The resilience of African American Art: Harriet Powers

 Harriet Powers (1837-19110) Textile artist/Storyteller/Wise Woman was born into slavery in Athens Georgia. Her quilts are legendary in that they clearly show the direct influence of African decorative arts. American slave culture was far more complex and secretive than history allows in our Eurocentric telling. Harriet’s parents were probably from the Kongo or central Africa but her quilts show a distinct west African style. The Dahomey applique artists were traditionally males working in guilds and highly esteemed in their ancestral role. Harriet’s quilts show this strong influence as well as in the design which uses a vertical format often seen in west African textiles such as kente cloth. She very probably learned this from other slaves in secret conversations where oral history was heard.

Imbedded into her quilts are mnemonic messages, as reading was forbidden to slaves; information, aesthetics and information was transmitted, and stories preserved for future generations in this colorful symbology of textiles. Her beautiful quilts are testimony to the interconnected society for the kidnapped African people from many diverse nations, where all identity appeared purposely to have been stripped. And yet culture was continued in plain sight in the arts, food, religion and voice. Harriet’s use of symbolism in her art included the Biblical as well as from many African societies.  

exerpts from Woman of Prophecy, Women of Power

 

Outside the ruthless western march for supremacy, women often paid roles in resistance to slavery, colonialization and oppression

 

Powerful women were spiritual leaders and healers in Quilombos[1] (25 Palmares: New World Priestess); these were independent republics of escaped slaves, Indigenous people and disenfranchised whites. These settlements survived for centuries across the Americas and the Caribbean.

 Within the horror of slavery, women of power used their gifts to resist oppression and seek healing through use of traditional African religion (26 Conjurer Woman), art, dance (27 Damballah) and song.

all art and words copyright T.Truesdale 2020

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[1] Reis, Joao, Jose, Quilombos: Brazilian Maroons During Slavery” Cultural Survival, Dec. 2001

exerpts from "Women of Prophecy and Power"

 

In New Orleans a mixed culture existed pre civil war where some women became famous for their ability to use the inherent magic of African roots (Marie Laveau born 1801). Our beloved Zora Neale Hurston wrote in 1928 in an interview with conjure doctor, Luke Turner[1]:

 

‘The police hear so much about Marie Laveau that they come to her house in St. Anne St. to put her in jail. First one come, she stretch out her left hand and he turned around and around and never stop until some one come lead him away. Then two come together-she put them to running and barking like dogs. Four come and she put them to beating each other with night sticks. The whole station force come. They knock on her door. She know who they are before she ever look. She did work at her alter and they all went to sleep on her steps”- Hoodoo chapter 2

words and image copyright T.Truesdale 2020

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[1] Hurston, Zora Neal, Folklore, Memoirs and Other Writings; Mules and Men,( Hoodoo Chap.11) Library of America, 1995, pp183-184

 

Mirror of Medusa

Belittled and ghost lighted to retreat

Into a malevolent night.

We resurface to claim our right,

Our power to fight;

Against the patriarchal blight

That boxed and blinded our light.

 

Who is the monster and what does it reflect?

Medusa or mirror the male instead.

He did destroy all potential of Her

Except the enticement in the danger of beauty.

copyright T. Truesdale image 2018

poem 2021

 

Healing and Reparations for our Beloved Country

 

Healing Light

For all of us that are hurt even broken hearted by the violence and betrayal of this last week, this last four years. We must confront the injustices of the past that have set the groundwork for this hate. We must move forward with truth always truth.

Spirit of Reconciliation

by Toni Truesdale

 

Peace cannot be absolute,

Until the Process is complete.

The courageous steps towards reconciliation are

Full of pain, tears, heartbreak...

 

The anguish needs recognition;

And responsibility accepted,

Before absolution.

For perception of historical grief

Must be believed, by all...

 

Sincere reparations,

May be inexact;

But told with unconditional truth,

To have an amnesty in equality;

And in forgiveness, peace.

 

T. Truesdale copyright 2009

ToniTruesdale.com

 

 

Preserving The Blue Planet

  “The Sacredness of Water”

By Toni Truesdale

 

We inhabit the Blue Planet;

Waters ebbing and flowing,

Necessary for all life.

The Ancestors knew the

Sacredness of the waters.

They drank water every day

And, made soothing herbal teas,

Using the traditional knowledge

Of the natural world

Passed down through generations.

The ancestors remembered to give thanks

To all the elements, medicinal and food plants

That nurture and heal.

Today, we can honor

Those that came before us;

By remembering the Earth,

Our Mother,

The Blue Planet

Full of beautiful waters.

 

Truesdale copyright 2010

ToniTruesdale.com

 

 

 

 

Mary of the Americas

 

“Mary of the Americas:

Mary, Erzulie, Corn Maiden and Coatlicue”

by Toni Truesdale

 

All things are born,

and all things return to the

Mother of the Americas.

Her aspects are both purity and fecundity.

The promise of life and the inevitability of death.

She is compassion and she is justice.

She can nurture and she can destroy.

She wears many faces,

For she is all humanity;

And is as multi-cultural as this continent has become

over the last four hundred years.

She is Mother to the new millennium.

T.Truesdale copyright 2000