I came to this project nourishing an idea for storytelling to help me better know the interior lives of people whose unheard stories are pushed to the margins of public records of historic moments. Often, I found public archives exacerbate silences, and I wondered about the lives of Black women during the 1800s and how the stories of that time were passed from one generation to the next. So, my project began as a search through archives. Sometimes the archives revealed names—a first name or nurse name—but little else. Therefore, I sought to write the stories of women I could not know. My approach was a multidisciplinary approach of visual art, prose, and poetry to imagine those unheard stories.
During my fellowship, I explored artifacts to help me understand the everyday lives of Black nurses and soldiers during the 1800s. I wanted to know about the work life of Black women, the paths they traveled, the people they cared for, and the things these women might have carried during their journeys.
I examined the art of silhouette practiced by Moses Williams and the assemblage of valentine boxes located in the AAS collection. The artifacts illuminated paths to visualize the inner stories, and I imagined the stories a Black nurse might tell of her experiences as she embroidered in a circle of women.
The valentine boxes and silhouettes by Moses Williams were crucial as they inspired the materials, paper cutting, and hand stitching I employed in the heirloom series. I began threading memories of the imagined homelife, ritual, and kinship bonds using vintage and antique textiles. I collected passed-down heirlooms, materials such as handkerchiefs, lace, and buttons to create vignettes in silhouettes. (See example at left.)
The assemblage of textiles and poetry in my work creates pathways for readers to imagine the lives of people who have too long lived along the margins of history.
I am reflecting on nature and the landscapes of slavery and collecting artifacts of Black family life. My work continues to build narratives through heirloom textiles Black mothers once pressed against their bodies, wore, or held. I am studying artifacts from domestic spaces to imagine the lingering
presence in homes where ancestors lived and the ways they displayed and articulated identity, self, family, and love.