“BLACK FREEDOM, BLACK MADONNA & THE BLACK CHILD OF HOPE” TURN THREE
June 15th, 2022 marks the 3rd year anniversary of my first midwifed creation: Black Freedom, Black Madonna & The Black Child of Hope. On this gorgeous day, this beauty was gracefully installed on the Fletcher Free Library, with a divine message:
ATTN: COLLECTIVE - THE DIVINE HUMAN ARCHETYPE IS THE COLLECTIVE MEMORY OF WHO WE ARE.
The Black Madonna stands between two worlds (as an intermediary saint between God and people) with the Child of Hope on her lap, as a symbol of maternal love, interconnectedness, and transformation. Devotees from backgrounds all over the world pray to the Black Madonna for deep comfort for she is:
— The Mother of the oppressed, exploited, silenced, and marginalized
— A divine healer of “dis-ease”
— A guide & companion at the time of death
— A symbol of our inner shadow-self
— A co-redemptrix with Christ, carrying and transmuting our human errors with Him
“Black Freedom, Black Madonna, & The Black Child of Hope” weaves together the collective fight for Black freedom, the revolutionary history of Haiti and their historical contribution to Black Liberation in the modern world, while celebrating the ancestral roots and tools of the motherland. As the world is recovering from the spectrum of paradigm shifts catalized by COVID-19, Black Freedom is demanding attention — with its dark history behind the global slave trade, the Jim Crow Era, the War on Drugs, the rise of black incarceration, and the Black Lives Matter Movement. It’s time we acknowledge the continuous warfare Black bodies have been putting up with for centuries for their sense of integrity, roots, cultural traditions, and connection to the land. Black Madonna holds the Black Child of Hope close with tenderness & fervency as she stares back at the observer, knowing the true weight of the world on her son’s Black body.
Juneteenth celebrates the official end of racial chattel slavery in the US, however, the modern-day celebration is tied to the falsely enslaved Black people of Galveston, Texas, who were the last group of slaves to find out they were free. There is a huge symbolism in this bit of history linked to the Black freedom, what it means to Black people alike, and the US’s conniving relationship with the idea of Black freedom since the inception of this country. It is important to realize Juneteenth is not the first commemorative event of Black Freedom, but a now modern acknowledgement of the official end of slavery for Black bodies in the United States. In the same breath, Juneteenth is a critique on Whiteness as the only form of American citizenship & national identity. It is a celebration that continues to illuminate the underlying fact that Black Freedom continues to be incomplete in the US.
To read more about the historical context behind the mural, click here.
RAPH, MADONNA, & CHILD
I originally started creating Black Madonna pieces because of my childhood mother wound. I grew up Devout Catholic and I used to find it infuriating how attached my Haitian parents were to the church. My mother, who lost her mother when she was 12, devoted her life to the Black Madonna in her youth. As a result, my siblings and I grew up going to Haitian-Catholic pilgrimages and Mass every Sunday. We traveled far and wide to witness God’s glory, sometimes even going to 3-4 day retreats to pray.
Due to my parents deep attachment to the church, I grew up resentful of my familial role in my Haitian-Catholic family which led me down a path of searching for my own meaning of life. I traveled far and away from home to find a place for my heart to belong — Belgium, Japan, France, Switzerland, Hungary, Bahamas — yet none of those places satisfied the void I felt inside. When I first moved to Vermont September 2020, I radically decided to face those deep emotional wounds and began a sentimental quest of putting together the puzzle pieces of my life. Healing from both the church and the oppressions faced within black femme body lead me right back to the Black Madonna, aiding me to find comfort & radical faith in her. I wanted to see my inner child in her fullness, while acknowledging the mother who raised me in the best way she knew how. The Black Madonna seemed emotionally fit to look towards for guidance in early adulthood.
Fast forward to June 15th, 2022 and I’ve got a deep feeling to check my car dashboard after the mural installation. I walk towards my blue Saturn VUE and open my car door. To my surprise, I see a Black Madonna prayer card from my mother the first day I moved to Burlington, VT. In that moment, I remembered her encouraging me to place it on the dashboard of my car, claiming she would keep me safe on the road. I was speechless; it felt like my mother knew exactly what I was searching for: Her Light. It brings tears to my eyes every time I think about the depth-fulness of my mother’s Love of the Black Madonna, for she has comforted my mother in her darkness and now comforts me in mine. She lives within all of us, for she is the collective memory of who we truly are. She reflects our longing for authenticity and connection in our darkest moments as we seek to unravel the mysteries of the universe, however, the Divine Feminine has been & forgotten from our collective memory due to modern-day Christianity. Her reappearance is a reclamation to her rightful throne as Queen of Earth and as a human archetype of pure wholeness.
“Black Freedom, Black Madonna & The Black Child of Hope” became not only a mural that illuminates my own personal history of internal strife and triumph, but a symbol of love and belonging to communities, observers and believers alike. It was through midwifing this mural where I was able to see what I had been seeking all of my life: Her Love.
Just like the universe, the Black Madonna has a mysterious, yet funny way to bringing some of our darkest moments to light.
Thank you for being a witness.
Until next time,
~R