Depicting African American womanhood in a transatlantic space
The quest for emancipation was shaped by the influence of Africa – the symbolic homeland or “Motherland” – on African American womanhood and its representation in art. Whereas the Black Arts Movement advocated for African American artists’ visibility, Black women remained erased from history. In the...
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| Publicat a: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles, |
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Idioma: | Anglais |
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Angles
2025
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| Accés en línia: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:angles_10448 |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:angles_10448 https://doi.org/10.4000/159p3 urn:doi:10.4000/159p3 en https://journals.openedition.org/angles/10448 2025-12-03T01:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/159p3 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Depicting African American womanhood in a transatlantic space Angles Société des Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Supérieur info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2274-2042 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles Grand, Melissa peinture diaspora femmes arts visuels afrocentrisme AfriCOBRA Weusi Black Arts Movement painting diaspora women visual arts Afrocentrism AfriCOBRA Weusi Black Arts Movement The quest for emancipation was shaped by the influence of Africa – the symbolic homeland or “Motherland” – on African American womanhood and its representation in art. Whereas the Black Arts Movement advocated for African American artists’ visibility, Black women remained erased from history. In the 1970s, fighting racial discrimination sometimes prevailed over confronting sexism, especially within the Black community. Thus, artistic collectives such as AfriCOBRA and Weusi provided Black women with a network of solidarity that could launch and support their careers. This article focuses on two visual artists whose work helped narrate Black women’s history from a diasporic perspective: Barbara Jones-Hogu and Dindga McCannon. Both were instrumental in their collective’s success and used such engagement to explore their own identity, drawing on African imagery. Both artists, perceived as “returnees”, used their trips to different West African countries such as Senegal and Ghana to offer new portraits of African American women inspired by African roots that had been severed, and restore their position in the historical narrative of the diaspora. This article explores Hogu and McCannon’s agency to unveil obscured parts of African American women’s history. Both members of the Black Arts Movement, they made Black art for their community and attempted to create a bond between their community and its African heritage, thus addressing a larger artistic transatlantic agenda. La quête d’émancipation par le prisme de l’Afrique, perçue comme « Terre mère », a grandement influencé les féminités africaines-américaines et leurs représentations artistiques. Pendant que le Black Arts Movement œuvrait en faveur de la visibilité des artistes africains-américains, les femmes noires restaient encore plus souvent effacées de l'histoire. Dans les années 1970, la lutte contre la discrimination raciale l'emportait parfois sur la dénonciation du sexisme, en particulier au sein de la communauté noire. Ainsi, des collectifs artistiques tels qu’AfriCOBRA et Weusi ont offert aux femmes noires un réseau de solidarité leur permettant de lancer et de soutenir leur carrière. Cet article étudie deux artistes visuelles dont le travail a contribué à raconter l'histoire des femmes noires au prisme de la diaspora : Barbara Jones-Hogu et Dindga McCannon. Toutes deux ont joué un rôle déterminant dans la reconnaissance de leur collectif et ont utilisé ce travail engagé pour explorer leur propre identité à travers l’imaginaire africain. Considérées comme des « rapatriées symboliques » (returnees), les deux artistes ont mis à profit leurs voyages dans divers pays d’Afrique de l’Ouest tels que le Sénégal et le Ghana, pour proposer de nouveaux portraits de femmes africaines-américaines inspirés de leurs racines africaines, mises à distance par l’histoire, et ainsi rétablir leur place parmi les récits de la diaspora. Cet article se concentrera sur l'agentivité de Hogu et McCannon dans le dévoilement des parts invisibilisées de l'histoire des femmes africaines-américaines. Ces deux artistes du Black Arts Movement ont pensé un art noir destiné à leur communauté en tâchant de relier celle-ci à son héritage africain, s’inscrivant ainsi dans une perspective artistique transatlantique plus large. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
peinture diaspora femmes arts visuels afrocentrisme AfriCOBRA Weusi Black Arts Movement painting diaspora women visual arts Afrocentrism AfriCOBRA Weusi Black Arts Movement |
| spellingShingle |
peinture diaspora femmes arts visuels afrocentrisme AfriCOBRA Weusi Black Arts Movement painting diaspora women visual arts Afrocentrism AfriCOBRA Weusi Black Arts Movement Grand, Melissa Depicting African American womanhood in a transatlantic space |
| description |
The quest for emancipation was shaped by the influence of Africa – the symbolic homeland or “Motherland” – on African American womanhood and its representation in art. Whereas the Black Arts Movement advocated for African American artists’ visibility, Black women remained erased from history. In the 1970s, fighting racial discrimination sometimes prevailed over confronting sexism, especially within the Black community. Thus, artistic collectives such as AfriCOBRA and Weusi provided Black women with a network of solidarity that could launch and support their careers. This article focuses on two visual artists whose work helped narrate Black women’s history from a diasporic perspective: Barbara Jones-Hogu and Dindga McCannon. Both were instrumental in their collective’s success and used such engagement to explore their own identity, drawing on African imagery. Both artists, perceived as “returnees”, used their trips to different West African countries such as Senegal and Ghana to offer new portraits of African American women inspired by African roots that had been severed, and restore their position in the historical narrative of the diaspora. This article explores Hogu and McCannon’s agency to unveil obscured parts of African American women’s history. Both members of the Black Arts Movement, they made Black art for their community and attempted to create a bond between their community and its African heritage, thus addressing a larger artistic transatlantic agenda. |
| author |
Grand, Melissa |
| author_facet |
Grand, Melissa |
| author_sort |
Grand, Melissa |
| title |
Depicting African American womanhood in a transatlantic space |
| title_short |
Depicting African American womanhood in a transatlantic space |
| title_full |
Depicting African American womanhood in a transatlantic space |
| title_fullStr |
Depicting African American womanhood in a transatlantic space |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Depicting African American womanhood in a transatlantic space |
| title_sort |
depicting african american womanhood in a transatlantic space |
| publisher |
Angles |
| publishDate |
2025 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/159p3 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/angles/10448 |
| _version_ |
1877291862441590784 |