This mural can be seen in Kingston NY.

Written in circles around the woman on the left are lines of poetry by Mahogany L. Browne

“you black girl magic
you black girl flyy
you black girl brilliance
you black girl wonder
you black girl shine
you black girl bloom
And you turning into a
beautiful black woman
right before they eyes”

The screen on the phone shows the portrait of another Black Woman, Sojourner Truth. The words written around her head are from a speech that she gave at the Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio in 1851. Over one hundred and fifty years ago. Sojourner Truth was calling on Black women, and all women, to fight for the right to vote. The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave women that right but that didn’t come into being until 1920.

In a lot of ways, Sojourner Truth’s words ring true today. Has there ever been a time when women weren’t fighting for their rights in one way or another? The text:

“that man over there said women need to be helped into carriages and carried over ditches.
nobody ever helped me over a ditch or lifted me into a carriage
AND AIN’T I A WOMAN?
look at me! look at my arm!
I have ploughed, harvested and sowed and planted and gathered into barns, and no man could head me!
AND AIN’T I A WOMAN?
I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear trash as well.
AND AIN’T I A WOMAN?
I have born thirteen children, seen most all off to slavery and when I cried in my mothers grief no one but jesus heard me!
AND AIN’T I A WOMAN?
the first woman god ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn back and get right back up again!”

The mural was painted by Jess Snow and jetsonorama as part of the O+ Festival

Photos taken in July 2022