The Black experience, both within and outside of the United States, has been consistently problematized by those outside of the culture. The associated issues range from violent language and images to physical violence. As a result of this, ideologies and created identities -- neither of which are wholly authentic -- have sought to dominate the narrative and experience of Blackness. While these efforts may be appear to be successful on the surface, they are not all-encompassing. In “Toward the Black Interior,” humanities scholar and activist Elizabeth Alexander asserts that the discredited Black knowledge that is excluded from the social identities ascribed to Black people rests at the core of the Black interior (5-6). The interior, Alexander articulates is “an inner space in which Black artists have found selves that go far, far beyond the limited expectations and definitions of what blackness is, isn’t, and should be” (5). My research seeks to explain the nature of this space and how it is represented in Black art.
