As a Black woman, I constantly feel a disconnect from my history, the world around me, and who I am. Due to the atrocities of enslavement, and the separation of my people, I’m not sure of my true lineage; and when it is constantly being suppressed. It’s almost as if I have to search for the truth.
If art is visual poetry then contemporary fine artist Shanequa Gay is the Virgil of the 21st century. She has her paintbrush on the pulse of the people. Embedded into the essence and fiber of her work are stories of community. An Atlanta native and alum of the Art Institute of Atlanta, Savannah College of Art and Design, and Georgia State University, a key element of Gay’s multifaceted work is hybridity. She told Georgia State University Magazine that, “Atlanta culture as a whole is a hybrid, and as Americans, we’re all a mesh of things.”
