The Recitation

 “Tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light…Tell us what it is to be a woman so that we may know what it is to be a man.  What moves at the margin.  What it is to have no home in this place.  To be set adrift from the one you knew.  What it is to live at the edge of a town that cannot bear your company.”
-Toni Morrison

Since I decided that I could be an artist, I have been trying to create work that would allow me to explore a dialogue between Birmingham past and Birmingham present. 

Six months ago, I made a proposal to the Alabama Historical Comission to do a commemorative project for the May 2011 exhibition 'The Road to Equality.'  The exhibition is bringing together a group of artists who live along the route of the 1961 Freedom Rides.  My proposal was accepted, then began the task of collecting information and images, and to make sense my response to this new knowledge.
On today a group of women who agreed to be a part of this memorial gathered to execute this project, in the rain.  I thank God for allowing all this to happen.  From a thought, to a few sentences on paper, to this beautiful gathering of these beautiful human beings.
It's an awesome feeling to see your dream materialize.  It was a huge accomplishment that was not mine alone, and while it may not be perfect or thorough, the actualization of this project sparked a difficult but coveted growth spurt for me as an adult, as a woman, and a Birmingham being.  All the gratitude I can muster in my body goes to the following women for their participation in the project:

Ejella Gardner
Willow Scott
Sharifa Wip
Kathleen Hamrick
Simone Jones-Snelling
Tatum Preston
LaQuin Taylor
Catherine Burkes-Brooks
Sandra Sanders
Karen Percy
Tiffany Taylor
Jessica Latten
and Lynsey Weatherspoon

Join us in Montgomery at the historic Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station on May 20 to view the final work.

Tia-Simone Gardner
artist
educator
cauldron projekts team member