Mickalene Thomas: Origin of the Universe!!! I couldn’t believe the scale and detail and massive-ness of these visions. I went to the Brooklyn Museum over taking-day break (i’ve talked about the problematic nature and history of museums and my complicated love of them) to see Mickalene Thomas’ work. I’m sure that someone has written in better detail than I but goodness the [re]clamation of western art traditions, the centering of BLACK WOMEN and the story-telling, multiple ways of knowing and showing. It was really beautiful and impressive. Though I have no clue who has this much room in their house, it is now a goal of mine to have high ceilings. The colors, the rhinestones, the enamel, the paint the lightness the heaviness the many browns and thick lips and direct gaze and the fabulousness. Collage- like quilts- collecting little bits and gathering them as a new, vibrant whole. Obvious and subtle metaphor and umph. So cool.

sweet red yams,

black eyed peas and okra seeds

braided into my ancestors’ hair.
 

brown-skinned geniuses

boarding white ships

to some ‘new world’


the green slimy survival


but I like how it tastes

to cross ocean divides,

to cook ancient food,

touch, and be alive.


-pambana

(image of an okra flower it is yellow with a deep brown middle with two pods, image found here: http://2pat.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/okra/)

generalbriefing:

howtobeterrell:

searchingforknowledge:

howtobeterrell:

James Marion Sims, NYC 

The Butcher of BLACK WOMEN. 

what I refer to him as

Someone needs to take this statue down. 

I have been dying for the longest to spray paint that shit out of it

I just wanna point out that the statue is in the North. Yup. They did f’ed up ish to Black folk and owned slaves too.

when my mom worked at the nyc health department she got a plaque made to put onto this statue (although we’d prefer to tear the shit down), recognizing the Black women who’s bodies were used without consent, recognizing their foundational [forced] contribution to this important gynaecological history.

the department said nope, not putting that up, we’d have to do that to every statue in the city.

my mom said SOUNDS PERFECT.

“I see Feminism as one system of analyzing the formation of private and public identity as well as a political impulse toward freedom equality. There are other such endeavors such as Critical Studies and Afrocentrism. The premise of much of my work is that race exists only as a social construction and not as a fact of biology. Feminist analysis of the construction of gender, was my avenue to better understanding the formation of a racialized individual and group.”

-Mequitta Ahuja, the artist

(Source: afrovisionary)

towardperpetualpeaceofmind:

Truth.

politicksasusual:

Always see photos of Pres. Obama with MLK or Malcolm but this one stood out. Just like those men, Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan, Fannie Lou Hamer and other women are part of the legacy of Blk leadership that helped our President reach the oval office. 

(via thatneedstogo)