Still We Rise

Still We Rise is a larger-than-life textile featuring four portraits of my grandmother, myself, my birth mother, and my adoptive mother. Within this piece I have depicted myself in the center rising above the prejudice that is rooted within my own family. Still We Rise is piecing together a memory of my grandmother, questioning my own acceptance to the family, and the connected pain of my birth mother giving me up. Specifically, this piece is depicting a statement from my grandmother to my mother saying, “there are other black, Christian families that could adopt her.” This mindset in my grandmother affected our relationship, due to the lack of familial acceptance.