In our society we have a skewed idea of light and dark, good and bad, that translates even to how we relate to skin color and the place it puts you in society. We also have some extremely violent, ingrained ideas about fat bodies—Black bodies in particular—that we need to get very honest about in order to create change.
In this week’s episode Courtney Alexander, creator of the Dust II Onyx tarot deck, joins me to discuss light and dark, spirituality, and defying the expectations and harm imposed on fat Black womxn through art, expression, and love. She also gives some major manifesting tips for Black folx in particular that defies the mainstream white [supremacist] spiritual teachings.
Courtney Alexander is a multimedia artist, writer, and publisher with a Bachelor’s in Studio Art from the University of South Florida, living and working in Tampa, FL. Alexander’s work began with decontextualizing issues of duality, hypersexuality, and self-awareness through exploration of fatness; a personal dialogue which served to facilitate vulnerability and explore the complex nature of her existence. In 2016, Alexander made history as the first black person to successfully publish and distribute a tarot deck, the widely acclaimed Dust II Onyx—crowdfunding over via Kickstarter. Through a series of 78 mixed media paintings, she collects the shards of her identity as a black/fat/queer woman and pieces them into a mosaic of works that present blackness as universal-spirit. “I reimagine a timeless ancient world intrinsically intertwined in this modern realm, birthed from a place of nothingness that is also simultaneously everything. A non-binary world where I see myself, reflections of blackness, and darkness, as powerful and eternal.” She is dedicated to the reclamation of public and art spaces for black folks and other marginalized viewers through creating participatory displays of transformation and liberation.
Connect with Courtney at:
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