Words for Tatter on Brooklyn Museum's Africa Fashion Exhibit

Image courtesy of Danny Perez, Installation view, Africa Fashion. Brooklyn Museum, June 23 – October 22, 2023

I walked through the doors of the Brooklyn Museum feeling the weight of the world amid current events in Israel and Palestine. Reflecting on the state of our divided global society. Pleas for freedom in my heart and mind. And once again, grappling with the complex emotions that come with being a Black American woman from the South who is a descendant of enslaved people and sharecroppers covering fashion and style from Africa. A Black American woman from a working-class family. A Black American woman with the privilege of having an education from one of the best research institutions in the United States. A Black American woman who is acutely aware of her existence in a racialized world and colonized body. A Black American woman who, like writer and academic Saidiya Hartman, is stuck between two worlds, both of which I am a stranger.