Black Joy Panel (A conversation on Black Joy)
In conjunction with my solo exhibition, Lavendra (March 25, 2017 - May 7, 2017) at American Medium, I asked that folks join me at the gallery on Sunday, April 23rd at 4pm for a conversation around/on/inspired by Black joy between Caitlin Cherry, Diamond Stingily, Yulan Grant and me.
I Read this text at the beginning: Tina Campt, The Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Director of the Africana Studies Program at Barnard College said, "The grammar of Black Feminist Futurity is a performance of a future that hasn't yet happened, but must. It's an attachment to a belief in what should be true, which in turn realizes that aspiration. It's the power to imagine beyond current fact, to envision that which is not but must be. Put another way, it's [...] a striving for the future you want to see." Black joy could, therefore, be a gateway to a new future. Especially if we consider Black joy to be a joy made regardless of, or in an effort to resist, a socio-political climate where Black people live under systemic oppression, surveillance and mortal threat. A climate where Black suicide rates increase because of the seemingly endless attempts to obliterate the Black spirit. To make joy as a Black person, and especially as a Black woman, as many Black women always already do, inside of the racial nightmare that is the post-colonial world, is to make a joy that combats this future, and that possibly protects the hope for something new to come. Photos below image Caitlin Cherry, Yulan Grant, Diamond Stingily and me (E. Jane) Thanks to everyone that came. We were unable to record it, but I have plans for the future... |