I was privileged to be a part of a community discussion regarding the 'Requiem for Mother Emanuel' painting series by Dr. Leo Twiggs, artist and educator. These paintings were done after the tragic shootings at the "Mother Emanuel" AME Church in Charleston, SC on June 17, 2015. If you haven't seen the paintings in person, you can view them at the TJC Gallery in Spartanburg, SC through Oct. 28th. Or you can view them online here. I strongly recommend that you view them in person, if possible. I was asked to view the paintings at the gallery and then write a response piece to them (which you can view here). I reflected on my own personal feelings of this tragedy and on Dr. Twiggs' thoughts as well. The piece was later shared with him, Nikky Finney (who spoke at the event about her relationship with Dr. Twiggs and her experiences in South Carolina as an artist) and a few other interested people.
Less than a week later, this past Tuesday, I attended a gathering of people in Spartanburg, SC that was billed as "an exploration of paint, poetry, race & grace". This was an event that was centered around the 'Requiem for Mother Emanuel' painting series. After Nikky Finney and Dr. Twiggs spoke, a curator from the Whitney Museum in New York City, Jane Panetta, gave a presentation on African American art. I got the feeling during her presentation that she was trying to enlighten a mostly white audience on the contributions that Black artists and Black art itself has made to American culture. I lost interest part of the way through, mainly because I feel like the interpretations she was giving regarding the art were very 'whitewashed', as it were. There were some harsh images that she presented regarding social structure and race and it seemed to me as if she sort of glossed over the feeling behind the art, so as not to ruffle the feathers too much of those in attendance.
The event ended with a chorus of young school children singing "Lift Every Voice and Sing", also known as the Negro National Anthem. In one of Dr. Twiggs' paintings, he quoted a part of that song that read: "We have come over a way that with tears has been watered/ We have come treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered" (had this part been sung, I would have seen the correlation). After the children sang the first two stanzas, the choir director turned to the mostly white audience and encouraged them to sing along as the chorus sand the first two stanzas again. For an event that I had been highly anticipating beforehand, and that had started off amazing with Nikky Finney and Dr. Twiggs, the follow up and ending were a huge let down. The end was inappropriate, plain and simple.
A very good friend of mine who had attended the event with me made this comment: "There are so many people white people in this room that feel like attending events like this is them doing something to encourage diversity". You could tell that most of the audience were wealthy to extremely wealthy white people. Anything regarding art usually attracts that demographic of people. But it takes more than attending an exhibit or gala centered around a black artist to understand the Black experience in America. A white curator explaining to a white audience in a "non-offensive" way what the Black artist was trying to convey isn't enough to help white people "get it" when it comes to racial and economic disparities in our country and around the world. And while some people were visibly moved, some to tears, during the event, there wasn't a breakthrough type of feeling or moment that neither myself nor my friend felt when it came to the white people in the room. We both walked away feeling like this and things like this event, are part of the issue.
I can't speak for an entire room of rich white people, but I didn't get the feeling that any of them walked away with a clear understanding as to why Dr. Twiggs felt the need to paint the 'Requiem' series. He spoke about his feelings after the shooting and what inspired the art and also explained the transition the series took once he actually went and visited the church. He spoke of the aftermath and how it seemed, if for a brief moment, that everyone in South Carolina had come together as part of the human race. He also acknowledged through that statement, that the moment ended as quickly as it started. While some white Americans and South Carolinians were indeed horrified by the massacre that had occurred, not much was done outside of the Black community to bring awareness to the still existent issue of racial hatred towards people of color, let alone white supremacy. When the Confederate flag that flew in front of the capitol building in Columbia was finally and officially brought down (after Brittany "Bree" Newsome courageously climbed up and took it down herself some 13 days prior), many white southerners felt it was an attack on their heritage. At the community gathering I mentioned earlier, those of us in attendance were asked to interpret some examples of revolutionary art from around the world. A white woman at the table I was sitting at said that she doesn't get art and she doesn't like trying to figure out what the artist is trying to convey when it comes to racial and social issues. She continued that she would rather just hear the issue and figure out a way to fix it. I can only imagine what went through her head as he saw the images of Dr. Twiggs' art, which was pretty self explanatory with it's images of the church and the Confederate flag in tatters, with it later fading away and with the bullseye and the nine X's representing the nine lives that were lost, later becoming nine crosses ascending heavenward. Art, either with physical drawings, paintings, photography, music, etc., has always played a part in telling the Black experience, especially during times when our voices were marginalized. When you talk about the arts, you can't have that conversation with out mentioning notable Black writers, painters, musicians, etc, because the Black experience is woven deep into the American tapestry. With that comes the horrific history of African enslavement, to which America has tried fervently to downplay and, in some cases, completely misrepresent.
Take a look at this image of a visitors brochure for the Middleton Place plantation in Charleston, SC (sorry for the orientation). This was borrowed from one of my very good friends' blog, Marlanda 'Sapient Soul' Dekine (check out her blog, here). If you are able to read it, you'll notice this interesting text when speaking about the Middleton Place Plantation Experience: "Feel the leisurely spirit of an earlier age as you explore the oldest landscaped gardens in America, visit the home of the distinguished Middleton family, and learn about the African Americans who sustained the agrarian plantation economy".
Excuse me. What?
The Middleton family were slave owners and were only distinguished to those who also owned slaves, or other uber wealthy families of that time period. The plantation economy wasn't "sustained" by African Americans because we weren't "African Americans" then. We were beasts of burden, field hands and house niggers at best. We were robbed of our names and given new names related to our owners to be identified as property. If you go to the website here and look a the brief explanation of what you can experience if you tour the plantation stable yards, you'll see that they have "costumed interpreters to demonstrate the skills once performed by enslaved Africans". I wonder if they show them getting whipped or hung.
This is just one instance in where slavery is somewhat romanticized in that it is not the real account of what the African slave trade was in this country. Our history is often mistold or not told at all, in an effort to keep us uneducated as to how we are still viewed in America. The expressions of those who attended the art event who were not black showed me that all that night was for them was a way to say that they participated in an event honoring a Black artist and his Black art. It was sort of like their "guilt penance". They did nothing there to further diversity in the Arts in Spartanburg. They did nothing to promote diversity. They clapped their hands, some shed some crocodile tears, sang the Negro National Anthem, had some hors d'oeuvres and some wine and left feeling pretty damn good about themselves. My friend I left insulted and disappointed.
I know that there have always been, throughout history, white people who have helped advance the movements that have allowed Black people in this country to have the rights that we have today. But also throughout history, our history has been told by white people in a condescending manner too many times. Dr. Leo Twiggs 'Requiem' series "captures humanity amidst horror" as the front of the city gallery brochure promoting his work says. He's been painting for, at least, 40+ years. His 'Requiem for Mother Emanuel', was a response to an American tragedy where a white man stormed into a sacred church for the Black community as a whole and shot and killed 9 Black people, including a United States Senator, Clementa Pinckney, all out of hatred for Black people. Sadly, this series is probably what he will be most remembered for, at least to people here in South Carolina. White people may want to try to forget the constant attacks on Black bodies in this country but as long as it continues to happen, history will continue to record it. You can re-word it to make it sound sexy and you can wrap it in art and present it at a gala event. You can have actors reenact it and you can praise those brave enough to tell the story. But white America, you can't tell our story and you can't try to teach us our history if you are not going to tell it right.
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