“The Mothering Blackness:” A Celebration of Black Matrilineal Heritage

“The Mothering Blackness” is a compilation of the various forms of artistic expression that have left everlasting impressions upon me. It is through the art song, jazz standard, and Negro spiritual, that I will attempt to honor the divine Black feminine. I will draw from both aspects of my identity; the first which can be traced to mountainous terrains of “le Continent,” the west African country of Cameroon, and the second, lies within deeply rooted scars of bondage, through whom I find myself inextricably linked to this country called America. I will draw from the Negro spiritual, western European impressionist art song, and jazz, to create a song cycle that embodies the ways in which these artistic disciplines intersect and diverge. 

The lyrics and prose will be cited primarily from the writing of Black women poets, authors, and orators from the African diaspora such as Audre Lorde, Maya Angelou, June Jordan, and Langston Hughes. This song cycle will be rooted in the theme of lineage, and the various ways in which matriarchy manifests within the African diaspora. Through focusing on the words and images of Black mothers, sisters, wives, aunts, in the South, Caribbean, and West Africa, I will attempt to compile and conceive of a soundscape that embodies the infinite dimensions of Black womanhood in the context of birth, death, and diasporic ancestry.