Collage by Oskar Sinclair. Courtesy the artist.
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“Mammy May I…?” is an ongoing contemplation of “Black Womanhood” as a reaction to the disillusionment of “Black Girlhood.” Exploring sensuality, play, rage, and release, this work by 2023 Artist-in-Residence Oskar Sinclair undertakes a simple query: to whom does your body belong, Black girl?
My body. A canvas of ebony hues. An emblem of Africanity and feminine strength. Carries me places where power, masculinity, and race entwine. My form–thickset with broad shoulders and big back, mammoth arms and stalwart thighs–is a tool → a crucible → forever dangerous when not useful. I know this. Now….
Before, without context of its lineage, my body was simply bad; the reason why, aged six, men began the cat-calling, and, aged nine, deemed me “too fast;” the reason popular girls kept me as bait for their wanton boy toys. I knew I was bait. I also knew I wasn’t very popular and, coming off the African Booty Scratcher train, I played their game, acted as pawn, found sense and made cents in my body’s usability. Promiscuous Jezebel, overlooked Mammy. Spectacle all the same.
Do not pity me. I’m grown. Now.
View the Program
On November 18, Oskar Sinclair organizes a series of workshops – I’ll Be At Home….Maybe With You – exploring the work’s themes of sensuality, play, rage, and release, facilitated by Star Mitchell, Ash Rucker, and Osamudiamen Aiworo.
Oskar Sinclair (Vu/They) is a tough yet syrupy genderqueer femmebo(i)rg. Using Vu's body as a site of conversation, Oskar’s work explores, interrogates, and provokes notions of power, négritude, body politics, sex, queerness, desire, and outsidership. So here Vu is. Puckish. Malleable. Aspiring to wholesomeness. Amusing in all the ways you’re grateful for. Catch Vu running around NYC existing in multidimensional consciousness (because it be like that sometimes).