Critical Black Expressionism: A Womanist Manifesto

This thesis introduces Critical Black Expressionism (CBE) as a visual, spiritual, and intellectual methodology rooted in Black feminist traditions, ancestral knowledge systems, and artistic practice. Grounded in womanist theory and decolonial inquiry, the central argument asserts that Black women’s lived experiences, cultural memory, and spiritual cosmologies constitute a rigorous and sovereign framework for artmaking. Rather than borrowing from Eurocentric pedagogies, this approach draws from oral traditions, sacred ritual, and master-apprentice models that have long existed within African and African American communities. The Iyami Aje: Mothers + Witches collection is the visual embodiment of this research. Composed of multimedia sculptures, altar-based installations, and symbolic objects, the work explores Black maternal power, feminine cosmology, and ancestral presence through both material form and spiritual process. Each piece was developed through studio-based research, divination practices, and embodied storytelling. Materials such as jute, black-eyed peas, porcelain, and ritual oils carry historical, cultural, and metaphysical meaning. The collection centers two archetypes—The Great Mother and Big Mama in Rare Form—who serve as both subjects and methodological guides. CBE emerges from the making of this collection as both a practice and a proposition. It reframes mastery as relational, expands research to include embodied knowledge, and validates artistic creation as a site of theory production. As such, this thesis presents a new framework for understanding and evaluating Black art, not through the lens of the canon, but through the community's perspective. Critical Black Expressionism asserts that art is not merely a response to oppression, but a system of knowledge, inheritance, and future-building. It offers a methodology for artists working within and beyond the academy to reclaim creative sovereignty through culturally specific, spiritually grounded, and politically conscious practice.