“He grabbed me, twisted my arm on my back and shoved me in the grass and starting pulling the back of my braids. I was telling him to get off me because my back was hurting bad,” said 15 year old Dajerria Becton of her attempted arrest at a pool party.
“I will light you up! Get out! Now!” said the officer as he drew a stun gun and pointed it at 28 year old Sandra Bland after she refused to leave her car following the receipt of her ticket.
Representations of black women in US popular culture and public discourse frequently depict them stereotypically as overweight and asexual, or hypersexualized and in need of less protection but more policing for moral failures. The black female body then becomes an object in the faces of power, brutality, and fetishism– detached from the name and genuine identity it belongs to.
“Abandoned Margins” seeks to both lay bare this inequitable and sectarian lens, as well as create an empowering visual language that challenges the supremacist systems under which black female bodies are marginalized and lack agency.
#AbandonedMargins
Represented Artists || Nakeya Brown, Lee Bullitt, Ifeatuanya Chiejina, Sharla Hammond, Mengly Hernandez, LaToya Hobbs, Candace Hunter, Nature’s Intent, Tye Johnson, Nic Kay, April Martin, Alexis McGrigg, Rosemary Meza-DesPlas, Marcia Michael, Emily Mulenga, Jasmine Murrell, Kim Nogueira, Harmony Rosales, Melissa Sutherland, Shoshanna Weinberger, Brittney Leeanne Williams, Sarah Beth Woods
Juror: Janice Bond
Cover image: “Pink, Poised, and Still” by artist Brittney Leeanne Williams
