Kerry James Marshall (1955 – ) was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and moved to the Watts neighborhood of L.A. just before the riots. He went to the Otis College of Art and Design there and became a renowned artist and professor now based in Chicago. His accolades include being named one of Time magazine’s most influential people in the world in 2017. It is easier to name museums and collections his work is not included in rather than where it is. In 2023, two commissioned stained-glass windows by Kerry James Marshall were installed in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

Bang is representative of his treatment of black figures and experience. He often works in large scale. This acrylic and collage on canvas measures approximately 7 feet by 10 feet.

Kerry James Marshall pulls us face to face with realities we may not see or understand. He names the cultural divide and the walls it can build even when we are trying to move to the beloved community. There is our deep unknowing to realize on one hand and our belief in healing love to hold in the other as we struggle with our privilege and what has been done in our name. This piece may be an ode to that struggle.

Marshall seems to invite us to contextualize figures, setting, color and caption here painting sweet white “doves,” a bright sun, and pale pink 4^th of July clouds as frames. Between these, children recite a pledge to “liberty and justice for all” that they may never know. One might imagine doubt in their seemingly rote, uncomfortable postures, even in this somewhat white suburban setting their family may be counting on. What do you see?

May we face what we do not deserve and what these children do as we look at this 32-year-old piece. May both liberty and justice rain down in our prayers and our calls as we do.  Amen.

In gratitude, faith and hope,