“Where some may see flat, static narratives, I see a spectrum of tonal gradations and realities. What I am creating is literally black portraiture with ballpoint pen ink. I'm looking for that in-between state in an individual where the overarching definition is lost. Skin as geography is the terrain I expand by emphasizing the specificity of blackness, where an individual’s subjectivity, various realities and experiences can be drawn onto the diverse topography of the epidermis. From there, the possibilities of portraying a fully-fledged person are endless.” MayPersonsStatesRealityIndividualLostBlackPossibilityCreatingSkinsDefinitionsVariousEndlessNarrativeFlatsPensDiverseInkSpectrumGeographyStaticBlacknessSubjectivityTerrainPortrayingPortraitureSpecificityTopographyBallpoint Pens Author:Toyin Odutola
“We have forgotten love, and Sat lonely beside each other. We have eaten together, Lonely behind our plates, we Have hidden behind children, We have slept together in A lonely bed. Now my heart Turns toward you, awake at last, Penitent, lost in the last Loneliness. Speak to me. Talk To me. Break the black silence.” HeartChildrenTogetherLastsTurnsLostSpeakBlackBehindsSilenceBreakLonelinessMy HeartBedLonelyForgottenAwakeSatPlatesTalk To Me Author:Kenneth Rexroth
“Lost in loneliness and pain. Black and unendurable, Thinking of you with every Corpuscle of my flesh, in Every instant of night And day.” ThinkingPainNightLostBlackLonelinessFleshInstantThinking Of YouUnendurable Book:The Collected Shorter Poems Source: The Collected Shorter Poems
“We are all connected. What unites us is our common humanity. I don't want to oversimplify things - but the suffering of a mother who has lost her child is not dependent on her nationality, ethnicity or religion. White, black, rich, poor, Christian, Muslim or Jew - pain is pain - joy is joy.” WantChildrenChristianPainJoyMotherSufferingHumanityLostBlackWhitePoorCommonRichJewConnectedDependentNationalityEthnicityRich PoorCommon Humanity Author:Desmond Tutu
“Richmond has fallen - and I have no heart to write about it... They are too many for us. Everything lost in Richmond, even our archives. Blue-black is our horizon.” WritingHeartWarLostBlackHistoryBlueFallenCivil WarHorizonAmerican Civil WarArchivesRichmond Book:Mary Chesnut's Diary Source: Mary Chesnut's Diary
“We love a world in which the people in the white hats get rewarded and the people in the black hats pay the price. And that I have to say doesn't happen very often, particularly in a very complex economy. We're in a time of panic where people have lost trust in what the banks are doing, what the investment firms are doing - lost trust beyond a level of reasonableness, to be honest. And, it's got to be stopped.” PeopleWorldHappensLostBlackWhiteLevelsPayEconomyHonestInvestmentComplexesBeing HonestFirmHatsPanicPay The PriceReasonablenessBlack HatsLost Trust Author:Rebecca M. Blank
“I used to come out here every Fourth of July as a child to picnic and to swim on the island, to tour the fort and wander through it. And all of that time, I never knew anything about the presence of black soldiers on the island. And so, for me, this was a way of trying to tell another history, a lost or a forgotten or a little-known history about these black soldiers who played an important part in American history.” Trethewey said. Coincidentally, she was born “exactly 100 years to the day that Mississippi celebrated the first Confederate Memorial Day, April 26, 1866.” WayTryingYearsFirstsChildrenLittlesSaidImportantUsedLostBlackBornKnownForgottenSoldierWanderIslandsSwimFourthAmerican HistoryMemorialAprilJulyMemorial DayMississippiPicnicsFortsConfederate Author:Natasha Trethewey
“Love is scary because it pulls you in with an intense force, a supermassive black hole which looks like nothing from the outside but from the inside challenges every reasonable thing you know. You lose yourself, like I lost myself, in the warmest of annihilations.” KnowsLooksLostForceBlackLosesChallengesLove IsScaryHolesIntenseReasonableAnnihilationLosing YourselfBlack HoleLost Myself Author:Matt Haig
“The word 'We' is as lime poured over men, which sets and hardens to stone, and crushes all beneath it, and that which is white and that which is black are lost equally in the grey of it. It is the word by which the depraved steal the virtue of the good, by which the weak steal the might of the strong, by which the fools steal the wisdom of the sages.” MenMightLostStrongBlackWhiteVirtueFoolStonesWeakStealingCrushGreySageDepravedLimes Book:Anthem Source: Anthem
“We have to look at for example the increasing globalization of capital, the whole system of transitional capitalism now which has had an impact on black populations - that has for example eradicated large numbers of jobs that black people traditionally have been able to count upon and created communities where the tax base is lost now as a result of corporations moving to the third world in order to discover cheap labor.” PeopleWorldLooksHas BeensWholeAbleJobsMovingOrderLostBlackCommunityResultsNumbersExampleTaxesCapitalismLaborThirdsImpactPopulationCorporationsBlack PeopleGlobalizationThird WorldLarge NumbersCheap Labor Author:Angela Davis
“I rely on some words that actually my husband said to me. He jokes about saying, "You know it's only darkest before it's totally black!" Even in my darkest hour - and my darkest hour was probably when I lost both my parents - I look to him and I see what he has endured, what he has overcome, what he is doing with his life, and just how he's lived his life.” KnowsLooksSaidLostParentBlackHoursHusbandJokesOvercomingRelyMy HusbandDarkest Hour Author:Cindy McCain
“When my father would come home from the track after a good day, the whole room would light up; it was fairyland. But when he lost, it was black. In our house, it was always either a wake ... or a wedding.” WholeHomeLightFatherHouseLostBlackRoomsTrackComing HomeGood DayLight Up Author:Peter O'Toole
“I was a lost child. I wasn't accepted in the black community because I was Korean, and I wasn't accepted in the Korean community because I was black” ChildrenLostBlackCommunityAcceptedKoreanBlack CommunityLost Child Author:Hines Ward