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A WOMB OF VIOLET: Magnitude and Bond

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Artist at Work x 4CPA | A Womb of Violet

Magnitude and Bond

Located in Downtown Newark’s historic Halsey Street, at 10 stories high, the collaborative Magnitude and Bond is now one of the tallest and most impressive murals in the city . It celebrates Gladys Barker Grauer and Breya Knight, two esteemed figures in the rich history of arts and poetry in Newark.

The mural was created by A Womb of Violet, a Black women’s artist collective of writers, poets and visual artists that include fayemi shakur, Jasmine Mans, K. Desiree Milwood, Bimpe Fageyinbo, Jillian M. Rock, Shekia Norris, Dr. Antoinette Elllis-Williams, Margie “Mia X” Johnson, Kween Moore, Jennifer Mack-Watkins and muralists Laqya Nuna Yawar and Kelley Prevard. The title of the mural is inspired by a quote by poet Gwendolyn Brooks: “We are each other’s business; we are each other’s harvest; we are each other’s magnitude and bond.”

Magnitude and Bond featured in Phase I of the Four Corners Public Arts (4CPA) project.

Magnitude and Bond, a mural on Halsey Street in Newark’s downtown

About A Womb of Violet

A Womb of Violet is a collective of Black women writers and artists from Newark, New Jersey. These cultural practitioners both reflect back on, and propel forward the long legacy of poetry, music, and art in Newark. They come together to embrace, critique, and share their histories and the histories of the city. Members also contributed to A Womb of Violet: An Anthology, a Black feminist/womanist risograph art book edited by fayemi shakur and published in March 2019 as part of the 2019 Project for Empty Space Feminist Incubator Program.

Layqa Nuna Yawar is a public artist and multidisciplinary storyteller based in the unceded lands of the Lenni-Lenape: current day Newark, NJ. His work is best known for large scale community-based murals, intricate portrait paintings and multimedia projects that center the complex narratives of immigrant, black, indigenous and subaltern populations. His artwork aims to disrupt established semiotic systems and reimagine them in service of shared liberation and a better future.

Kelley Prevard is a self-taught visual artist, born and raised in Atlantic City. Influenced by social, historical, and cultural events, her art explores themes related to gender, race, and beauty in our society.

Follow @awombofviolet on Instagram.

TRANSCRIPT

LAYQA: As a muralist working in public space it’s important for me to work with others. My work only speaks as powerfully as it is created. So for this mural, what we did was collaborate.

fayemi: The title of this mural is Magnitude and Bond. It features two key figures, Gladys Barker Grauer and Breya BlkBrry Molassez Knight. We wanted to celebrate the significant cultural contributions that they made to our north arts community and our poetry community.

KWEEN: I contributed a body of work for little girls that were placed in Haiti that wanted a piece of what we have at our fingertips, which is the freedom to be able to create. And those are the two young ladies you see pictured behind me. I think it’s important that everyone knows that we have a contribution that’s major. Other than just painting, we have a bigger contribution to life.

About Four Corners Public Arts

Four Corners Public Arts was initiated in 2019 through a public/private partnership convened to support public arts initiatives in Newark’s historic district “Four Corners”. The partnership includes The City of Newark, Invest Newark, Newark Arts, Newark Downtown District, Paramount Assets, and RBH Group. The partnership evolved out of a common interest to give care to under-acknowledged areas of the City through the arts, with the goal of cultivating creative communal space for everyone. At a time when Newark is undergoing a marked transformation, the partnership believes it is imperative to create opportunities that strengthen the local creative community.