The Sacredness of Black Lives: A Reaction to Harmonia Rosales’ "Master Narrative"

by Guesnerth Josue Perea

I was on the last day of a nine-day trip that took me to three countries and five cities to talk about various aspects of AfroLatinidad, often framed around framed around our original documentary, "Faith in Blackness.” Since I was in Atlanta on the last day, I made time in my schedule to visit Harmonia Rosales' new exhibit "Master Narrative" which is being exhibited at the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art.

Opening the exhibit is Toni Morrison’s definition of the master narrative from which Rosales pulls the title of the exhibit:

The master narrative is whatever ideological script that is being imposed by the people in authority...The master fiction. History. It has a certain point of view. So, when these little girls see that the most prized gift that they can get at Christmastime is this little white doll, that is the master narrative speaking. - Toni Morrison

The traditional master narrative, to use Toni Morrison’s definition, around Blackness and Black Lives is one that negates our importance, beauty and sacredness.

One of the things that this Harmonia Rosales exhibit is doing is changing that narrative; it is inverting the master narrative by placing Blackness not only at the center, but as the Divine.

The exhibit welcomes you by showing you three images of the Orishas as Black. Although visitors decide how to navigate through the exhibit, my experience began with how Harmonia Rosales deals with the middle passage, Maafa. What stood out was the way her art captured the pain and resilience of the Black people who were trafficked and the pain that the Orishas showed when not able to prevent Maafa.

A piece in the gallery, aptly named “Master Narrative,” is stunning. It is a boat turned upside down with art that resembles the art of the Sistine Chapel, albeit in a much smaller form and with exclusively Black bodies painted throughout. The boat is a reminder of how Black people were trafficked, but it also shows that there was beauty in those people who were kidnapped.

As one walks through the exhibit Rosales' depictions of the Orishas are impactful. Her decision to depict the Orishas as dark-skinned is significant because it challenges the way in which they have sometimes been whitewashed.

Harmonia Rosales' depictions of Adam and Eve immersed in their Blackness is something that is important as it lines up with our understanding of where life began in the world, Africa aka Alkebulan.

Lastly, seeing Harmonia Rosales' painting “Still We Rise” up close and personal and the fact that it was in a room on its own, invited contemplation on the meaning of Blackness, the suffering of Black Lives and the beauty and resilience of Black people.

“Still We Rise” Oil on Canvas, 60" x 55" © Harmonia Rosales

I came away with the impression that Harmonia Rosales is working to ensure that Blackness is seen as sacred. Her depictions of the Orishas do this easily since they are considered divine beings. When she paints the Virgin Mary as a Black woman, it is an easy connection to make. However, one thing that struck me as particularly important is how anyone who is not a deity or traditionally seen as divine is painted with a halo around their heads. Every single Black life throughout the gallery has a divine aura around them and this happens whether the painting is celebrating Blackness or dealing with issues of Black pain and suffering.

Harmonia Rosales is asking us to change the master narratives we hold within and that we tell ourselves, even as Black people. She is asking us to look at the divinity of Black Lives, not only in Black depictions of deities, but in depictions of quotidian Black people. She is communicating to all visitors that Blackness is divine, and that Blackness is sacred. This aspect, the sacredness of Blackness, is not usually mentioned by any of the narratives we traditionally hold.

In the documentary we released, José Humphreys III says something that has resonated with audiences: "Blackness is not a reference point to whiteness, our Europeanness… that it stands on its own within the ecology of beauty and grace." Harmonia Rosales communicates this in many ways through the exhibit, asking us to invert the master narratives we hold and hear, and to see the beauty, divinity, and sacredness of Black Lives.

Let it be so.

Guesnerth Josué Perea serves as Executive Director of the afrolatin@ forum, Co-Curator of the AfroLatine Theology Project, Co-Producer of the documentary "Faith in Blackness: An Exploration of AfroLatine Spirituality”, Co-Host of the podcast Majestad Prieta, and Associate Pastor at Metro Hope Church. His writings on AfroLatinidad have been part of various publications including Let Spirit Speak! Cultural Journeys through the African Diaspora, the Revista de Estudios Colombianos, and most recently Engaging Religion, a digital journal by Indiana University. Josué was once named by the newspaper amNewYork as one of five Colombians "making a mark" in New York City.