BUILDING A CREATIVE UTOPIA FOR BLACK WOMEN.
Words by an Bee Tajudeen.
Solange’s ‘Cranes in the Sky’ details all the methods she did to try and get rid of her depression. I too, tried many of those methods. I was on the brink, crying and bartering with some unseen entity for my last gasp of air. I wanted to give up, I gave up – Black Blossoms a platform I started to highlight the voices of black women in the creative industries and education, saved me. Probably how Seat At The Table saved Solange. I was faced with the fact that my biological being as a woman had been constructed by society that along with my race I must be emotional & savage, therefore my depression made others around me view me as the ‘angry black woman’. Although I was angry, I was more sad, in pain and heartbroken. I was angry because black women do not have the space to show their pain, as we are depicted as ‘angry as we are as strong’. The troupe of the angry black woman has stifled and silenced black women for decades. This most recently played out in a debate about the erasure of black women from British civil rights movement in the new T.V show Guerrilla. An audience member asked the director about the lack of black women in the show, which is marketed as a historical drama. The next day mainstream news outlets had framed the black women who had asked a very legitimate question as angry and bitter. The angry stereotype is waged against black women to stop them speaking up in public spaces about politics, sexism, and racism as well as other social issues. Hence, why black women are also described as strong at they take all the pain and injustices thrown to them by society and silently carry on. The last Black Blossoms conference was in 2016 and was based on self-care and mental wellbeing. My life problems at this time had intensified alongside my job as an elected student activist, constantly fighting the status quo all of this had a detrimental impact on my body and mental health. I was getting more depressed and anxious, struggling to get out of bed, interact positively with friends and family members. I was truly in a sunken place and worst of all I felt alone. Whilst organising the conference I kept on going back to thoughts of Angela and Fania Davis “self-care and healing and attention to the body and the spiritual dimension—all of this is now a part of radical social justice struggles” I made sure the conference reflected their vision of self-care there was yoga, a panel on misogyonoir plus useful survival workshops and discussions. 34 // MENTAL HEALTH & CREATIVE HEALING.