The Bakery Presents: Let Black Fxlk Be, a Black Queer Art Show

ArtsFeatures

Feb 6

Featured

When was the last time you acknowledged your otherness? I think on my skin’s limits and imperfections, its historical context and ancestral roots, as well as its healing, durability and strength. Where blackness exists, there is no neutrality. Queerness, too, is an inheritance of code-switching and posturing learned through the body, a working vocabulary as means for survival and self-acceptance. Being black and queer comes with an array of connotations, stereotypes, and assumptions, but the lived experience of each individual is special, exceptional, and meaningful.

Let Black Fxlk Be is an art show presented by the Bakery in Atlanta that takes a close look at vulnerability and community inside black queer life. Local queer artists Chiomma Hall, The Color Cienna, Talecia Tucker and more, create art that interprets and represents blackness according to their own perspective. Each work presented acts as a vessel into the experience, personhood, and growth of each individual artist as they reflect on queerness within the South.

Held at a distance, the queer experience appears magical, but it is in fact complex, challenging, and full. I think about our voices as 3-dimensional, our blood rich, our fat supple and our muscle just as permeable and robust as any other human’s. Art allows us to exist in all our colors, shapes and hair textures as we weigh our joys and grievances. Love, friendship, community and identity grow wild from this space.

This show, as countless others have proven, and as we as black people will continue to prove, is that black folks don’t need permission to be beautiful. Queer people don’t need permission to see ourselves rendered as art. We make it happen. We deserve the visibility these artists give us. What a gift to see ourselves refracted through watercolor, vivid in illustration, or plainly through film photography. Our tapestry is complex, bountiful, it fills the room. There is value in everything about us; these artists aim to bring every piece of it to you. Make time to witness all this show has to offer.