On Sunday Feb. 13, I was lucky enough to be in attendance at both Cassipea Stith’s ’22 and Logan Shanks’ ’24 first event. Titling this curation of Black artistry “Black Love, Everlasting: An Ode to Black Intellectuals Erased,” there was an exuberant amount of care and attention conjured up in this space. One thing I noticed throughout my journey within this art project was the diversity in showcased art mediums. Beginning with the showing of the documentary “Amazing Grace,” a film which displays the community experience between Aretha Franklin and the members of the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, and ending with journal prompts centered on interiority and introspection, there was a lot of love that I felt within this space. I also saw multiple different archival photographs displaying the different dimensions of love; through joy, art, and connection. At first, when I sat down to write this article, I was simply going to provide a summary of my experiences. I was going to detail the few times I had cried while watching Aretha and the choir work in tandem to evoke visceral reactions out of the audience in the church. Or perhaps document the moments of writer’s block I experienced as I tried to reflect on how I would perceive my sense of being outside of capitalism and the gender binary. However, I felt it was important to incorporate the words from the artists themselves. So, I am calling to attention the personal connections this project had to both Cassipea and Logan. I conducted separate interviews with them, in so getting a better understanding of why they were called to do this work, as well as what goals they had for this event. 

Logan Shanks: 

First, what is Black Love, Everlasting: An Ode to Black Intellectuals Erased?

This is a curation that brings together some Brandeis archives of Black feminist intellectuals who matriculated through this university. These photos in particular are from Parker Thompson, a History major who is a junior at Brandeis. He collects different photos of Black being, Black resting, Black existing, Black joy, Black happiness, Black love. He also collects images of Black folks not necessarily in a state of trauma but in a state of intention and happiness and community and family. This being said, I really wanted to bring together those images and Black feminists who have matriculated through this university to uphold love; as Aretha franklin would say a force that could rock this Earth foundation. 

Is there a personal reason behind why you felt called to do this work as well as a need to display love within Black Feminism?

Definitely pragmatic, as both an African & African American Studies major as well as a Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies major. Black feminism has answered the questions I didn’t even know to ask. I think it [Black feminism] needs to be honored more and needs to be seen as a tool of expanding the possibility of what the world could be. I feel like I was mainly called to do this because I know that a lot of the access that I have, not even in terms of the educational white matric material goods, can be described using Black feminist language. This language has helped me to become a more self-actualized person and to know what I need and to have desires and wants…it has also called me to share and curate these resources and readings in a way that is accessible to my community. I owe to Black feminism the words to be able to name those things. 

I noticed that a part of your art curation incorporated the concept of being able to sit and rest with your thoughts as well as being able to put those thoughts on paper. I know that you guided us through this process by offering journal prompts to essentially drive us to introspection. This being said, one prompt that stood out to me was “what new world would emerge if we gave up gender & capitalism as the entry into freedom?” How does this art display of Black feminism & Black love relate to giving up a gender binary as well as to freedom from the constraints capitalism places on our wants & desires?

I think what this installation does is interesting. Kinda in the way we move as humans in this capitalist system we’re constantly in a state of rush, always in a “oh I need to get to the next thing”. You know, not by our consent of course, we’re kinda forced into these different flattened out roles, sort of like robots trying to keep the machine of capitalism moving. I feel like with what our installation does it forces you to sit, rest, and dwell. And to theorize the dwelling as a moment where you don’t necessarily have to labor or perform and give anything. All you have to do is rest and sit and be in your body and in yourself. And that’s something that we honestly don’t have the privilege to do, as humans period in a capitalist system, but especially as Black folks. Especially as Black femmes, Black queer folks, like we don’t have that luxury. So we really wanted to carve out such space to do that. It could kinda be unsettling at first like “what am I supposed?” but just be. There’s no expectations coming into this space. All you needed to do is just be with the work and have reverence for Black feminist intellectual gyneology. 

What about your thoughts on Black womanhood outside of the gender binary and its relationship to the driving force behind this exhibition, love? 

Black womanhood outside the gender binary looks like your value not being tied to your capacity to labor for other people. It also looks like how you are in your body and in yourself, that’s what it means to me. Also, showing up and being in community with other people. Of course, making something out of nothing but not romanticizing the struggle of that. And lastly, the Black genius that is Black womanhood. 

Cassipea Stith: 

What drove you to work on an exhibition about Black love, feminism & intellect?

The project spurred out of a conversation between Logan and I and I’m always willing to hop on board with anything I’m able to support. When Logan said she wanted to have an event specifically for Valentine’s day centered around Black history, I thought that was really cool because I haven’t seen them merged before. I’ve never seen a space where Valentine’s Day has centered Black history and I think that’s really important when thinking about how we empower Black folks. For us, Black History is occurring at all times, and not just in connection to the month of February. We envisioned a connection between Black History and Valentine’s Day as a way to relate Black Intellectuals to another context that normally isn’t associated with Black scholarship. 

What goals did you have for this event? What were you hoping to receive in terms of reactions to your project on Black love and Black feminist intellect?

My goal for the event was that everyone would come into the space feeling love, love for themselves, love for one another. I think that some of the cliche aspects of Valentine’s Day produce unproductive interactions that are centered around ingenuity. Some things I can think of are like speed dating. We kind of used this concept as a framework but rather than simple interactions we wanted to inspire people to meet a Black intellectual they may not be familiar with. Out of that we figured conversations could be produced amongst students that would actually get them to form genuine relationships. Also on doing the work alongside Logan for students, we wanted to prove that anything you want to create you very much can. A part of even learning about Black intellectuals leads to recognizing that we have intellectual power of our own.