An all-white cotton and linen dress with D-ring fasteners and straps, each element speaking to legacies of sharecropping, religion, mental illness, gendered violence, immigration, and loss.
The dress was created with inspiration from the combined histories of the three wearers. The details of each segment represent the history of the individual wearer while the garment as a whole depicts the interconnected nature of struggle.
Communion - the sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings, especially on a mental or spiritual level.
"In a visit to the Colored Girls Museum in the spring of 2017, the creator was struck by the poignant pottery work of Carren Clarke Macadoo. Her sculpted sleeping masks in the reception area of the museum helped connect the idea of providing rest for women and femmes of color with themes of sociality, interdependence and community as a subsistence tool. Strength, resilience, and beauty are part of our legacy, but so is heartbreak, guilt, and loss.”
As women and gender non-conforming people of color we share an ancestry that is not only tied to traditional conceptions of bloodlines, but to our activism, to our endurance, and to our communion both with other women of color and with the mothers, both biological and chosen, that came before.
What does it mean for women and gender non-conforming folks of color, who so often find themselves outside the traditional models of support; of traditional family units; conventional education; and legal and accessible healthcare to rest and to facilitate that rest for one another?
The interlocking of destinies, privileges, and challenges of black and brown women and gender non-conforming folks creates a future where change is not possible for one of us if it is not possible for all of us.
On display at the Colored Girls Museum, Germantown Philadelphia
Models: Nicole Shanté, Calli Roche, Shreya Pokharel
Photographer: Zamani Feelings
MUA: Patrice Pugh