The Brown Menagerie

Media: Glaze Ceramic & Aerosol Paint
Dimension: (Left)  9 ½ X 4 X 4 1/8, (Middle)  10 X 4 X 4 1/8 , (Right)  7 ½ X 4 X 4 1/8
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, taste the tip

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