Moral Monday CT invited a young Hartford-based artist, Mieykeya Nycole McClendon, to share her work with us. Her capstone project focuses on the social injustices faced by people of African descent in the United States. Her project displays the reality of cultural appropriation and racial prejudice in America. In her own words…
“…some men and women fetishize black women”
The second painting that I completed is called ‘African Queen‘ and it was based off of my
view of how some men see African-American women. The point of this painting was to depict the fact that some men and women fetishize black women for their assets and what an African-American woman is stereotyped to be like: having an attitude, having a large behind, big breasts, curvaceous bodies, big lips and brown skin. The meaning of having the earth between her hands based off of the view of some men and women that African-American women are some other-worlds goddesses that open up the portal to the world so that man may drink from the pure springs of life. This statement was formulated after I watched a Black Web-series on YouTube that brought up social issues, specifically racism and fetishism of Black women. The trigram symbols set in the background symbolize: water, fire, earth(rock), wind, heaven and mountains. I included these symbols just to emphasize that this woman is the queen of the world.”
Mieykeya Nycole McClendon is a graduating senior at Greater Hartford Classical Magnet School. Mieykeya is an aspiring artist attending Delaware State University in the Fall, majoring in Studio Art.
Moral Monday CT gathers voices in the struggle for freedom and justice for black and brown people.
We are rooted in the social justice and civil rights movement started by the Reverend Doctor William Barber of North Carolina in response to recent restrictions on voting rights. We are a statewide Connecticut-based coalition of individuals and organizations brought together by the power of the Black Lives Matter movement.