Patrisse Cullors' art show in Los Angeles, 'Between the Warp and Weft: Weaving Shields of Strength and Spirituality,' is dedicated to Black women.
“Imagine if culturally we understood that protecting Black women meant protecting all of us,” reflected Patrisse Cullors, renowned for her activist work with Black Lives Matter , a global network she co-founded in 2013 with Alicia Garza and Ayo Tometi. “I think that’s what this show means to me.”—an introduction to Cullors as an artist wielding her protection spell over Black women.
Cullors also centers the symbol of the sword that stems from her spiritual practice of the Yoruba religion—which has resonances across Santeria, Lucumi, and Vodou—and her specific connection to her spiritual guide, the orisha Oya, a warrior deity represented by the“I see Oya’s sword as an opportunity for Black women to reclaim what protection looks like for us,” Cullors said. “Whether that’s protecting ourselves from white supremacy or protecting ourselves from Black men.
Cullors’ spirituality, which she has practiced for over 20 years, not only informs her art and perspectives but also her daily living and decades-long activism—from the resistance of jail expansion in Los Angeles to BLM. “I grew up a Jehovah’s Witness,” Cullors said. “That was a religion that felt deeply disconnected from who I was, even as a young person. I really loved the storytelling of the Bible, but when it came to the shunning of people, and the discarding of people, it didn’t feel right. While my grandmother was Christian, she was culturally Black Indian and brought all the medicine components in our lives and our community and our family life.
“I think what’s most disappointing are the Black gossip sites that picked up the story as if it were something bad,” Cullors lamented. “We live in a country that has divested from Black wealth and the ability for Black people to be upwardly mobile for the last hundreds of years. And every moment where we’ve had some semblance of stability, financial stability, we have been criminalized for it. I think about Tulsa , I think about all the Black land that has been stolen from Black people.
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