The Importance of Art in the Black Community of San Diego
by Clovis Honore
The heart, soul and history of a people is found in the cultural expressions that last. Write a book. Paint a mural. Create a musical piece. These artistic threads of our lives that are weaved into the tapestry of the community in which we live will describe and define who we have been, who we are now and who we strive for ourselves and our children’s children to be.
Whether out of the deep and abiding love that family and neighborhood instill in our hearts, or the pain and anguish of system of oppression we endure and overcome, these profoundly spiritual expressions of both self and surroundings give texture, depth and hue to our being and resonate throughout our environment and far beyond.
These culturally sensitive revelations will be found in color and silhouette on the walls, in the dress, through the windows, in the street art and conversations of the residents all around the community, from the baby rocking back and forth with the rhythms of of the day, to the youthful couple sharing the rhythms of their heartbeats in contemporary attire, to the elders walking together down the street for the thousandth time.
Art is culture. It is who we are.
