INVISIBLE EMPIRE

#1960NOW II

TODAY

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I cried today

I thought of the elders who fought during the Civil Rights Era

Imagine their trauma

I thought of my parents, young people who endure the Jim Crow era

Imagine their trauma

I thought of the young visionaries who are fighting the same injustices today

I imagine their trauma

I thought of my ancestors, who were forced to come to a country to be sold as property

Imagine their trauma

I cry today because we lost a spirit who continue to fight the good fight

Imagine his trauma

He now knows what liberation looks like

I cried today

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-Sheila Pree Bright

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Click here for installation at Riverside Art Museum, CA until March 2021

Grillz is a body of photographic portraits of black males who wear their gold teeth as a connection to an African culture long past. Within the Hip Hop community, however, gold teeth have become signifiers of a lifestyle, status, or “manhood,” all questioning the notion of what is merely fashionable and what is culture.