The Brown Menagerie
Media: Glaze Ceramic & Aerosol Paint
Dimension: 10 in X 6 in X 15 in
Year: 2015
Photo by David Gary Lloyd
Brown is the color of rich soil. It is a composite color made by combining red, black and yellow. The color is widely seen in human hair color, eye color and skin pigmentation. It is also, according to public opinion surveys in Europe and the United States, the least favorite color of the public. “The Brown Menagerie” examines facets on race, sexism and fashion through an Afro-Caribbean lens.
For Aunt Jemima By Morel Doucet
Them torpedo titties hanging like two calla lilies
over blue flames soaked in bacon grease and eggs.
Don’t forget the hot sauce, take a sip.
Don’t’ forget the pancakes, taste the syrup.
Don’t forget the sadness, taste the pain -
taste the pain of the minstrel shows.
The sun
a bounty of ebonics
shines its rays like
a room full of too many windows opened
to the outside world. Them clouds
can’t protect you no matter how many times
you wash the rain out of them. Go seek day
with servile cheeks spread like first Sunday’s.
They curse you vile ebony
like dim morning laughter
to the midnight hangings of the antebellum south.
White folks be talkn’ bout yous remind them of home
yet yous been homeless, without a home. Your evenings
are spent hiding behind their back door kitchens
and dirty wardrobes.
When all the gold felled from the sun he gave you
that Carolina skin called Negro, but children marvel
at how you make slavery taste so good.
Tight rope- balancing the kitchen like chiefs in a potter‘s dance,
frying chicken is an art form –so you know your craft very well
guess Rastus won’t be learning anytime soon.
They thought you be that monkey-dress-hood-rat
singing the blue jay’s blue and cleaning their houses,
be careful black maiden that your backbone doesn’t become dust
lost to sand like time does when he becomes tired of hour.
Your liberation will come when the stars of Babylon lean
on your front porch and the wind scratches your dreams at night.