A component of the multisensory installation Ancestral Futurism*, This image is a representation of the need for collective grieving and witnessing of that grief. Resistance to patriarchy, which teaches emotional expression as weakness, means embracing the emotional as sacred and grief as a necessary rite of passage for healing and enlightenment. As women of the African diaspora, we carry both intergenerational pain and intergenerational wisdom in our DNA. In order to truly heal and lean into the wisdom of our birthright, we must honor through the cleansing power of sacred tears what we have endured in order to move forward with peace, joy and strength.

*created with generous support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the BC Arts Council