Heard + Amplified

featuring erika roberts, ghc creative strategist

I welcome you here to this space of reflection. This is a safe space of sharing. I will be using my word to give volume to the people, things and “stuff” happening in the community and the city. 

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The name of this series was confidently chosen to be “Heard +Amplified.” 

I feel that there is a great need to expound on the title and the meaning found within the plus sign.

Heard is the past tense form of the verb hear.  We listen for understanding and process the meanings. Technology has made it where we are seconds from hearing the newest in the world.

There are 24 hour news networks to keep us in the know.  Social media keeps up hearing and seeing the latest developments in the world.

BUT what are we to do with what we have heard? (I’m glad you asked).

Amplified is the past tense form of the word amplify.  To hear a profound 

message and NOT share it feels like an injustice. An amp is physically used to

boost or to make audibly more available in situations where hearing may be difficult.

These definitions and examples both play huge roles in the meaning and purpose of this series of thoughtful conversations.

I will be meeting with different people in the East Chattanooga community as well as within the city to just talk about their lives, community growth,  businesses, projects and how they have been pushing through during the pandemic as a new normal begins to shape the horizon. 

I will be writing my thoughts and reflections and sharing it with you twice a month for the next few months to close out 2020. 

I will use my own words, moments that I have experienced with each guest, my thoughts, profound lessons and poetry to embrace my guests’ presence and their story. 

I look forward to meeting with community members. I am excited to hear what they are currently working on.  I am proud to be able to amplify those things through this blog.

I look forward to sharing with you what I have heard, earnestly inviting you to AMPLIFY the message. 

~E

blog takeover + reflection

featuring erika roberts, ghc creative strategist

Erika Roberts is a creative force. With words written and spoken, she brings power to her art using her strongest tools: language and love. In this new blog takeover series, Erika not only gives us a look into what it’s like to be a collaborator forced to work from a distance during a global pandemic, but she’ll also introduce the GHC team through the lens of the shutdown later in the series.

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Rounding our way back we arrive here in a garden of moments.  Trees full of reflections and a forest full of poetry. 

I want to thank you ALL for spending  time with mE over the last 11 weeks as I share my vulnerable thoughts. 

In the beginning the blogs were specifically about how I was handling the quarantine, and the pandemic. That changed with the rising racial climate that was happening. As a Black woman, it was having a real emotional effect on mE. I was caught between fits of rage and lows of insecurity. 

I still worry about how I take up space in this unapologetic statement. I still occupy that space but I stay  worried from time to time.  My frustrations have not dissipated. They are here. I am using them in my artistic expression.  

The blogs were meant to give the audience a mental break by allowing another perspective to be seen and experienced.  As the messages through the blog became more important, the more I felt it led to “interview” (word used loosely) my teammates. These were conversations. We talked. We laughed. We sat and enjoyed the overlooked freedom to just be. 

These last few weeks we have been talking to the Glass House Collective’s team on everything from racial unrest to planting for the future. 

I have sincerely learned a lot about myself through these blogs. I learned that I am a pretty good writer (Lol).  I learned that when you surround yourself with people that share some of your core beliefs; great things can happen.

As I sip on a refreshing cup of Turmeric & Citrus tea at Wildflower Tea & Apothecary I begin thinking about the past blogs and how they got us HERE. I put in my earbuds, turned on my favorite playlist, grabbed a journal, green pen and let the words flow. 

Over the last 4 weeks I have been having very vulnerable conversations with my teammates. Some of them made mE reflect on how I approach life. Each Collective member played a major role in how clarity with accountability can dance in a beautiful movement. 

Each member had words that they were to think on and write about. I picked each word for them because of their role during the pandemic. 

These words speak directly into how each of them has handled the world as it began to shut down. It also describes how their personalities exist within the community work that we so lovingly do. I believe that when you know your team and their strengths, their presence becomes more intentional. Knowing their weaknesses can strengthen your organization. 

We are fertile ground. We are amazing soil for future farms of positivity. 

What are you planting in your lives? 

Will we know you by the fruit that you bear? 

Bringing forth for the harvest of life is rewarding. Remember to remain strong and forever ready. Pull up the weeds that intend on your strangling progress and leave what belongs. Cry often and cry hard. Tears water the grounds of ready soil. 

This was a true blog takeover. I was given an opportunity to share from a very vulnerable space in my life. This is different from mE writing a poem. I can be creatively vague in stanzas and my meaning not be lost. I can’t do that in these sentences. I MUST be clear. I added poetry for flavor.  It has been an amazing pleasure to take this over and be heard. 

This is what it looks like when Black voices are being amplified. 

Thank you Glass House Collective for the agency to express my feelings within these virtual walls.  

Teammates thank you for allowing mE to sip and talk about life. 

This was an honor. 

Thank you again for reading my words. I am humbled. 

~E

blog takeover + reflection

featuring erika roberts, ghc creative strategist

Erika Roberts is a creative force. With words written and spoken, she brings power to her art using her strongest tools: language and love. In this new blog takeover series, Erika not only gives us a look into what it’s like to be a collaborator forced to work from a distance during a global pandemic, but she’ll also introduce the GHC team through the lens of the shutdown later in the series.

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Beloveds, welcome back. 

This is the 10th BLOG!! 

WOW… 

I must be honest, as a poet I wasn’t sure if I would make it! Poetry is different from this type of writing but I am here and so are you. Thank you for coming back each week. I appreciate and value that. 

I do feel like I woke up and was here starting a new blog. This entry is #4 in the series about my GHC teammates. As in the 3 before, each person was given a word to write and expound around. The word that I gave Tara Poole was “sacrifice.” That’s a heavy word with deep meaning for many. 

Ask yourself “What have you sacrificed during the pandemic?”

I have been so extremely busy working, aka Zooming, all over the place for weeks. 

I am sure that you have too. Is it mE or does it seem that we have become even more busy in these times of social distancing?  Well, forsure I have. In March we rolled into a hard stop and paused for a while. As we came back to whatever we left life seemed to become more complicated and worrisome. We have been working and trying to take care of our friends and families. This is the time to pay attention to our friends and how they are handling life. This is undoubtedly the right timing to recognize what we have truly sacrificed over these last months. Some have sacrificed their very own lives. Some have sacrificed their peace. Some of us are steadfastly trying to reclaim our peace despite the forces that are trying to keep it.

Dive in….

Tara Poole is the Director of Operations for Glass House Collective. She keeps us in line which is an adventurous job! 

She is a wife and mother that uses that same nurturing quality to guide the daily operations of this collective. When you initially meet her it is her calm demeanor that hits first. She has the greater good at heart and that is felt in her presence. Tara wants the best for the Glass Farm community and that is evident in how she searches out programs that will benefit them with integration of the arts. 

As I arrived at her home I was welcomed by a beautiful chorus of flowers that poetically hugged the front of the house. It caught mE off guard honestly. The vivid colors danced in the sun and I applauded them with my eyes.  They needed to be noticed.  

My reaction reminded mE of a quote from one of my favorite movies:

Tara’s home was so tranquil and perfect for two women to sit and have a conversation about the sacrifices of motherhood and how to be present in a world that doesn’t always see us.  

She is white and I am Black with different struggles yet we both met in a space of compassion when we spoke about George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. That was humanity. 

We both agreed that a change has to happen and that the younger generations must be a part of it.

While my kids are grown and having their own kids, I agree. My grandsons must be raised in the shining light of truth ready to be agents in that progress.  

I spoke on how important it is to have strong, true and sincere allyship.   We talked at great length on how that can authentically begin. It is diligent work that isn’t always easy. There is immense sacrifice involved in this work.

I felt this in my heart. Truly. 

Thank you again for being with mE every week. I appreciate you all. 

Have a great weekend.

Reclaim your time and do something meaningful. 

~Erika

blog takeover + reflection

featuring erika roberts, ghc creative strategist

Erika Roberts is a creative force. With words written and spoken, she brings power to her art using her strongest tools: language and love. In this new blog takeover series, Erika not only gives us a look into what it’s like to be a collaborator forced to work from a distance during a global pandemic, but she’ll also introduce the GHC team through the lens of the shutdown later in the series.

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Pour yourself something good and pull up to this blog. We are in the midst of some amazing conversations with my GHC teammates. These exchanges have been giving mE life.  

Last Friday, while you read my reflection inspired by Lynesha Lake I met with my next muse. Mary Barnett is a media marketing guru. She handles a lot of what you see regarding content on GHC’s website and eBlasts. Mary is thoughtful in her approach to sincere media publishing. She is an amazing writer as well.  When I arrived at her home last Friday I was struck at how much greenery was present in the front of her cute and cozy home. From the yard I felt very welcomed. Her speckled dog,”Ivy” was extra excited to meet mE.  

Dive in….

You never truly know if  you’re going to be comfortable at someone else’s home. We risk the vibe being super lame or way too intense. Neither was the case last Friday. 

As I risked it all and went into her safe place, I was pleasantly surprised and more than relaxed. It is a safe space for Creatives. I was  engulfed in the art on the walls and surprised by the art that wasn’t on walls but just living on shelves waiting to be gazed upon. With my eyes wide open I took it all in. All of it. 

You can tell so much from a person’s home. This was her safe space but within it I found that her true safe quarters is within art. She’s an artist and I was in the middle of her living studio. Every room was art waiting to be noticed. I spoke to it and it spoke back. 

There’s nothing different from the other blogs except my approach and of course each of their specifically chosen words. In the yard I was met by amazing plants and synchronicity as there laid in the yard a bag of soil. Funny how things happen. A month ago I chose the word “soil” for Mary to ponder and write about. That was a pleasant omen that our exchange was going to be rooted and lit.

Mary is a natural nurturer and seeing her plant friends proves that major fact. She and I talked about many things community related. We love our community and we know that engagements are so important even in this distant time. 

Before the quarantine GHC met on Tuesdays at the office and we would be together working for several hours. I got to know more about her process of getting to the core of a subject. Understanding that has been most helpful to mE on other projects. As we began living, working and trying to play from home we all changed. Mary speaks of the early days of the quarantine and its blankness. What’s next? 

Mary began to take mental stock of her life practices and kitchen pantry and began to focus on survival. She and I had the same thoughts on boosting our immune systems and paying more attention to self care. This became easier for Mary after she misplaced her car keys in the house and just let them be wherever they were. In her own words “I leaned into it.”

Healthy fueling was the paramount concern. 

I related to this thinking and preparing as I got sick in March (not Coronavirus) but I needed to make changes. I bought more supplements and began eating even better. Self care became a way of living.

For Creatives a large part of self care is being able to build and create. We need that space for sanity. It helps keep us grounded. Being able to work on something from an art filled space is healthy. Heal thyself. 

Mary was planting seeds of creativity and watching them grow from fertile soil filling up the gaps that had been left barren. As we sipped our ginger shot, I led us into the dirt of building. We spoke on how dirt has to be turned and made ready for the bringing forth. We realized early on that being fertile soil has some advantages and some disadvantages. When you are fertile soil, a lot will come up because it is a happy and welcomed space. Weeds will come up and that’s quite okay. Remove only what you don’t need. Watch what you allow to occupy YOUR soil. 

“Remember to be an observer and see what wants to be. Small changes matter. Try one thing. Do it again. Go with what is. There will always be more to do. Things change to get what they need. Use what you have. Move from trying to eradicate issues to collaborating with them. Weeds happen.  Ideas are everywhere. Work with what you see. Believe your eyes. Just sit there. ” ~ Mary 

This stood out to mE with blinking lights! 

I could not ignore the importance of this conversation. It speaks into how we adjust and recover. I want to reemerge with a forest of creativity healthy from the root up. 

You will know greatness by the fruit those trees bear. 

What are you planting in your fertile soil? 

I cannot effectively express my gratitude to those of you that come here whenever and however to read my thoughts. 

I thank you. 

Take time out this weekend to play in some dirt, buy a plant or just plant something amazing. 

~ Erika

blog takeover + reflection

featuring erika roberts, ghc creative strategist

Erika Roberts is a creative force. With words written and spoken, she brings power to her art using her strongest tools: language and love. In this new blog takeover series, Erika not only gives us a look into what it’s like to be a collaborator forced to work from a distance during a global pandemic, but she’ll also introduce the GHC team through the lens of the shutdown later in the series.

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Every morning I begin in silence. Thankful for this moment. Thankful that the  words still choose mE after all of these years. Thankful that I have the chance to create and share my talent with all of you. 

I sit in a quiet space where time only matters when I look at the clock. I must meet the day with the silence that I make. Listening to my breathing, remembering those that cannot breathe. I take in enough air that my sides move  powerfully in sync. In tandem with my blinks the affirmations roll. 

Join mE……

This is the 2nd entry in the series that I have dedicated to my GHC teammates. 

Last week we  spoke on strength with GHC Director Teal Thibaud. 

This week the blog is inspired by a convo that I had with Lynesha Lake, the Community Outreach Coordinator for Glass House Collective. 

Lynesha or “Nikki” as most close to her refer is an active mother  and community leader. Lynesha has been with Glass House since 2019.

Each week I give my teammates a word to write on and Lynesha’s word was “silent.”  When I gave her that word a week ago she text mE and said “you would give me that word” I laughed because I infact chose her word carefully. 

Silence is so powerful. It’s sometimes more powerful than speaking out.  Many things are assumed of you if you are silent.  Silence can be comforting or it can be alarming. 

As I started this entry, I sat in the quietness of my room. It is in this silence that I hear. I am thinking back to when I first met Lynesha. She was still finding her way in serving the community. She is now preparing herself for some amazing works.

She is a member of local PTAS, CALEB, Moms For Social Justice ,Board member of Girl Stance and a graduate of the SWAY program. She is busy! 

Lynesha says that her work outside of Glass House Collective has helped her do a better job within the collective. All of these organizations share a common thread; relationship building. She has met  many people on this journey that have made this experience worth it all. 

If her life were a book she said that she would name it “The Wonder and The Relearning” as she coins herself a researcher. She sits in silence and allows the data to speak. Many things that she has learned over the years had to be relearned. Her kids are seeing her example of working hard to carve out better paths in the community. She wants her kids to know that research and dialogue are both very important in this work.  

During the early stages of the shutdown  Lynesha had to juggle into her schedule this crisis as she was not afraid of this time. Lynesha felt comfortable in the fact that we are resilient. We have made it through other hard times. Her objective was to keep people informed which meant that SHE had to be informed. This is paramount to her. Being prepared by knowing the latest. 

Lynesha is an active advocate for single parents. She has five very intelligent kids one of which just graduated from high school. (Way to go Bron!) 

She and I sat on the patio of Southern Squeeze drinking juice. We sat under a canopy that gave us comfort. We sat and talked as the basil, sage and rosemary perfumed the air showing us what peace smelled like. 

We talked  about the work that we do and how fulfilling it is. We spoke about being Black women working in this capacity. We wore no fake masks to make our Blackness less Black. We are unapologetically Black women. We are valuable. 

We spoke on our responsibility to the community to be forever true. 

With most jobs it’s hard to have an identity within the company.

With GHC we all have very different personalities and that magic extends its fingerprints on all of our collective works.

Lynesha brings a sense of silent integrity to the work we do in  the community. She is trusted and that’s an honor.

With each new blog inspired by one of my teammates, this poetic picture will grow.

Thank you yet again for reading my thoughts as we get to know more about my GHC teammates. 

See you back next week.  Enjoy this weekend. Find a space to just be silent. 

Erika

blog takeover + reflection

featuring erika roberts, ghc creative strategist

Erika Roberts is a creative force. With words written and spoken, she brings power to her art using her strongest tools: language and love. In this new blog takeover series, Erika not only gives us a look into what it’s like to be a collaborator forced to work from a distance during a global pandemic, but she’ll also introduce the GHC team through the lens of the shutdown later in the series.

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As I wrote to you last week, these next entries will be based and  inspired by the conversations that I am having with my teammates at GHC.

These conversations are vulnerable by nature and passionate because of the work that we do. 

Monday I was able to sit down with the leader and director of Glass House Collective, Teal Thibaud. She and I have grown to become friends over these last couple of years. We sat together on her porch sipping Hibiscus tea and it began. 

I explained in the previous blog, “The Shift” that I chose a word for each person to expound upon and write something. 

Teal’s word was strength. I chose that word for her as she was super strong and instrumental in the collective’s positive “snap forward”. I don’t feel like there’s a snapback anymore. Snap back to what, anyway. We have a new normalcy (ugh cliche) to face. Teal had to first take care of herself and family then she reached out to the team.  We needed to know if we were still a collective or if we were being dismantled like an old abandoned car. 

We were still a team but with individual concerns about our survival and livelihood.

I knew that I was still a Creative and still a poet but was I doing any of this with GHC? 

Teal showed strength in leadership by keeping our meetings on Tuesday. She showed compassion by checking in on us in those first  meetings.  

 In those early meetings we realized that we still had meetings, engagements and projects on the calendar that now needed to be addressed. We had to put things on hold and focus on the needs of the community.  We began talking through what that looked like. How could the collective now be of absolute help at this time? Teal began making a list of resources and we added on to them. We quickly realized that internet hotspots were needed. We also recognized that digital equity was a major barrier. We began to address and think through some basic needs.  Was there a need for food, gloves or masks? 

Teal began pulling together leaders and residents along with other orgs in the city for a virtual noon lunch meeting. We have these Zoom meetings every other Wednesday at noon now.   It was an answering response to ensure that we keep the community involved. As the weeks progressed new needs sparked new projects. 

These projects came from the needs and the desires of the community. The success of these projects relied on neighbors getting involved. We worked hard on these projects and came up with several more. 

We also had projects that began before the quarantine and are now  being heavily changed by the positive practices of safety and by the racial unrest that has become more noticeable. Race relations have always been a thing, no matter where you live. We are just segregated in homes and tethered to the news. We don’t have much of a choice except to just feel it. 

With so much death of innocent Black people over many  years, I had become numb at times when I would hear of another one gone. I would strategically put those things to the side and try to function in a white world that expects mE to show up and out no matter how much I am hurting over these terrible losses. I hadn’t allowed myself to really experience the rage since the murdering of Trayvon Martin. Back then my son was his age and it felt too close to home. 

I found peace in the fact that Teal was experiencing some of the same heavy feelings that I was experiencing, especially since she is white. Seeing how the death of Ahmaud affected her made mE rethink my coping process. My numbness was rightfully felt but I knew that staying that way was not healthy for mE or the movement. It was refreshing to know that someone understood my numbness through the understanding of their own pain. 

We went into the shutdown with the unnecessary death of 2 Black people.  

We saw the video of Ahmaud Arbery being killed  in May then turn right back around to see the video of George Floyd being murdered by someone sworn to serve and protect. It took mE a while to watch his death on video. When I finally sat down to watch it…I cried and vomited. This video made MY body physically react. It was rejecting what my eyes had seen. It is very interesting that 2 of these deaths happened before we were in complete shutdown. This speaks to the obvious fact that the system was broken way before isolation could spotlight its cracks.

The Collective felt this pain deeply. We cried on Zoom calls.  

We vented about racism and Coronavirus because these are the 2 pandemics that have killed many. Racism has had 400 years to matriculate and find new ways to hide its presence. 

The Coronavirus has had 8 months to grow and has safely divided us up. 

Teal and I both questioned: 

What if we worked as hard, with the same  energy and tenacity to cure racism as we have for finding a vaccine for the virus. 

Teal said it best when she said:

 

It doesn’t matter how many books on race you’ve read. If you are not using that knowledge and stepping out of your comfort zone, you should have just joined a book club. The work must be done for there to be better race relations. Read the book BUT follow it through. 

As a mother and grandmother of 2 boys and 1 on the way, I cannot imagine running a nonprofit and having an amazing 2 year old. Teal is doing this with grace and intentionality. She spoke to mE about how  this feels like she has 2 kids, a 8 year old (GHC) and a 2 year old. Both are growing and going into directions that she didn’t expect.  The evolution of GHC has made the work more important and more purposeful during these moments. Having a leader that admits to not knowing all of the answers but yet still leads is a great comfort. 

As she and I talked on her porch amongst her plants and my Palo Santo incense smoke, we both acknowledged how vulnerable this conversation was. We also agreed that this interview could spark  another project and endless conversations. 

With each new blog inspired by one of my teammates, this poetic picture will grow.

Thank you yet again for taking the time out of your day to read my thoughts..

See you next Friday…go create something this weekend.

Erika

blog takeover + reflection

featuring erika roberts, ghc creative strategist

Erika Roberts is a creative force. With words written and spoken, she brings power to her art using her strongest tools: language and love. In this new blog takeover series, Erika not only gives us a look into what it’s like to be a collaborator forced to work from a distance during a global pandemic, but she’ll also introduce the GHC team through the lens of the shutdown later in the series.

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You found your way back ! 

Thank you. 

Dive in…

I have shared a lot over the last 5 weeks via this blog. The original intent of my taking over the GHC blog was to tell my story along with giving insight to what it is like working with a nonprofit during this time.  It started out that way but the world became so complicated that the blog turned into a window into the life of a Black woman trying to cope with all of the things. 

 I revealed how obviously unready I was for this shutdown. I shared how I questioned my own sanity. I cried at the thought of not being able to be with my creative friends. As an extrovert that is real. I miss the stage. I miss real deep hugs. I shared alot. 

I wrote about the engagements that were underway before the quarantine and the screeching halt as things changed. I wrote and shared  how I began progressing  this moment in time. 

Then there was this deep shift. I am sure that you all felt that change. We were approaching social exhaustion from the world. We saw the video of 2 unarmed Black men being  killed for no reason. The world became a witness to those deaths. 

I shared emotional poetry about what was happening in the world. I cried as I wrote those words. I shared my anger and rage over what was happening in our country.  

We celebrated Juneteenth, a holiday that I grew up respecting. My Blackness became more important than the Coronavirus. My strong need to protect Black men was heavy and undeniable. 

I had NO choice but to write my feelings. I had a duty to put pen to paper about that. 

I was very transparent and vulnerable in those early blogs. It was needed. So many things happened inside this bubble of chaotic safety. Racial lines were defined with electric barbed wire. We are all in a state of heightened sensitivity. At times we are ALL moments away from emotional breaks. We had to find ways to keep it together and move forward. 

Here we are bravely peering into the mirror of these last couple of months. We are reliving the fear and feeling the coldness of the unknown. A nonprofit organization that has made its work uniquely around art and community.  The middle of March was 1 BIG RED stop sign. Glass House Collective had to take a deep breath and answer some questions. These were among many more. 

• 

In the next few weeks I will be interviewing my teammates on how they began their process of coping with the quarantine. 

I will ask them each to be ready to dig deep and be vulnerable as we share the good and the bad. We will talk about the work that Glass House Collective has been doing and how we will move forward. 

I will ask each of them hard questions to spark brave conversations on racism inside this quarantine bubble. Each member of the collective has a word to write and talk about. As I write this, they have no idea what their specific word will be. 

I encourage you to rewind the blogs and read them again. I look forward to having you back here next Friday ready to peel back the layers and get to the bones of humanity as it works. 

Please take some time this weekend to do nothing. Be gentle with yourself. 

Thank you..

~E

blog takeover + reflection

featuring erika roberts, ghc creative strategist

Erika Roberts is a creative force. With words written and spoken, she brings power to her art using her strongest tools: language and love. In this new blog takeover series, Erika not only gives us a look into what it’s like to be a collaborator forced to work from a distance during a global pandemic, but she’ll also introduce the GHC team through the lens of the shutdown later in the series.

___

Hey there! 

We are now in this weird tango dance of staying in or going out  braving the conditions safely.  It has been a wild dance full of masks and antibacterial gel. We have Instacarted, Zoomed and Doordashed ourselves into an anxious tizzy.  We are feeling rushed to show back up in the real world the same way we were back then.  The quarantine has us trying to live our best lives within 4 walls. We tried new recipes and picked up new hobbies. We made new friends virtually. We have learned some very valuable lessons. We cried together over the changes in our world. We became angry together. We’ve marched together. We have protested together. We have had to have hard and brave conversations alongside the raggedy roads of racism. Here we are but back to what? By the way, there isn’t a vaccine or cure for the Coronavirus or for racism. 

This new way of life started months ago with the pause. We had to STOP.  We had to catch our breaths only to lose them in so many other ways. We cried in the comfort of our homes only to cry in public  over the deaths of those that didn’t have to die. We all became their voices. Many learned the deep meanings of things that they never even thought about. Many have returned back to the basics. Taking care of our families has been a great focus. Spending time caring for ourselves has been an entire,  separate and loving goal.

In that pursuit of a happy return, self care has shown up in hobbies based in the arts. 

Many have returned to their first loves within the arts. Many never left their lanes of creation. They began creating based on these times. Artists are healers. Life plays a huge role in how artists build visions. 

We will write, dance, sing, and create in response to THIS time. 

During the early parts of the year and into the quarantine times, I performed and wrote per usual.  The work that I was doing was meaningful. I was approaching the month of March still on a high from performing at the Hunter Museum with Marcus Ellsworth. That  particular performance (February) was special to the both of us because it w

as about something  that we identified with immediately.This p

articular installation spoke to the parts of black people that didn’t believe that they were enough. This piece has the words “I AM SOMEBODY” repeated over and over. The words are clear at the top but then begins to fade at the end. In February (month before quarantine)of this year this art piece began speaking and we listened.

This art piece is housed at the Hunter Museum in Chattanooga, TN. 

Glenn Ligon (b. 1960)

Untitled (I Am Somebody), 1991

Oil stick, gesso and graphite on wood, 80 x 30 inches. 

On loan from Art Bridges: : AB.2016.8.

Art has been saving us during this uncomfortable time. I relied on it from the beginning. I had to find my place as an artist during the quarantine. It was hard and painful. I had to write about IT. I needed to find a way to use my gifts. I had to create. 

March 12th (beginning of the shutdown)we revisited the “I am Somebody ” installation with an intimate group of people and I could feel the mood of uncertainty for what would be happening in a few days. We would be in complete shutdown in a few days after that performance. Fear was being served on social media like free appetizers. Confusion was iced in a highball glass cup.  We are facing societal demons as they try to choke the life out of the culture. I am thankful that I have jobs that thrive from the impact that art  has on the world. I get paid to be creative. It has been an interesting challenge these days, I must admit.  It is an honor to be able to work through an organization that values art and that believes in Black Creatives. 

WE (you and I) must remember that we don’t have to do ALL of the things in order to seem productive right now. If we make it through the day, we are good. If you manage to do more, then make it happen. Be gentle with yourself right now. Allow the power of the arts to move you.  Be inspired by the good and bad of this time. Challenge yourselves to be prepared for a new way of life. Welcome it. 

Whitfield Lovell (b. 1959)

Hope, 1999

Charcoal on wood and found objects, 47 x 48 x 7 inches, 

Museum purchase made possible by the generosity of the 2000 Collectors’ Group

This art installation is housed at the Hunter Museum 

This piece speaks to the nostalgic view of hope. All of the rallies, sit-ins, marches and speeches were done in the hopes of changing the lives of the black community. 

The last Mason jar is empty. It represents the future view of hope. This administration is testing our desire to see better days. 

With this I wish you a happy and hope filled day and weekend. I am sending you all positive vibes and love. 

Meet mE back here next Friday. My words will be here and I’ll leave a light on for you.  

#onelove #newness 

blog takeover + reflection

featuring erika roberts, ghc creative strategist

Erika Roberts is a creative force. With words written and spoken, she brings power to her art using her strongest tools: language and love. In this new blog takeover series, Erika not only gives us a look into what it’s like to be a collaborator forced to work from a distance during a global pandemic, but she’ll also introduce the GHC team through the lens of the shutdown later in the series.

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Welcome back. I am thankful for you finding the time to read my words. 

Today is what is celebrated by many African Americans (especially in the southern states) as truly the end of physical slavery in these United States. It is the day that the last of the slaves in Texas were set free. 

I wonder what that day was like. Was it just another “run of the mill”, ordinary, Monday.  

Had they been expecting some news? 

The south fought long and hard to keep it’s way of life. In 1863, slavery was abolished but…not all of us were free. 

In 1937, freed slave Pierce Harper spoke of how the freedmen celebrated that night. They cried, danced and sang. They were jubilant in their “new” freedom.  

I wonder if they were immediately excited or if they were immediately afraid. As they returned to their quarters, what would they pack to take with them? Would they leave? 

As I approached this week’s blog entry I am weighted with how freedom looks so different these days.

Yes, I can walk and travel (safely masked) around as I see fit but there is a different freedom that I seek. We have been quarantined, and social distancing for months. We have been trapped behind masks. We have been choking from the racial climate in our country. There is a different freedom that is desired. 

As a proud black woman, I recognize that I am NOT truly free from hatred based on my color and socioeconomic status. As a black woman I am NOT free from having to work twice as hard as my white friends in order to be heard or seen. As a black woman, I am not free from worrying about how much space I will take up in conversation. 

The world was on pause in our homes and felt the intense pain when George Floyd called for his deceased mother. Black and white mothers heard that call intimately. We heard him. The freedom that he wanted was different. He wanted to pull in air to fill his lungs. He wanted to live.

We want our way of life back (it’s not coming back).  We want to be free and able to hug without fear. That’s a different type of liberation. I don’t want to be scared when someone coughs. I don’t want to be afraid of a covid-19 vaccine. 

Over these last months of quarantine we wrestled with the reopening of spaces and there is still a fear around those gatherings. We have been putting our lives at risk as we march in protest and stand in solidarity. We have passionately done this because the freedom we seek is 400 years old. There isn’t a space on this planet that doesn’t understand freedom especially as we battle these 2 pandemics. 

It is hard for mE to write about coping with quarantine when so many things are happening within this bubble. How are WE (you and I) coping with this unrest in our nation? 

We are here in this place of pause watching the breaking of laws.

Losses and lynching 

Bitter soundbites from the greedy. 

When what is really needed is not being heeded. The streets are heated with the footsteps of plenty. Chants of freedom. 

Tears of despair and sweat from future labor. 

See…

These blogs are pure excerpts from a place deep within my soul. My heart bleeds ink. 

I write here in this moment sincerely hoping that someone hears this and understands. 

Your time is valued and for your presence I am thankful. 

See you next week…same place my words will be here. 

~E

#onelove #setfree #juneteenth2020 #anewfreedomweseek