I Have a Dream…
On Saturday, Emmett Till, a 14 year old young African American boy who was brutally murdered after being falsely accused by a white woman, would have celebrated his 79th birthday. On Friday, July 17th, iconic civil rights leader Representative John Lewis passed away and on Monday he became the first black lawmaker to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda— one of America’s highest honors.
When I created this mandala for the 30x30x30 Exhibition it was January 20th, Martin Luther King Day. Back then— which now seems so far away— we had no way of knowing what the world would look like today or how important the history and legacy of Emmett Till, Representative John Lewis and Martin Luther King would be in this moment—not all of the things they accomplished or how far we have come but what their lives and deaths remind us— that even when our dreams are “deferred” and “blasted” as Martin Luther King said in the last Christmas Sermon that he would deliver, we must always, no matter what, hold onto our dreams.