You Good?: An Exploration of Black Art and Mental Health
By Alexis Logan
https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/the-cultural-canvas-4/pl.u-Ldbqz7dFxk8kbq8
Art has a way of making meaning of one’s experiences. By curating your own story, you can transfer your inner snapshots to a complete stranger within a two-second glance or an hour-long contemplation where time stands still and draws them in.
As a two-way street, Black art has served as a refuge for artists and the communities it serves. But let’s face it, being Black in the world is an experience like no other. Our cultures have stood strong for hundreds of years and adapted in the face of extreme adversity. We are resilient people who pride ourselves on embodying strength and being able to work through whatever comes our way. Throughout history, we have had to take on these traits in order to survive and thrive. But, this notion of extreme personal strength also places a burden on each and every one of our shoulders. Being seen as weak is not an option in many Black households. Growing up my mother used to tell me that as a Black woman I would have to work twice as hard as other people in order to succeed, and even that might not be enough. These burdens, although necessary for our survival, can also lead to our internal demise.
Mental health has long been seen as a taboo subject within the Black community. Preliminary studies have shown that Black people in America are more likely to experience feelings of sadness than their white counterparts. Struggles with mental health are often viewed as a form of weakness and dismissed as people simply “being dramatic.” This view is extremely relevant with regards to both toxic masculinity within the Black community and the “strong Black woman” trope. Both of these ideas create an environment in which Black people shun help because they are expected to do everything on their own.
Creativity and art bring out every dark corner and closed door in our minds. The importance of granting ourselves this vulnerability cannot be overstated. Art has a way of serving as a catalyst for tackling difficult topics such as Black mental illness. And some artists are intentionally creating art to bring awareness to this taboo topic.
Kirsty Latoya is a young artist from South London who focuses on digital illustration. After struggling with depression in her teens, she now concentrates on important issues such as mental health through her art. “Sometimes, people don’t talk about their own mental health struggles because they feel they’re the only ones going through it. My art is a reminder that we’re all human and go through battles but you can overcome them. I turned my pain into my passion and now art is my therapy.”
Art is one of the most culturally relevant forms of healing which can begin to lighten our burdens. Black culture has a deep impact on every part of Black life so importing culture into our healing is only natural. Creativity allows us to reflect internally and bring our souls into the world. For the Black community, this can mean addressing the unique experience that is being Black. Art opens up a space for us to be free and allow all of our emotions to be put into the world. Places such as museums, theaters, and even classrooms can create safe spaces to address the ups and downs of culture.
As an example of art contributing to the resiliency, healing, and empowerment of the Black community, we need to look no further than Alisha B. Wormsley, an interdisciplinary artist and cultural producer. Her work contributes to the imagining of the future of arts, science, and technology through the Black womxn lens, challenging contemporary views of modern American life through whichever medium she feels is the best form of expression.
One of Wormsley’s best-known projects is There are Black People in the Future which is inspired by afro-futurist artists and writers who highlight the need for Black people to claim their place. There are Black People in the Future addresses systemic oppression of Black communities through space and time by reassuring the presence of Black bodies. In 2017, Wormsley placed these words on a billboard in East Liberty, a neighborhood in Pittsburgh’s east end that has suffered gentrification. When the billboard was removed by the city, community members protested. Wormsley has raised grant money for artists, activists, and community workers in Pittsburgh around their interpretation of the phrase “There Are Black People in the Future”. Since then, the billboard has been replicated in Detroit, Charlotte, New York City, Kansas City, Houston, London, Accra, and Qatar. Each site can pull from this precedence of supporting Black futures locally, whether through commissions, grants, project funding or programming. The text, which Wormsley encourages others to use freely, has since been used in protest, critical art theory, essays, song, testimony, and collective dreaming”.
Culture has always been one of the pillars of the Black community. We use music, painting, literature, and all other forms of art as ways of expression and understanding. This use of art is something that is inherently ingrained in our way of life. In addition to creating a space where feelings and experiences can be expressed, art can also act as an escape from daily life. Creating and intaking art urges the mind to focus on something other than the hardships at hand. Yet, we tend to put creativity into a box as merely a leisure activity. This restricts us from using art as a form of healing. Art allows us to put our emotions into a productive space and create experiences that cannot be fully realized by everyday speech. This universal language of art is something that our community excels in, yet does not use to its full potential.
Our art is our history. It is our story, our trials, and our tribulations. It showcases our best and our worst, our successes and our failures. Our art is our love and our hatred. The prioritization of art within our community is the prioritization of our culture. Because art shows all of our experiences without any filter, our art is our form of remembrance: of the hard times that we go through and of the best moments of our lives.
Resources:
https://therapyforblackgirls.com/
https://therapyforblackmen.org/
https://arttherapyresources.com.au/
https://www.nami.org/Your-Journey/Identity-and-Cultural-Dimensions/Black-African-American
https://www.melaninandmentalhealth.com/about-us/
https://www.inclusivetherapists.com/
Sources:
https://studiomuseum.org/article/museums-mental-health-healing-creative-community
https://theconversation.com/brain-research-shows-the-arts-promote-mental-health-136668
https://namica.org/mental-health-challenges-in-african-american-communities/
https://hyperallergic.com/469609/a-portrait-of-black-mental-health-in-hues-of-black-and-blue/
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/strong-black-woman-stereotype-oped