Kyerra Preston-Ervin

For my Independent Study I created a muralist form of a story from the point of view of a Black person. One way of looking at it is as pieces to mysteries that reflect deeper topics than just Black representation, but not quite a picture book. The storyteller is not just myself, but others who share my skin and culture. No masks or puppets in this story unless we use them. Sometimes a picture is more than a thousand words.

This story is also about me in some ways and something special about it is that it is raw, uncut, vulnerable, and relatable. This story is a bridge from my world to yours. This artistic experience is a journey of empowerment, activism, embracement, love, activism, beauty and so much more; a lot like a book I read. It conveys what I see beyond the abstractness of it all. The color Black translates to dark, wicked, gloomy, absence of light, sinister, grime, distorted, etc. Compared to White which translates to light, clean, free from color, innocent, favorable, free from spot or blemish, transparent, etc. Even though this is entitled “Black Story”, I use color because people who look like me are mistaken because of perceptions that are influenced by a lot of the wrong reasons; just like the creators that try to define us in books and so on. Such a story does not give you choices of taking the blue or red pill; you're forced to see how deep the rabbit hole goes.