the renaissance negresse museletter: art | inspiration | community by Cassendre Xavier: July 2014

Friday, July 18, 2014

Diary of a renaissance negresse - 17 July 2014 Part 1 of 3

Diary of a renaissance negresse - 17 July 2014 - Part 2 of 3

Diary of a renaissance negresse - 17 July 2014 - Part 3 of 3

: Name: Cassendre Xavier; Location: New York City, NY, United States

Haitian/Chinese-American multi-media artist Cassendre Xavier coined the term "renaissance negresse" in 2002. A musician, writer, actress, and visual artist, Xavier (who sometimes works under the names Amethyste Rah and Amrita Waterfalls) says the term describes a black woman who is skilled or gifted in 3 or more arts. Xavier is a recipient of a Leeway Transformation Award for her work as a community cultural arts advocate, having founded and directed several Philadelphia arts initiatives including the Women's Writing & Spoken Word Series (Est. 2002) and the Black Women's Arts Festival (Est. 2003). She is originally from Brooklyn, NY and has resided in Philadelphia since 1990. ["Negresse, Negre: In the French- and Spanish-speaking Caribbean Islands, these words often have a connotation of affection, entirely non-racial in meaning. `Ma petite negresse, mon negre, are equivalent to `My dear, my darling, my sweet.'" [From Masters of the Dew, a contemporary classic novel by the Haitian author Jacques Roumain, translated by Langston Hughes and Mercer Cook.]

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the renaissance negresse museletter: art | inspiration | community by Cassendre Xavier

Friday, July 18, 2014

Diary of a renaissance negresse - 17 July 2014 Part 1 of 3

Diary of a renaissance negresse - 17 July 2014 - Part 2 of 3

Diary of a renaissance negresse - 17 July 2014 - Part 3 of 3

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