well as validation. Zhané hopes to invite all viewers to explore the range of Black womanhood outside the lens of being strong, beautiful, and resilient.
@vibrance_bw (IG)
SYDNEY FORNERET
Bay Area
REANNA NORMAN
Bay Area
*photographer for the full sepia series
JOYMARA Cajoya Coleman
New Orleans & Bay Area
A seed planted in New Orleans that blossomed into an East Oakland Soul Flower. Joymara is a diasporic African woman from east Oakland, California, by way of New Orleans, Louisiana. Joymara’s artistic expression is deeply rooted in the practices of truth telling, cultivating joy and self exploration. Joymara blends her experience of surviving the foster care system with her background in social work to advocate for her own healing and community justice.
@Joymara_Cajoya + @CultivatingJoyOakland (IG)
KANDACE MOORE
New Jersey
Kandace Moore is a multi-disciplinary artist currently based in the state of New Jersey. After receiving her B.A. in Theatre Arts, she felt it was imperative to further her studies and to be able to identify what type of artist she was meant to be not based solely on her own needs, but the needs of those around her. After completing her first year of obtaining her M.A. in Theater Studies, REVE(A)LED by KM was then introduced to the world in September 2020. For the last three years, Kandace has honed in on her vision for this series of wearable art in the form of one-of-one embellished drags and has shared her journey on her social media platform, gaining a wealthy, supportive, and expanding community. As she continues to operate as the bridge between the Divine and the human race, it is Kandace’s firm belief that any art that she produces is meant to reach and communicate with all people, starting with those that look like her first.
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The (A) in the word REVE(A)LED represents the honoring of two words coexisting in the one. If the “A” is removed in REVE(A)LED, the word that is left is “REVELED”. According to the Merrimack-Webster dictionary, the word “revel” is a verb that means to “take deep pleasure or satisfaction”. If the “A” remains, it leaves the original word “REVE(A)LED”, which is a verb that means “to make known through divine inspiration; to make (something secret or hidden) public or generally known”. After three years of research regarding color theory/therapy, holistic wellness (particularly healing crystal and gems), and the insistence to always have a finger on the pulse of the going’s on of the black community, Kandace Moore is moving forward in the mission of assisting black people in reveling in their beauty and reve(a)ling their divinity.
@mooreofkandace + @revealedbykm (IG)
REBEKAH// HAZEL
@bigdaddyhazel
Mariam Mouna Guessous "Mar"
@iseeyouwell
New York
Mariam Mouna Guessous "Mar" is a Marrakech native Brooklyn-based Healing Artist on a mission to assist folks heal, rise and embody their unique medicine. Mar comes from a lineage of healers and medicine people from the indigenous land of North Africa (The Imazighen / The Amazigh) and has extensively studied various healing modalities and continues to bring accessible wellness to communities who need it most.
Mar is the founder of I See You Wellness, Sanctuary and Apothecary, their work centers healing justice, community care and ancestral remembrance. She now serves a global community via I See You Sanctuary, a membership community for those who are on a healing path and are ready to rise and embody their unique medicine. Her work is constantly evolving and adapting to the needs of her community and the collective as a whole.
ANDRÈ SINGLETON
@theveryblackproject
Bay Area
André D. Singleton is an Oakland based educator, human rights activist, and multi-disciplinary artist born in Kansas City, Missouri. He is widely known as the co-creator of ‘The Very Black Project,’ a popular social awareness initiative that celebrates the African Diaspora.
OLIVIA JAMES
Delaware
@leo_ren82 (IG)
BRIA BAILEY
