[ Janeill Cooper ]

“a little more magic v.01,” is an in process solo work that questions how Black womanness is governed in ways that leave little room for the Black woman to experience herself as a complete human being, and prevents her from being perceived as such from the outside. The work comments on and questions how some of these concepts, from tropes such as the Angry Black Woman or the Loud Black Woman, and conversely the uplifting Black Girl Magic movement of which the work’s title alludes, in their own ways, apply pressures on the Black woman and dictates her experiences, relationship to herself and relationships with others. Inspired by feminist texts, specifically by that of Morgan Jerkins, seeing how Black women are portrayed in reductive ways in the media with great frequency and from my own personal experiences, I confront the effects of these pressures on my body. The work seeks to challenge the misrepresentation of the Black woman identity and vocalize and validate the multifacetedness of the Black woman experience, in all of its universalities and differences.