1 Elizabeth Fuqua AFAM 210 Professor Joyce TA: Assata Kokayi 06.04.

13 Woah Man thats too good to be the work of a Black Wo-man Black women were and continue to be forced into a box where they were not considered artistic nor were they capable to even reach this level of artistic soundness. Audre Lorde and Alice Walker both divulged that black women were suffocated and immersed in Europeanized ideas of creativity, which resulted in the stifling of their own natural creativity. I concur with Lordes and Walkers assertions about black women and their lack of acknowledgement in the artistic world, was not due to any fault of their own rather societys ignorance and avoidance of their abilities. Lordes Poetry Is Not a Luxury and Walkers In Search of Our Mothers Gardens examines these constraints placed upon black women and their ability to bypass these constraints will act as sufficient agents to thoroughly support our arguments. In society, African-American women were perceived as breeders and laborers incapable of intellectual thought and imagination. Black women were confined to the kitchens of their master or employers, to the room of the children they did not bear or to the field even during pregnancy; they were simply bodies not intended to provide the world with anything thought provoking or worthwhile. However, these false perceptions and lack of agency did not halt black womens natural desire to express themselves artistically. Through song, through construction of quilts, gardens and through poetic expression they were able to reveal to the world their true identity: strong black women with a voice and with talent beyond the worlds understanding.

2 Walker speaks of this creative talent in her piece In Search of Our Mothers Gardens, where she speaks of the survival of black womens creativity while existing in such a dismal and oppressive world. Walker paints this eye-stinging image of black women suffering, being silent and patiently waiting for their time to be heard. Walker notes Jean Toomer, a writer of the Harlem Renaissance, interpretation of black women exquisite butterflies trapped in evil honey, toiling away their lives in an era, a century, that did not acknowledge them, except as the mule of the world (2430). Black women were butterflies dying to fly, dying to do what was natural to them but instead they were trapped by the world who only wanted them to be invisible workers and breeders, not to be seen nor heard. Walker tapped into something that was taboo to discuss during that time: sexual violence that black women experienced. Black women filled with spirituality and creativity were reduced to sexual objects. Sexual objects are just that objects used for sex and sex only, when one is employed and forced into a position of objectivity they are never seen as being able to become more than what they are seen as. Therefore, black women were forced into this category and unable to climb out of it, Or was her body broken and forced to bear children (who were more often than not sold away from her)eight, ten, fifteen, twenty, children when her one joy was the thought of modeling heroic figures of rebellion, in stone or clay(2431). Walker exhibits that black women underwent tremendous amounts of pangs throughout their lives so how were they able to maintain their creativity, carrying everyones burdens and enduring everything except death. They did the unthinkable. Walker goes into further discussion of successful black female women who have overcame their circumstance, Phillis Wheatley, a slave and the first female published author, was one of the many examples she employed. It was black womens natural inclination to express themselves artistically. Poetry, writings like that of Phillis Wheatley were just songs converted to prose. Their ancestors employed song, oral and written stories to convey their history to express themselves, a woman who still struggled to sing the song that was your gift, although in a land of barbarians who praised you for

3 your bewildered tongue. It is not so much what you sang, as that, you kept alive, in so many of our ancestors, the notion of song (2433). Black women have to be artists it is not a choice of their own it is embedded in them and even if people lose the little respect they do have for them for what they reveal in their writings rather it be the stereotypical roles of being angry, subservient or over sexualized it cannot be controlled nor contained just accepted and acknowledged. However, not every black woman can be Phillis Wheatley or Zora Neale Hurston but every black woman has the capability and expresses her creativity in ways that are not writing but if given the opportunity who knows what she would become. Walker reveals that she received her creativity from her mother, while her mother expressed her creativity through her garden. Unable to express herself through written words she placed all her energies and creative juices into her garden, which in turn inspired Walker to write. I look at Walkers interpretation of the Black womans burden the burden of the world and her ability to still artistically express herself makes me realize that I, as a black woman, am an artist. My ancestors endured, my grandmother endured and my mother endured and perhaps in Africa over two hundred years ago, there was just such a mother; perhaps she painted vivid and daring decorations in oranges and yellows and greens on the walls of her hut; perhaps she sang (2436). There is no Black art without black women. Audre Lordes Poetry is Not a Luxury asserts this necessity of poetry, an art form that entranced black women, in black womens life. Lorde asserts that hopes and dreams are transformed into language through poetry, which in turn is employed to catalyze action. This assertion is the primary reason that many black women were drawn to poetry; they desired to change their situation hoping their hopes and dreams could allow them to create, create something that would free them. Lorde does not directly state that her audience is black women, rather women in general, however she does allude to it the white fathers told us: I think, therefore I am. The Black mothers within each of usthe poetwhispers in our dreams. I feel, therefore I can be free (1925). Lorde takes the words from white philosopher

4 Rene Descartes and reframes it to where the black mother who is a poet, not thinking of being a poet, but who is a poet dreams that because she feels, because she exists, she is free. White society places constraints and limitations on black women and their ability, capabilities and discredits whatever they do or even think of doing and this forces black women to continue to be enslaved even if physically free. Lorde is asserting that with poetry, with words the world can be changed. These physical and mental restraints that white society has placed on the black woman makes it almost impossible for them to express themselves artistically but somehow they, according to Lorded, get in touch with their ancestors who traditions and cultural lie in art, spoken and written. But as we come more into touch with our own ancient, non-European consciousness of living as a situation to be experienced and interacted with, we learn more and to cherish our feelings, and to respect those hidden sources of our power from where true knowledge and, therefore, lasting action comes (1924). Lorde believes that with poetry and expressing oneself creatively, they are tapping into their power and they are taking control of their lives, a control and power that black women lacked even over their own bodies during that time. I agree completely with Lorde and her assertion; poetry and the arts acts as a means to spark action it also gives women, black women in particular the ability to take control over a life that previously belonged and may still belong to their white fathers. Black women lived and still live in a world where there is a limitation placed on them and their abilities and due to their instincts and their desire to create change they somehow exceed peoples expectations. European ideals and definition of what could be considered art made it even more difficult for society to view the work of black women as creative works. They believed that the actions of black women and of black people were savage and would never be equal to the action of to that of civilized people like themselves. I believe like Lorde that this notion of Europeanization that we look as a problem to be solved (1924) we are

5 making it difficult for ourselves to garnish our idea of freedom and our idea of what we considered to be important in our lives. Lorde, Walker and I believe that it was the force assimilation into American culture and ideals as well as for the dismantling of the spirit and the physical body of black women that caused them to hide their natural talent, which emergence was inevitable. However some may assert that these were only underlying reasons and black womens creativity was stifled not only due to the conditions previously mentioned but also because they were accustomed to the positions they were placed in and accepted it. In addition, society did not ignore their creativity rather they did not consider what black women considered art as art. This argument is an accurate and conceivable, however if black women were accustomed to their position and accepted it they would not have been unconsciously rebelling against society with the singing of spirituals, sewing of quilts, creation of gardens or the creation of elaborate hairstyles and garments. Black women were expressing themselves creatively and white society had no clue but they did know that black women were creating and even if they did not define it, as art or they did not think they were acting creatively they knew it was different and it allowed them to connect with their people and their family. Black women could have allowed their creative spirits to dwindle while being sexually exploited, ignored, treated like animals with no sense of imagination and/or seen as unfit and incapable but they did not, it was not in their blood. Black womens natural desire to express themselves artistically superseded societys limitations and false perceptions. Authors Lorde and Walker can attest to the false notion that black women were incapable as they wrote eloquent works that placed black women behind a desk with a pad and pen or on their hands and needs in the dirt tending to their garden and not in the kitchen. Black women were forced to play these subservient and hyper-sexed roles but instead of accepting these positions, they instead found a way to cope and garnish hope that they would one day

6 be free. Acting creatively like singing and writing poetry was their escape from the real world it allowed them to dream and with dreams; they were able to make change a reality. Society tried to avoid their talents and not acknowledge them but they could not help but see the flowers that bloomed from the concrete.