Melanincholic, is a transmedia critical thought project using the digital images and lives of Sarah Baartman, Sandra Bland and performance art to address chronicled negative ethnic representation and the algorithms of oppression present on digital search engine platforms like goggle. In combining moments in the lives and deaths of these women, I memorialize those who lost their lives, celebrate the activism born from their sacrifices and provide positive narratives of women of color on digital platforms. Beah Richard’s poem serves as the foundation of the project thus explained in the following video.
Video transcription: In 1950, poet, activist and actress Beah Richard on a way to an audition decided to make a quick stop at a forum led by white feminists and philanthropist. As a special treat she wrote the poem “A black woman speaks.” This particular poem chronicles the abuse heaped upon black women as white women stood back and watch without protests. Beah Richard’s poem speaks to this victimization in a holding a mirror up to your face kind of fashion to show white women that you are just as enslaved as black women are even though you may have different circumstances, live in different homes, you are still a slave to the white patriarchy.
