These Are My Heroes
- Kehinde Wiley, "Female Prophet Anne, Who Observes The Presentation
of Jesus on the Temple"
oil on canvas, 82-1/4" x 72" framed 2003
…those who have reached far into their pain, into the inner recesses of their sacred experiences, into the cut-throat negotiations of their social identities, and have brought forth representations of life marked with such startling poignancy, they simultaneously remind of life’s beauty, and of its pain. My heroes are those labeled “anti-heroes” who have dared interrogate the spaces culture has dictated they occupy, antiheroes who have awakened and like blossoming chrysalides, have broken society’s silken cords of restriction and strangulation, shaping for themselves and for progeny, a new vision of possibility and a radical reconfiguration of being. My heroes are those who have reached and have dared.
These are my heroes.
- dUNmoMi
(inspired by Kehinde Wiley)