the /mask/
Leaving behind language, culture, sayings and hair at home, and to change yourself to become more “palatable,” is to wear the mask. It is to become visible twice but for a group that has no trouble seeing. In an oxymoron of a world, to wear the mask is to be seen, for the comfortability of others who themselves struggle with the skin they live in. For some, to wear the mask, is to put on an unbreakable façade before the world... to make sure their family has a roof over their head, and food to eat. To wear the mask I am talking about, is to become a different person, in order to survive. And what is most tragic is that some have worn the mask so long, and it has conformed so tightly to their face, that it would be more horrific to take it off than to leave it on.
What inspired the painting
Maya Angelou’s reciting of her poem The Mask, helped to portray the truth of what living life as a black person was like, and still feels like. To wear the mask, was to try and navigate and survive in a world where one’s simple existence was questioned and argued. Maya’s laughs, are a “survival apparatus” as she outlines, used to distract oneself from not crying at the humiliating circumstances and situations Black folks had to live through.