Searching For Humanity

Who knew that visiting a museum during the age of COVID-19 was just what I needed to find the motivation for this Museum Monday’s  blog post.

This week has been jammed packed with historical events and catastrophic events that will go down in history. Being a cognizant and empathetic person, I am highly affected by the recent events and cannot turn a blind eye to what's going on around me.

Not only am I still trying to heal from the killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others, I sympathize with the citizens of Beirut; I am constantly checking the news for justice to be served. After I learned that the Lebanese President rejected the United Nations human rights commission call for an international investigation for the bombing that killed 150 people, I found myself constantly asking where is the humanity? and who has cursed 2020?

August 6, 2020, marked 55 years since the Voting Rights Act passed, yet the fight for equity, representation, and to simply be melanin-nated in peace is still ferociously occurring. The Black Is Beautiful exhibit, hosted at The Columbia Museum of Art, is ferociously soulful. Visiting this is exhibit gave me the reminder I needed. Gazing at the beautiful black faces in the photos reminded me that I have a story to tell just as the archival photos mounted on the walls tell theirs. The images taken by Kwame Brathwaite are refreshing yet saddening. The photos predominately portray the 1960s, a time of dedicated activism for equal rights and treatment of African Americans in the United States...Sixty years later, the dedicated activism persists.

This Blog ends abruptly without my usual encouraging or inspirational phrase. It ends with a heavy and yearning heart. I yearn for peace, humanity, and equity.