Lemonade: Interview With The Curators of The Colored Girls Museum

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Denys Davis

What was the inspiration behind the Colored Girls Museum?

Well, the inspiration actually came about in an indirect way. We were asked to do this project, it was only two of us and we really weren’t sure what we were going to do. We started talking and we saw the ironing board. That’s when Monna said that her grandmother was a domestic worker and she had a similar ironing board. Then I said, “oh, I have one to! Both my grandmothers were domestic workers.” So we looked at each other because we’d known one another for over 20 years and that subject never came up. So we decided to pay a tribute to women post slavery who took in laundry.

Did creating a museum for and from the perspective of colored girls pose a challenge?

Creatively anything you start to do you have to really research and put effort into it. But we already had all of these things that we’d saved from our families. The challenge came from how to present it. As an interior designer, I was looking at the angles of the room and how it would show when people came to look at it. That was my challenge. Telling the story without having to say anything was our goal.

How do Black Women usually feel when they come in and they see this space created for them, by them?

You know, we didn’t realize the impact that this room would have on people. We just hoped people would like it. But we got such a range of emotions. We have a lot of criers. We have people who come in and once they look they just get filled up with emotion because memories come back of their grandmothers, aunts, and mothers who worked as landraces. Then there’s the young people who really don’t know the history of it.

They have a sort of “light bulb going off “moment where they get it. Then little girls come in and they are totally unaware of how things were. They have an a-ha moment where they understand how things were. Especially when they feel the iron, it just shocks them. Also, people come in and they’re compelled to tell a story. We’ve had people come in and talk of their families for hours.

How do you feel the Black Woman’s perception of herself has changed over the last few decades?

Woo that’s a heavy question! Well, I think in the beginning of this era, with the 19th century woman felt about herself was low self-esteem. Although some women probably had a lot of self-esteem but that was the only job they could do. Then through all women’s right and with women working then they had a better perception of themselves. My mother worked. So, she had a real powerful perception of women could do anything you put your mind to. That’s how I was raised and I have a pretty strong perception of being a woman, being a strong woman and being a strong Black Woman.

I think nowadays the perception that we have of ourselves are lacking. The images that young girls, I’m referencing millennials and down, have a T.V. mentality. Black women on T.V. especially aren’t given the best portrayal. Some are but some aren’t. That causes young girls to not have a good perception of themselves as black people.

Referencing Malcolm X’s speech, “Who Taught You to Hate Yourself?” Do you believe their will ever be a time when Black people will truly love themselves in an American society?

I hope so, but I don’t know when that’s going to be. Just like racism, you think one minute it’s diminishing, but you know it’s always there. Now it isn’t worse, it’s just coming out the woodwork. I think we have to do a better job in our families because you’re not going to get it in school. Though if you attend an HBCU you will gain that. I attended Hampton University, or Hampton Institute. There you get a very good sense of self. You certainly won’t get that in other Universities because that’s not their mission. At Hampton it was their mission every day to tell you how good and strong you were. It’s my hope that if you don’t get it in school, that you’ll get it through your family.

Vashti DuBois

What is your Definition of a Colored Girl?

A colored girl is that part of ourselves who has been colored by everybody’s beliefs, expectations and stories of who she is. Literally colored starting from when she was a girl. Sometimes that girl doesn’t get as much of a girlhood as she should because one of the potential consequences of being a colored girl is that you have to grow up too quickly. Whether it’s because you have to navigate adult issues as a little girl or you’re navigating grown men treating as a woman when you’re just a girl. Too often we don’t get to appreciate the power and necessity of girlhood. What an important place that is to hang out in for as long as you can. That to me is what a colored girl is.

Do you believe that through Positive Affirmation that One Day Black People Will Truly Be Able to Love Themselves?

I believe that nothing is a straight line. So, I do believe that black people love and don’t love like everybody else on the planet. I think we really struggle with soft love because we really struggle with our divinity. We’re all manifestations of God’s love, therefore we’re all God in that aspect. I think that the colored girl has a unique set of skills that are necessary to assist the universal community in finding their way to their highest selves.

Is the Colored Girls Museum Intercultural?

There’s a saying, “If you don’t know your story, you don’t know anybody’s story.” Our story is probably the least known because we’ve always had to straddle the fence of choosing to be women or black. We’ve never really had the space or time to understand and talk about our own unique histories and stories. The Colored Girls Museum, a sanctuary not just for the colored girl but anybody who’s ready for a conscious revolution. It is revolutionary for anyone to look at the world through the lens of a colored girl. That would be a paradigm shift.

Where do you See the Colored Girls Museum a Decade from Now?

I see it everywhere. There should be a Colored Girls outpost in every city, state and country. This is the 20th century underground railroad and the Colored Girls Museum does not require an entire house. It could be a room or a shelf. But like the underground railroad, that Harriet Tubman was such a fierce leader of, this Colored Girls Museum seeks to provide respite and touchpoints as we travel the world to connect and reconnect with one another. To reconnect with our birthright, our history, our stories and our divinity.

Monna Morton

What Inspired you to get involved with The Colored Girls Museum?

I was invited to participate. Once I accepted my invitation Vashti held a meeting where we gathered to talk about what we would bring to the museum.

What is your favorite part/exhibit Within the Colored Girls Museum?

I don’t have a favorite part. Initially we were telling the story of what it means to be a colored girl. As the museum has progressed we’ve developed themes within that. Such as now we’re in “A Good Night’s Sleep” and for the next festival we’ll go into urgent care. We address issues in what it means for us as African-American women to get a good night’s sleep. The living room, which stays the same, was curated by Michael Clemmons and it was a part of the African American Museum’s exhibit for Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf. Each room holds a story.

Do you Believe that With Enough Representation and Support the Black Person Will Truly Be Able to Love Themselves?

I think that how we allow ourselves to be portrayed in the media affects the way we love ourselves. I think there are aspects of our community that get caught up in negative things. Maybe it’s a feeling of, “I’m not good enough for anything else.” I think we need to continuously put out positive images celebrating the good side of us. Even finding the good within those negative things. Making those good things something that people see.

Do you Believe that the Shame Will Be Lifted from Domestic Workers within the Colored Community?

That is the curation of the Washer Room being the only permanent installation. We wanted to celebrate them because all too often these women were looked down on. Even their families were ashamed of them. It was honest work and those are the jobs that put kids through college, built our churches, institutions and so much more.

Those are the women who lie on their backs while we stand on their shoulders. We wanted her on the 2nd floor and not in the basement or outside because we want to celebrate her. We want to celebrate the hard work that she did. Some of those women didn’t even have children, but they worked hard to create scholarships because they didn’t want any other girl or boy to have to do that kind of work.

What is your Definition of a Colored Girl?

I don’t know if I’d say that we need to define the colored girl. I like the term “Colored Girl” though some argue that it’s derogative. Before we were African-American, Black or Negro we were Colored. That’s because Europeans didn’t know what to call us. They only knew that we were a different color than them. So, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. A Good Night’s Sleep asks, “What happened to the mother? What happened to the aunts, sisters and grandmothers? What happened to them as their loved ones were being taken away in these ships?”

I meet African artists and athletes. We’re always getting DNA tests going back to Africa looking for our ancestors and where we come from. They’re here looking for their cousins. They say, “We have people here. We have family, distant cousins that live in the United States that we know nothing about because they were taken from our families.” What the African mother felt as her children were indefinitely taken away is never a concern. A Colored Girl is one who’s heart is deeply rooted in the sounds, the sights and the textile of her native land that she carried all those years. They tried to beat it out of them. By the way we unabashedly express our homeland within everything we do. Through our hair, homes and motions.

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