EMBODYING | conjouring the past
TO PRESERVE THEIR FREEDOM
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January 26th, 2021 | 11:01 AM Yesterday in studio I painted a watercolor drawing that depicted the atmosphere of a tragic event that happened during the Rosewood story. I drew it in the hope of conjuring up the past. A way of depicting the event in which I intend to translate to architecture. A middle, visual and atmospheric ground between words and architectural language. I am happy with this method of working. It beings my soul closer to the event: I begin to be washed with fear, anger; I gain empathy through doing. Sleeping on the process and drawing last night, I woke up today with a bit of sadness. I conjured an evil event: black bodies being thrown in the ground, a tragic return to nature. I feel guilty. As if I am celebrating this event. I know, at my heart, that I am not. But I do not want to communicate the wrong message, I must be aware of where my focus lies. I saw a painting as I scrolled through Instagram in the morning, To Preserve Their Freedom, 1988 by Jacob Lawrence. It depicts Haitian men, women and children rising to fight a Napoleonic colonist invasion in the 1800s. It is triumphant. Not in the way of depicting a hero, but depicting the will to fight for freedom. As if the gods of the internet blessed me with this finding, this painting is a reminder to myself to celebrate, in addition to mourn. Instead of relying solely on the tragedy of these two stories, I too must celebrate and acknowledge the lives of the brave men and women
who fought to preserve their freedom at Rosewood and Newberry. I can, and should do both. It takes me back to the poetic lens in which I worked through last semester. In some moments I am writing an eulogy, in some I am writing an ode, perhaps to bring these together in a measured and rhythmic way, to compose the two modes of viewing history together is to write the Ballad of Rosewood and the Ballad of the Newberry Six.
