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Joe Minter’s Old Rugged Cross sits tall, demanding your attention. Sorrow best describes my first emotion. I circled the sculpture, mesmerized by the signs of life this piece seems to evoke. The moss grown on the crosses, the weathered color shifts, the faded red paint, the nails jutting out.Reading and understanding that this piece is in memory of the four black schoolgirls killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, sent me through four phases of grief; numbness, yearning, despair, and rebirth.Addie Mae Collins
Cynthia Wesley
Carole Robertson
Carol Denise McNairViewing this piece, this symbol of racism’s chokehold, I experienced a moment of spiritual movement. I reflected on being a Muslim moved by a christian symbol and I was reminded that God’s love and influence is universal. And I thank Joe Minter for this reminder.

Minter speaks often about the messages of God and the blessing of Black Americans, to whom he refers to as Africans in America. Minter’s work as a peacemaker and sculpture connect deeply with the themes of this show. Origins, Communal Ritual, Foresight, and Spiritual Reflection. His African Village from which this piece, Old Rugged Cross, originated from is a testimony to the very essence of this show.

This piece being from Minter’s yard exhibit, African Village, brings me to my African origins.
The creation of art in response to tragedy is a practice of communal ritual.
This reminder of the burning hole that is racism is foresight for the American future without dramatic change.
The symbolism of death in the crosses, resembling a headstone, brings me to spiritual reflection.

It is fitting that this piece sits in the opening of the exhibit against the red, white, and blue of Thornton Dial’s Royal Flag. Truly I am in the presence of my ancestors.

For my altar offering, I give my response, Rugged, a digitally drawn one-page abstract comic that captures my emotions on initially viewing Joe Minter’s Old Rugged Cross; numbness, yearning, despair, and rebirth. The imagery is stark and dramatic to evoke the weight of these emotions.