Through creation, the repressed, suppressed, and lost identity can come about and be found again. A bold, maybe even confusing, statement. Follow me anyway. I’m going to explain why I say this. There have been plenty of moments in my life where I forgot who I was. I didn’t forget my name or anything literal like that, but I couldn’t honestly say I remembered much about who I was authentically. My sense of self was completely hollowed out by so many factors in life until I eventually hit a wall (several times). At a certain point, I realized that there was still some work that needed to be done when it came to finding myself again. A little over a year ago, I started to get back into prioritizing being creative. That was definitely not an easy challenge for me, but overtime, there was a lot of things that I did learn about myself. Eventually, I grew to be more comfortable with being expressive and true to myself in life. During that time, I wanted to have fun but still explore and learn from different questions that I had in general – regardless of the topic. One of the ideas that came to me as something to write about was the concept of one reclaiming their identity through creative expression. Admittedly, I had no idea how on how to go about it but I just felt that it needed to be discussed. Of course creativity can be a bridge towards understanding and even redefining oneself. There just wasn’t a way for me to properly articulate it, however I think I got an idea now of how to do it.
To reclaim your identity is to basically get back in touch with your essence; the truest parts of the self. Identity reclamation allows the opportunity to rediscover, reassert, and even redefine the very things that matter in one’s life. Whether if it’s their history, their values, or their selves. It’s also not limited to just one individual experience, but can happen on a collective scale. Creativity is one of many driving factors in reclaiming identity. The act of creation makes room for exploration, expression, and reflection. Quiet as kept, it can even serve as some sort of navigation. In an almost peculiar way, the act of creating is both the compass and the key to understanding, finding, and bringing back who we are at our very core.
After realizing this, if you could say that, I started to notice just how art (in its many forms) has been used to reclaim identity throughout time. When coming up with the idea to write about this subject, almost immediately, I began to think of the Harlem Renaissance. In part with The Great Migration, many freed African Americans started a new life away from the Jim Crow South. One of the many places they chose to create a new chapter was New York’s very own, Harlem. Among the estimated 100,000 forging a new way of life in the city were intellectuals, writers, performers, and artists transforming their former disillusionment into work filled with cultural expression and pride. The movement would last well into the mid 1930s and even be deemed as one of the most remarkable eras in American history. Through creativity and self representation, the Harlem Renaissance countered racial stereotypes and prejudices by redefining and reclaiming the black identity in America through Art.
It would seem like in our modern times, it is simpler than ever to create. Especially with the increasingly fast rate that technology is advancing, there are so many “convenient” ways to get an idea out into the world as a fully finished piece of work. However, I do want to be very clear when I say that, as we head into a world with added ease, it is even more important to remember just how necessary it is to choose to authentically create art (in any medium) and reclaim one’s own identity.
In my very specific case, it took a lot of soul searching, trial-and-error, and yes… even some falls from grace. With a world constantly in crisis, I had to learn to commit to life again. It’s kind of wild that as we age, we have to be introduced to the idea of intentionally living life. It is true though, because if we let it, the world can drain ever ounce of hope right out of you. This was something I’ve struggled with personally for quite some time and only recently figured out a way to push back. For me, creating anything (really, anything at all,) has always been a source of joy in my life. I love to write, I love to draw, and God knows just how much I love to DJ. There was a certain point last year where I just decided that no matter what, no matter how busy life got, I’m going to make an effort to have some fun for myself. Honestly, I did not expect how good for me that decision would end up being. Devoting myself to at least a small moment of creating provided a lot of relief and room to express myself, but it also really got me to think deeper about what I want to explore in life. I genuinely felt as if I was reconnecting with a version of myself that had all the time in the world to enjoy freedom while simultaneously creating a new version of myself that was more optimistic and confident that better times were ahead. Actively engaging with the process of creating really helped me to process the events occurring in my internal world and also the world in general. It got me to understand my own strength and resilience that I never quite noticed before. It has truly been empowering me to confidently reassert who I am at a time where it really doesn’t take much for someone else to tell you who you are or who you’ll become.
Signal + Void 