On October 3rd, the Universe gave me a beautiful Venus Retrograde in Scorpio and a juicy, inspiring, and deeply spiritual and creative experience at the Aesthetic Inheritance: Art, Archive & African American Life Symposium that was held at Bowie State University’s Fine and Performing Arts Center.
Bowie State University (oldest HBCU in Maryland), Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum, and the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture organized the Symposium.
Throughout the day, I was blessed to listen to and learn from several talented artists, including Dr. Latoya Ruby Frazier who gave the keynote about her photography, storytelling, and book, “Flint Is Family in Three Acts” which documents and honors three generations of family members impacted by environmental racism and the water crisis in my birth city (yes, I was born in Flint, Michigan).
During the first workshop on Reading Black Art and Visual Culture, I was eager to listen to and learn from self-taught artist Sheila Crider who is based in Baltimore and DC . I initially met Sheila as we exited the MARC train and walked to the Symposium on Bowie State’s campus. She also introduced me to “Blackstraction,” a term she coined, and has explored in her own creative process.
Leo Rosario, Afro Latina fashion professional, FIT alumna, and co-founder of Makers of Taste in Baltimore (will launch soon), gave a presentation that discussed Black fashion inheritance and reminded me that the everyday aesthetic inheritance of Black and Brown folks lives in our bodies.
I’ll share more about my Symposium experiences this week.
SPECIAL THANKS to the Symposium organizers, sponsors, volunteers, speakers, and attendees for co-creating a sacred day of being in and building community, listening, learning, sharing, and celebrating our ancestral legacies and each other.
