Three days after my birthday, I stood in the midst of a searing art installation in the middle of Soho and shed some tears. 

 

And I was perfectly fine with it.

 

Let me back up a bit to explain what work of art brought me to this point, by getting a little personal.I’m in the last year of my forties, and out of all of the emotions I feel like I would experience and embrace during that time, I have found comfort in being unapologetic about who I am and my viewpoint on things. I now tend to seek that out as inspiration in the works of others. 

 

I was alerted to an art exhibition at the Southern Guild gallery in Soho by my friend Sydette Harry, which was inspired by the great Black historian W.E.B. DuBois’ book The Souls of Black Folk. I resolved to make that part of the birthday adventures I would undertake last Saturday - I am one of those who celebrates the entire month if possible.on

 

October in New York City means that the streets are packed with movement and color, even if the skies happen to be a monochromatic grey. I made my way to the Southern Guild gallery after spending quite a bit of time at the "Gordon Parks: Voices In My Mirror" exhibit at the Jack Shainman Gallery (which is also a must-see). There, I found myself greeted bythe works of Roméo Mivekannin.

 

Mivekannin’s works on black velvet with acrylic in the "Porteurs de fu (Bearers of Fire)" exhibit shake your system like the first few seconds of taking a cold plunge. They draw from other known works of art, such as Winslow Homer’s 1899 work “The Gulf Stream”. MIvekannin’s take here centers a Black body in the work, at ragged rest in a boat surrounded by sharks. Where Homer’s work brings a sense of danger to the viewer’s eyes, here Mivekannin relays that there is solace for the passenger who has weathered several storms to get here. No matter their story. “To carry the fire is to have endured the journey,” the artist writes in their description of the work.

 

Other works in the gallery are like that, the centering of a Black figure in Mivekannin’s work referencing the way that those in the Black diaspora were previously not considered either as subject or as part of the audience in more popular artwork. When it comes to Black artists, the Ivory Coast-bornMivekannin works in a style of empathetic conveyance.

 

This stands out in “From Her Body Sprang The Greatest Wealth”, which draws from the late Nona Faustine’s “White Shoes” series. Here, we see Faustine’s naked body atop a block at an intersection in lower Manhattan where the Transatlantic slave trade in New York City was common. The yellow taxicab in the back makes you pause in contrast to Faustine and the child next to her, all in black and shades of white. It hammers home how historical amnesia has been a hallmark of the city, the U.S. and Western society as a whole. Mivekannin’s work here is an arrow through that practice, compelling you not to forget that this site is just steps from where you were standing and observing his work.

 

And then, I made my way to the rear of the gallery to come across Souls of Black Folk. This part of the exhibition consists of the depictions of 68 important figures in Black history, past and present. Mivekannin’s loving paintings of these figures in black acrylic paint on free canvas made me catch my breathwhen I first saw them displayed. I took my time and walked among them all. From Frantz Fanon to Toni Morrison. From bell hooks to Marielle Franco to John Lewis. I stood there, my eyes sweeping over their faces. I felt the pride well up, felt how much I and others were and continued to be lifted up by their works and lives.

 

And then, I felt the tears come down my face. I hadn’t felt that moved since I was at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (aka The Blacksonian) eight years ago. To see something like this in a time where the hurt and ignorant are online yapping about “diaspora wars”, this reminded me how mighty WE all are and have been. And remain. 

 

I walked out of Southern Guild revived after spending another 20 minutes in that section of the exhibit alone. Roméo Mivekannin’s works leave Southern Guild’s NYC gallery on October 29. It left me deeply inspired, and highly anticipating what he has next. Because that kind of unapologetic expression of us, the messages in each painting, is definitely what the diaspora needs in these times. And if the rest of the world benefits, all the better.