Unwrapping Vanessa

Unwrapping Vanessa

Tonight, May 20th 2016, ArtRage Gallery in Syracuse, New York held its 2016-2017 Season Announcement Party.  My show, "Unwrapping Vanessa", is a part of that ArtRage season.  My show will take place February/March 2017.  The Artist featured in the 2016-2017 Season were asked to do a short presentation on the work that will be in their show.  As a Storyteller I wrote and shared a version of this piece about the Women Featured in my Honor Quilts...."Unwrapping Vanessa"

In a country of

hy - phe - nated origins      and

generations of enslaved DNA

i learned to Embrace a Tribe 

UnNamed

A circle of Family Women     and

Root Women, and of old Soul'd Girl Children

Who spoke the Voices of my Ancestors,

and Taught me the Who of who I am

Some Echoed Full-Lipped Motherland drum beats

Swung low Bottomed Hips 

          Diana Ross. 
          Freda Payne. 
          Moms Mabley.  

          Judith Jamison.  
          Katherine Dunham. 
          Josephine Baker.

in my parent's living room, after church, on sundays

wading in the cleansing waters of Blues and Jazz and R&B

Some held my hand

in hostile school hallways

in the wastelands of strangers

The "Others".

They were my loyal truth-telling playmates

          Anne Frank.   
          Ruby Bridges. 

young Maya Angelou's uncaged voice.      and

          3 little church girls

          3 little girls

This Tribe UnNamed 

Filled by mouth with the Tongues of Their Defiance

           Fannie Lou Hamer.

           Ida B. Wells.    and

           Angela Davis.

"if they come for me in the morning

 they will come for you in the night."

         

And in the night before my crossing into Adult Womanhood

i was initiated into the Cult of Black Invisibility

A cautionary tale

learned in freshman Orientation:

Fairytales in Black World do not come true

Wearing Black Beauty comes with a price

a sentencing:

          Lynn Eusan

          1st Black Homecoming Queen 

          at my Alma Mater the University of Houston.

          - Threatened

          - Kidnapped

          - Missing

          - Found Dead

Eartha Kitt couldn't   keep   her   mouth   closed.    and

Dorothy Dandridge was too beautiful for hollywood.  

They became invisible but not forgotten

Held in the Arms of Ancestor Women

They and so many Black Goddesses

documented in the cells of our Blood

by    Zora Neale Hurston

        Octavia Butler

        Nikki Giovanni

        Audre Lorde

        Sonia Sanchez

        Gwendolyn Brooks        

        Jackie Grace

        Francis Parks

        Jackie Warren Moore

        Mary Slechta

        Georgia Popoff

        Cheryl Wilkins Mitchell

the threads of their lives quilted by Lauren Austin

and in the voice of my Mother

          Celeste B. Johnson

and in the voice of her Mother

          Celeste B. Roberts

and in the voice of my Father's Mother

          Molly Turk

They sowed Diamonds in the backyards

of Amerika's deserts

and Turned Myself into Myself

Storyteller - Across 2 Continents

Telling the Tales of this

UnNamed Tribe of Ancestors

This Tribe of Women

This Circle of Honor Quilts

This UnWrapping of Vanessa