installation at Mint Gallery
Atlanta GA
Installation interaction at
Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design
Atlanta, GA
Dear Professor X,
I know I ain’t no Sarah, Becky, or Emily. I know it may seem like ah-z-ya or ah-zay-ya, but it's pronounced Asia. Like the continent.
Asia, like the continent, I say each time I introduce myself. It's my way of getting rid of confusion and lowering the chances of error. I picked up this tactic as a kid. A kid who always searched for blinking keychains at the souvenir gas stations, never finding my name. My name is not complicated. It’s Asia but spelled A-z-y-a. Given to me by my parents who can never agree on who came up with this unique spelling, but that's beside the point. The point is that you with the fancy degree, and a multitude of awards, the authority figure in the classroom, can’t recall my name for the life of you. And somehow you seem to get every Jake, Shelby, Vikky, Josh, Sam, Bradley, Rachel, Tori, and Charlie right but when it comes to me I am called the one other Black girl in the class. Who, I might add, I look nothing alike. You even go as far as to give me her graded papers. But let me also guess, “you don’t see color,” just like you don’t see me or her as two different people. I do my best to sit far away from her. And you still seemed to be confused. And so instead of us finding similarities between us we stay separated by the wedge you shoved between us. All I know that we have in common is a white teacher who refuses to get our names right.
Sincerely,
Azya, A fed-up Black Student
Best Hair
Class of Beauty: Schooled in the Culture, Yearbook Page 2023
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Best in Show
Class of Beauty: Schooled in the Culture, Yearbook Page 2023
