A key highlight and soothing aspect of the JuneteenthATL Festival and Parade, was the vigilance of maidens! Oh, the maidens! How wondrous a culture and people with their maidens! How they flourish when the maidens are allowed to work and enrich their communities, as they are supposed to. When those young women and girls are allowed to serve as the feminine, youthful, images, found in every culture. They are the ones, who re-create and re-birth the culture.
One of the most auspicious, healing, and therapeutic anecdotes for Black America is the vigilance of maidens. Showcasing Black American maidens is one of the most nurturing aspects for Black American people. Herstorically, the feminine image of Black America was purposefully made invisible in this country. In addition to being made invisible, she was presented as unfeminine and removed from traditional attributes of gentility, nurture, beauty, and sensitivity; character traits, associated with the essence of woman. It’s one of the most heinous crimes to ever happen against the herstory of woman. Even worse, is for her presence to be symbolically removed from the very culture that she had birthed. The fact that foreign maidens were considered more valuable than the actual maidens of Black America’s garden. To be made invisible in one’s garden, as others reap harvest they have not grown, or embody, is one of the most heart breaking, painful travesties to happen to a culture of women. Nevertheless, Black American maidens continued to create culture, and grow gardens.
Re-birthing even in impossibilities!
So, when experiencing the presence of fellow Black American maidens, in our own gardens, the glittery powder of #BlackGirlMagic comes to life! It’s contagious, and it spreads. Infecting every Black American maiden, who comes in contact with it!
Being at the 2019 JuneteenthATL Festival and Parade (held from June 14-16, 2019), Black American maidens were present and spread throughout the paradise. They were healers, health practitioners, business women, culinary geniuses, and darling fashionistas, who showcased the beauty and style of Black American womanhood.
At JuneteenthATL 2019, the feminine energy of Black America was lively, abundant, and nourishing. There was love and sisterly interactions among Black American women-young women at that! How beautiful and aesthetically pleasing to see a shared Sisterhood and communal unity among the maidens of a peculiar garden. An event which would have been an intrinsic showcase for viewers to see another side of Atlanta’s Black American wives and professionals.
It was fascinating to observe harmony among Black American women. That harmony, which naturally happens for Black American maidens when we find comfort, and are welcome in our gardens. When we are celebrated in our gardens, and viewed as having a garden to begin with. Feeling that one is re-connected to her femininity. That one’s place, and image, has a culture carried and birthed from her own existence. What a euphoric feeling!
Perusing the Home Depot Backyard spacing, I came across young, Black American maidens next to booths (and exhibitions), selling healing ointments; providing medicinal and therapeutic services to their community. Services of physical and massage therapy were also present for community members. Seeing Black America’s feminine image at work was a wonder in the realm of Black American mental health, and the progress being made for one’s well-being. It is a phenomenon in observing the work being done in Black American communities. And Black American maidens are performing a vital role in the efforts. They are (and have been) reclaiming their spaces and cultural gardens.
Black American maidens were given the opportunity to feel the nurture of their feminine presence; recognizing and celebrating within their garden and spacing. When Black American maidens and mothers are restored in the Black American community, the community begins the healing process. When images of Black American maidens and mothers are illustrated as the feminine energy of Black America, the community is elevated. To have the feminine and masculine principles re-aligned and in harmony with each other will be a major medicinal property for the mental psyche of Black American people-and future seedlings to come. When the maidens return, the future is secured. And in the Beauty of it all, the pains of a horrendous past. . .will slowly become no more!
“Maidens who returned to the gardens left for them by their mothers.”-Lauren K. Clark
