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For Sula I chose a picture of Shug Avery, a character from the book and movie

The Color Purple. The reason I chose this woman in particular is because of how she can be compared to the main character Sula. Whenever I think of Sula and how she might look and act in a movie, my mind draws back to Shug and how she expresses her sexuality the same way that Sula does. They are both sexually free and honest about their sexuality. They are both obviously promiscuous but don’t see the shame in it that many people around them do. They don’t view sex as something that makes them dirty but rather as something for pure pleasure. This idea of being a sexually free black woman defies the stereotype that black women cannot be pure and enjoy sex.

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For the visual album Lemonade, I chose a spoken word titled “To This Black Woman Body Part 1” by Alyesha Wise. I chose this because of the way she talks about the black woman body in the same way that Beyonce does. They both talk about black women and their bodies as something holy and sacred and not up for debate and as something that can be used for power. Often times black women are scrutinized for their sexuality and are stereotyped into roles they must fit to be seen as sexually appealing. Beyonce refuses this ideology with Lemonade by letting her sexuality empower her in whatever way she wants and uses it as a “form of worship.” This shows black women in a new light, breaking the stereotypes placed on them.

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Alyesha Wise - "To This Black Woman Body, Part I"

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For the book Incidents I chose a picture titled Selling “Fancy Girls” from the domestic slave trade. “Fancy girls” were women that were considered beautiful to slave owners and they were more of a mistress to the husband than a slave. I connect this picture back to Incidents because of how Harriet was looked at by Dr. Flint. He made many sexual advances on her and wanted her to be his mistress and it was clear that he thought she was beautiful. I can also connect this picture back to my theme of sexual expression because although Dr. Flint saw her this way, she never even talks about her looks or her sexuality. This is a form of sexual expression because of what she is choosing to keep private. Her sexual expression includes her not revealing anything sexual about her. This is a resistance to the sexual exploitation of black women then and still today.

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For the novel Kindred, I chose a picture of the Emancipation Statue located in the island of Barbados. I chose this powerful image because it shows a slave breaking the chains that bounded him. I connect this back to Dana breaking her chains with Rufus at the very last moment between them. It is a very powerful moment because of how Rufus is about to do the one thing Dana fears the most, rape. This can be connected back to Dana’s sexual expression and her utmost refusal to let Rufus to have that type of power over her body. Dana is conflicted throughout the novel with Rufus’s behavior and how she should handle it but it is in those moments right before the attempted rape that Dana takes complete control over what’s going to happen. Dana is essentially breaking the chains from Rufus by murdering him and this is displaying that black women can take full control of their bodies.

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Sula, Kindred, Incidents, and Lemonade are all texts that explore the theme of sexual expression and challenges readers to think about what it means to be sexually free and how that defines black womanhood.