Radha Blank Instagram – OBEAH WOMAN, COME INTO THE ROOM!
A Prologue.
I’d been invited to remix a room in the #metcostumeinstitute #americanwing for their #inamerica exhibit. I integrated the dress of designer Maria Hollander, a White woman abolitionist. But when I asked who made the dress and her politically charged quilt seen in the exhibit, the seamstress remained unknown. This was chance to take #metgala invitation from a red carpet moment to a truth telling one. I would create a visual prologue to my #wegoodthx! installation. (More on the actual exhibit in the next post! I see you @hairbysusy @africancreature 😘)
I would rep a woman who could have made Hollander’s dress- an Obeah Woman who by day used her hands to sew, cook, wash White folk clothes & tend to their chirren and by night used her hands to conjure spells for our survival using ancestral African spiritual practices not meant to survive the middle passage. This would be my homage to Marie Laveau but also The Condomble Woman, The Santeria Priestess, The Ifa Woman, The Yoruba Priestess. The Voodoo Vixen and all women practitioners of ancestral arts from Africa.
This woman would represent the unseen Black women who have sewn the fabric of this country but she would also be my armor as faces and bodies like mine aren’t usually seen or celebrated in these spaces.
Because I was invited a lil late to the party, I had less than five weeks to make something happen. The first person I called was the amazing @bevysmith, fashion and cultural writer & warrior who encouraged me to take my vision all the way. Knowing I needed a Black designer, Bevy suggested I reach out to @brandicedaniel founder of @harlemsfashionrow. Brandice being brilliant and knowing most Black designers were booked, suggested I reach out to dressmaker Jennifer McFarlane aka @jennycouture, a Jamaican American master craftswoman. When I mentioned “Obeah Woman” to Jenny, she hummed deep and I could feel her lips curling through the phone! And so with a design I co-created with my very best friend of thirty plus years @denise.trotman ….
Caption finished in post below….
(Special shout out to me & Peters assistant Chris Reyes @crey_j for putting in that WORK!) | Posted on 04/May/2022 04:16:33
