Womb Songs: Hard Cover

Womb Songs includes the voices, writings, and visions of those who heard the call to answer the question, “How do we heal these painful histories?” The painful histories, of course, refer to the centuries of violence done to girls and women all over the world. This catalog centers exhibitions of the multi-component installation Sister Song, a community-based project, which examines how art and community co-creation processes can be used to heal the intergenerational trauma associated with enslavement and its aftermaths. Specifically featured are works from the exhibits Keeper of My Mothers’ Dream (2017) and Sister Song: The Requiem (2022), and newly commissioned poems for both exhibits from Maria Hamilton Abegunde. The project, led by artist LaShawnda Crowe Storm, blurs the lines between the public and private by transforming mundane places into sacred spaces through public rituals. A requiem is an act of remembrance for the dead. How, then, does honoring the dead give life to the living? How do the living remember their histories while creating new futures? How does embracing history help us release specific traumas and move toward a future where healing is possible and already occurred? We explore these questions through the community co-creation process that is at the heart of Sister Song - womb making.