Art Presentations: Present Absence Design Meeting 3/8/2021

Present Absence

Design Team Agenda
March 8, 2021

I. 3 Poems by Raven Golston, Present Absence Poet

II. Site Visibility Questions

III. New Mural Prototypes by Owens Daniels

IV. Conversation

I. Poetry by Raven Golston

Narrative

It’s oral narratives, it’s framing pictures, it’s fragment pieces that collectively express its science, its humanities, it’s arts, it’s mathematics, it’s symphonies---

It’s justice in words and illustration that ring like the bass in a cello despite the softness of an aging voice as the stringing notes release the caged birds,

It’s thriving cities, and the song doesn’t come free though in unison as it connects and remembers, the narratives of an expansive community are non monolithic in location

Though each sounding song is familiar,

as ones’ Jefferson street is another’s East and 5th built up essentially like water to quench the missing, hemming the cracks of the soils through creation, through driven dedication, outseeks and groupings, gathering the community, proud to be warriors for seeds that harvest full,

There is a clinging to the bosom of knowledge never to be full---

as it’s oral narratives, it’s framing pictures, it’s fragment pieces that collectively express: it’s science, it’s humanities, it’s arts, it’s mathematics, it’s symphonies, are repeated rhythm and cadence;

It’s justice that rings like the bass of a cello despite the softness of an aging voice and the stringing notes then release the caged birds.

-Raven Golston

Fertility

When: 1930 to the growth of 1940.

Many faces with white teeth and plum skin wearing hats of prestige under the name dedication, the integration before integration was with Katie B,

To be excellent in the name of life, fighting for what was right against the inhumanities, because there was the sugary sweetness in some elements of human nature

There was nature from the headdress to the feet of each person's story

And how it is unique to the individual

How it is unique is indivisible

But how it is unique is what makes it worthy of being reliable

The plum skin from the cropper, to the laundry owner, to the doctor, to the nurse, to you

Deeper, and deeper, and deeper the root

Smiling plum skin faces, smiling peach tones, smiling because something was finally worthy of being known,

An integration before integration was with Katie B,

Plum on peach healing, black on black healing, and cream hands to create a fertility tree of everlasting youth

Development is the product of Katie B’s root

Smiling the truest genuinity as not one step was mynute.

As not one step was singular guidance to the temporary reliefs of laboring groups but infinite,

Infinite as a plum could heal another plum, as a reciprocity of a bee to its nectar milking out honey could produce a honey

And this is ever sweet

Because this excellence is ever so unique

Forget me not

Dedicated to Kate Bitting Reynolds

This is a forget me not,

I am worthy of being remembered in the many forms I came.

So remember the mark I left and draw another, and one more after that.

Frame my picture because my children and my children’s children’s children need to know

To remember the soils that which the flower blooms

The hands that sculpt the clay,

Play the rhythm of time and you’ll find exactly what I say,

See the notes?

I leave those as bread crumbs

To show you your people made a way.

Do not fold the corners of the pieces that shape you,

Uncrease the corners to discover the different shapes the same. A same that similarly makes you.

This is a forget me not,

Life carries on through you,

And one day you will say your forget me nots too.

To say, I am worthy of being remembered in the many forms I came.

So remember the mark I left and draw another, and one more after that.

II. Mural Visibility

The site for the mural is the Walter Marshall Building, home of the Department of Social Services. Originally designed as the second permanent home of Katherine Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital ("Katie B"), the building served that purpose only from 1969-1972, when it was closed because of integration. The mural will face Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, and is clearly visible from the Malloy-Jordan Heritage Center, the East Winston Branch of the Public Library, named for two doctors who worked at Katie B. Walter Marshall, by the way, was a long-serving County Commissioner and prominent leader in the NAACP.