@tessamaethompson

As we Say Her Name today grateful to @njidekaakunyilicrosby for this work and some of the words shared (see below): This painting is in honor of #BreonnaTaylor, who was killed a year ago today—in celebration of her life, and in sadness about her death and her future that was violently taken from her and her loved ones. I wanted to suggest an encompassing perception of who Breonna was as an individual so I filled the painting with many significant details about her. It’s telling that most of these details have to do with her close relationships—a treasured necklace she inherited from her grandmother, a toy her dad crocheted for her, a framed image of Breonna seeing her sister off to prom. While brainstorming the title, the joyful images of Breonna with loved ones kept reminding me of a quote from @kieselaymon ‘s memoir: “This that black abundance. Y’all don’t even know.” Breonna valued her family and friends and was valued in turn by them; was an integral part of her social circles; and was an individual with, per her social media posts, emotions, fatigue (from working extra shifts), and aspirations (e.g marriage, parenthood). These dreams of hers brought me back to Laymon, who’d recently noted that it was superlatively awful that the police killed Breonna while she was dreaming. Laymon’s opinion then called to mind the “dream deferred” of Langston Hughes’s poem “Harlem.” Eventually I came to the word “vital,” which describes so many facets of Breonna: her importance both to her family and friends and to the national uprising; the fact that she was essential as a healthcare worker during the pandemic; the vital signs she would’ve checked as an EMT; her vital signs that would’ve given out as she succumbed to her wounds; her life-giving (or -sustaining) capacities as an EMT and intentions as a future parent. With all this in mind, I titled the piece Breonna Taylor: Vital, Dreaming.

March 13, 2021