There are multiple narratives,” she continues, “but the whole narrative is a push and pull toward and away from freedom.” Gay, like Walker, has a remarkable ability to describe complex stories in a way that prompts both emotion and clarity. Of her selection, Kara Walker’s enormous drawing Christ’s Entry into Journalism, Gay says, “In many ways she has managed to, in a series of figures, depict the whole of African American history on one canvas.
In this episode of The Way I See It, our radio collaboration with BBC, we’ve invited author and cultural critic Roxane Gay into our galleries to discuss a work of art that inspires her. There is a lot of productive work that happens in these uncomfortable spaces where we are forced to confront history. And it is important that you don’t look away-that you sit in that discomfort.
Many of the images are difficult and painful and they’re supposed to be.
