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someone wrote in and asked what my ethnic background was. and my first reaction was, why? and then, i couldn’t help but wonder what motivated the question. wondering the relevance… being a creative, and a minority, i always want my work to speak for itself.
began to think about where i came from… going back further than my childhood in Columbus, OH. thinking of my parents, and the generations before them. ancestors. my heart began to swell with gratitude.
to give a basic answer to the question… i am african-american.
thankful to this random stranger and his/her inquiry because it helped to remind me of the importance of my history. as it is VERY relevant to my work.
- thank you to my 3x’s great-grandmother, her father, a slave, and her mother, the daughter of the plantation owner. the owner’s wife was going to kill her, but he passed her over to another woman to keep her safe and raise her.
- thank you to my 3x’s great-grandfather, a civil-war veteran who was “half white, half indian or nearly so, with a slight amount of colored blood in him. being so near white he was placed in a white regiment and when it was leaked out that he had some colored blood in him he was shunned by his comrades”
- thank you to my great-uncle who lived in the projects, and moonlighted as a photographer. my mother recalls visiting his home during her youth and thinking he was wealthy. he would put much care into decorating his apartment.. finding old furniture and refurbishing it.
- thank you to my grandfather who throughout his life has performed as a member of The Five Keys, but to maintain and provide for his family had a double life as a police officer.
- thank you to my grandmother of bajan decent, the first generation to grow up in america, eventually becoming a nurse.
- thank you to my grandfather, a WWII veteran, who literally walked off a plantation, away from the life of a share-cropper, and somehow made his way to new york.
- thank you to my aunt and uncle for showing me that with work, love lasts… and of course for answering my questions regarding the matter.
- thank you to my father for being the most amazing example of a man i know, and for helping me dream and leading me to believe i can accomplish anything i want in this life.
- thank you to my mother, for being such a lady, her strength, showing me how to love myself, and to always put God first.
royalty.
