RESIST antiblackness
REVOLT against empire
REMATRIATE the land
This Juneteenth I wanted to explore what African-American liberation would look like on Turtle Island beyond reparations. I took inspiration from my Gullah-Geechee ancestors who maintained their indigenous African lifeways and culture in the face of chattel slavery and cultural genocide.
This painting includes a character of mine who I lovingly refer to as Sister Liberation. She represents a continuum of Black women’s militant resistance against misogynoir and colonialism outside of motherhood. I call her Sister Liberation because she “ain’t nobody’s mama”.
Pictured here is Sister Liberation adorned with cowrie shell jewelry and her signature rifle (adorned with the Akan Adinkra symbols for justice, freedom, and wisdom from the past). In her left hand, she holds stalks of wild rice. In front of her, a Gullah-Geechee sweetgrass basket is adorned with Aya, the Adinkra symbol for survival and endurance. The basket is filled with indigo leaves and okra.
Prints and posters of this piece are now available on my printful!
To the People of the U.S.S.R. - From the People of San Francisco
In Peace and Friendship. 1984. Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp.
Thankfully it was bright enough outside so I could take a picture of this poster (it's actually foamboard) before reframing it! It is fairly obscure, so there isn't much information describing its exact connection to the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp (UK-based), but I am putting my faith in how it's archived. This article by Julie Bindel for The Guardian describes the context + urgency of this movement beautifully- a 1981 protest against allowing the US to store nuclear weapons on British land.
