I still remember the rhythm of hand games in driveways, at school, and in parks. A language of connection shared in little Black girlhood. Something I don't frequently see now-a-days!
Our Hands Play at Instant Park (2025), is a photo tapestry honoring African American hand games, songs, and rhythms passed down by Black girls, the creators of these enduring traditions. Set against the backdrop of “Instant” Pat Baker Park in Reno, Nevada a space built just in two days by mainly Black residents in July 1968 to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the work speaks to memory and place, to the hands that crafted the park and the hands that clapped these songs into the air, into existence.
As a student of plants and their healing, I wanted to tell another story, the story of natural hues and their magic through dyeing cloth, as it's our birthright. In this practice it's important to do with intention and respect while using natural materials of African and Indigenous-American roots for its ancestral knowledge and deeper significance:
Pink for healing and joy,
Orange for creation and energy,
Purple for spirituality and humility,
Gray for balance and easing grief,
Brown for groundness and roots.
While each design was hand-painted with herbs, showing ancestral seeds at the bottom to the jungle gym at the top. Each stitch of cloth weaves together earth, memory, and play. Photographs embedded in the tapestry capturing two friends at play, and echoes of Black girls from the past to the future, with hidden messaging.
Hand games trace back to African traditions through hand clapping, foot stomping, and body percussion. In them, we remember the music of our bodies, the stories on our tongues, the joy of being.
To preserve our Black girlhood is to continue our hand games Lemonade, Slide, Miss Mary Mack, Rockin' Robin, Jigg-A-Low, and so many many more.
OUR HANDS PLAY AT INSTANT PARK (2025)
