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Blackbird Arts would like to announce a call for art for their national juried 2027 Black History Month exhibition, ‘Blood of Indigo’. Some historians believe that close to 80 percent of African Americans with enslaved ancestors have Gullah Geechee roots.
The Gullah Geechee are the descendants of West and Central Africans who were enslaved and trafficked to the coastal regions of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and North Carolina and forced to labor on the area's many rice, indigo and cotton plantations. Due to the isolation of the Sea Islands, over time, many Gullah Geechee people were able to retain aspects of their indigenous culture, including language, foodways, and folk arts.
Blood of Indigo’ is a play on the phrase Blue Blood, a title given to someone of ‘noble, aristocratic, or high social status’- Blue blood originated from the Spanish phrase ‘sangre azul’ and was used by Castilian nobles to signify purity, as they avoided tanning in the sun- making their veins more visible. Blood of Indigo is a tongue-in-cheek response to this archaic hierarchical ethos.
We want the works for this show to embody one or more of the following thematic concepts:
-Sankofa- the Gullah concept of ‘sankofa’ a west african term that means looking to the past as a source of guidance for the future. Think afrofuturism and or work honoring elders, the past, ancestry.
-Indigo/shades of blue- works that utilize inidgo/ shades of blue. Blue holds spiritual meaning for the Gullah, and indigo is a nod to the cultivation and production of indigo by those who were enslaved.
-Water and baptism These themes are symbolic of the low country, the spiritual practice of rebirth and purification, and the middle passage.
