Resilience is built [woven] into the cells of our bodies. Like trauma, resilience can ripple outward changing the lives of people, families, neighbors and communities in positive ways. Also, like trauma, resilience can be passed down form generation to generation. The human brain always retains the capacity to learn, change and grow. Once trauma has been addressed growth and change is possible again. My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem
My patch represents a story of change. The little five-year ole girl in this patch is me. The floral print fabric is part of the sash for an “Old South” dress my mother made for me when I was fifteen years old, growing up in Columbus, GA and attending high school during desegregation. The dress that my mother lovingly made for me was designed to resemble the dress Scarlett O’Hara wore in the picnic in the movie, Gone with the Wind.
With very little memory of that time or details of the ball, I now look back as a 65-year-old white privileged CIS gender (she/her/hers) dance artist, still living in the south, in the middle of a global pandemic and I ask myself, how can I do better?
The thick suede material in the patch caught my attention three years ago in a sculpture class I was takin in an artist retreat to expand my work as a three-dimensional artist. I excavated the material from an old work glove I had poured Plaster of Paris onto to create a hand shape. Using a seam ripper tool, I carefully removed each stitch of the glove to preserve the integrity of the material and the shape of the plaster. As each thread released, I became aware of the confederate flag, one of the most divisive symbols of haunting souther history, representing hate and racism. The discovery took my breath away but the more I think about it I see it as a metaphor of attitudes and prejudices that are deeply woven into our bodies.
Since that impactful realization I have been on a crusade to use my art to unravel unconscious prejudices and attitudes likes racism or the patriarchy, that are held in my body. The red yarn in the patch is a bit of material from a project called Unravel the Patriarchy.
As Maya Angelou says, “Do the best that you can until you know better. Any when you know better, do better.”