Keeper of My Mothers’ dream will expand the dialogues began in Crown Storm’s works Her Name is Laura Nelson and Be/Coming with newly commissioned pieces. Her Name is Laura Nelson is Quilt i from The Lynch Quilts Project Series, which explores the history and ramification of racial violence in America, particularly lynching, through the textile tradition of quilting. This quilt explores the intersection of lynching and gender violence. While Bel/Coming is the first in the series Masquerade Americana, this piece is rooted in the various masquerade traditions found throughout Africa, particularly Gelede (Gail-lah-day) and Egungun honors one’s ancestors.

This new pieces include a bronze casting of the pelvic bones of an unknown African American woman, other womb-shaped objects that will be placed in an interactive installation, and new writings by poet and priest Abegunde. Crowne Storm’s continued collaboration with Abegunde adds new layers to the experience in words and performances that examine how the abuse , loss and commodification of ones’s womanhood and humanity can be transformed through processes that lead to healing and the rebirthing and re/making of identity. Grounded within the context of community co-creation efforts each of the pieces exhibited in Keeper of My Mothers’ Dreams was developed with the hands of many, like the new womb-shaped objects, which were given to selected artists to complete their transformation. Throughout the run of the exhibition the Indianapolis community will have opportunities to dive deeper into the themes vis participation in collaborative aspects of the work and special programming.