Imagine feeling alienated due to your identity at such a young age, and also imagine carrying that feeling with you throughout your entire life. This second response spoke to me the most because it was written by a child and addresses the psychological effects of institutionalized oppression and intergenerational trauma. Sometimes I wish I didn’t and just let it go b/c it’s not worth it.” Every obstacle is different but in general I just push through no matter what. “Sometimes I make a point to prove people wrong about how they are labeling me. SJW So many to share, but here are a couple: These are traits I see in a lot of people in my family, and oftentimes we do not take the time to ask ourselves how we are doing because we are instead spending so much time just trying to overcome everyday obstacles. But the theme of survival speaks a lot about this feeling I often felt growing up to be strong, to overcome, and to roll with the punches. When I created the project, I was expecting people to tell more personal stories or that participants would allow themselves to be more vulnerable (and a lot of them did end up being personal). I noticed that the majority of them read like survival tips or affirmations, which I’ve started calling “Protection Politics.” I’m exploring ways to take these reflections and translate them into a book. HM Have the responses surprised you, or did you anticipate the kind of answers you received? Since beginning this project, I have received 321 written responses. Essentially, you choose a word, or if there is only one seat left, the word chooses you. Each seat has a single word on it: Radiant, Magical, Determined, Bold, Strong, and Brilliant. Depending on where you sit, you are asked a different question. There are six cushions or “bonnet seats” that surround the focal piece and another larger bonnet that holds the completed responses. The goal is to stimulate reflection and conversations among black people in what I consider to be a meditative space for those who seek to maintain their dignity in the face of prejudice, aggression, and violence. Satin hair bonnets inspired the formal elements of the project they’ve since become a visual language in my work that is a metaphor for protection, resistance, and comfort. I invite participants to take a seat and write a response to a question that is tossed into the center of the installation. Release., or RRR, is a community-engaged project that I began in 2018. Hallie McNeill I’d like to start by talking about your piece Relax. Though these circumstances are not what prompted our interview, they did impress a sense of urgency upon our conversation. Until real change occurs, every list, every tally will continue to grow. Yet the most infuriating reality is that none of this is anything new it’s the opposite. Now that we’ve reached publishing, I feel strongly that no shortlist of names or events will ever properly describe the violence, anxiety, and disappointment of these past months bullet points will never do justice to what real bullets do. Upon revision, I added Jacob Blake’s name. When I first wrote this introduction, I cited the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. Over the months that Stephanie and I corresponded, much transpired. Her work is equal parts proactive and reflective: from participatory, community-engaged installations to mixed and multimedia works, she weaves together-sometimes literally-objects and symbols that question longstanding assumptions, expectations, and delimitations placed on Black people in the United States. Woods is a multidisciplinary artist whose work examines Black American identity and the effects of forced cultural assimilation.
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