“As a disabled person, whenever I look at my Mom, I feel inspired and empowered. I refuse to give in to my anxiety and depression”
EQUITABLE OPPORTUNITIES FOR MARGINALIZED CREATIVE ARTISTS Sista Creatives Rising’s mission is to create equitable opportunities for women and non-gender-conforming people of color in art spaces. Claire points to statistics that indicate existing imbalances within the art world. A study published by the Public Library of Science in 2019 states that 85% of artists in museum collections are white, and 87% are men. This doesn’t align with the U.S. general population, which identifies as only 60.7% white non-Hispanic and 50.8% female. An article titled “It’s Official, 80% of the Artists in NYC’s Top Galleries Are White, and Nearly 20% are Yale Grads” by Henri Neuendorf directly addresses these disparities. She and Amaranthia explain that their work is important, not only to encourage and support women of color in the arts but to show the public that art from marginalized creatives is equally valuable. In addition to the annual virtual Art and Mind show, Sista Creatives Rising creates virtual workshops, participates in virtual speaking engagements, and consults with activists and arts organizations to address the lack of inclusivity and accessibility for disabled creatives.
things got bleak, such as when she had to sign a directive in case she was unable to speak or function after spinal surgery and when we were told she had a 50% chance of paralysis. After her surgery, her legs moved, and she began walking with help. She was told that she was in the rare 1% to walk again so soon after such a surgery.” Amaranthia remembers that the two broke down and had panic attacks several times. But Claire persevered and self-advocated, and her daughter knew that even if she had become paralyzed, she would continue to make the most of her life and never let society’s ableism tell her no. “As a disabled person, whenever I look at my Mom, I feel inspired and empowered. I refuse to give in to my anxiety and depression,” she says. After this experience, Amaranthia and Claire decided to focus the fall 2023 Art and Mind show on women of color who use their art for healing or advocacy within the healthcare system. “Mistrust, delay of care, and increased mortality are significant issues that Black women and men face. I feared how I’d be treated as an invisibly disabled Black immigrant woman,” Claire, who is also diagnosed with C-PTSD and other conditions, says. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges,
“We realized combining these concepts could become a much larger project, leading to Sista Creatives Rising”
“Realizing the importance and relevance of that moment, I stood at The Door of No Return, where my enslaved ancestors forcefully took their last steps off their homeland to board the ships that brought them to the Caribbean and the Americas as enslaved persons. Standing at the
door steeped in the traumatic history of my ancestors, I determined to break the patterns of the intergenerational legacy of abuse passed down through the generations to me. When Amaranthia was born, I raised her with this awareness,” says Claire. Sista Creatives Rising was birthed through Claire’s determination to make a difference in marginalized women’s lives and Amaranthia’s background in activist artwork. “In 2021, my mom and I came together to develop our virtual art show, Art and Mind. In 2021, our theme was ‘Reflections of Women, Femmes, and Our Mental Health During COVID,’ which combined the concepts of our previous projects,” says Amaranthia. Art and Mind was a fundraiser for Brain Arts, a Boston nonprofit working to create space for local marginalized communities by creating more equitable opportunities in the arts sector. During this virtual fundraising event, Amaranthia and Claire featured a dozen creatives through short films, showcased a therapist who gave free general guidance, a disability activist, and an activist musician at their virtual reception. “From there, we realized combining these concepts could become a much larger project, leading to Sista Creatives Rising,” Claire says.
only 5.7% of doctors in America are Black. According to the CDC, Black women are 3x more likely to die from childbirth. The Urban Institute had a study in 2020 that showed Black adult Americans reported medical racism at a rate of 10.6% compared to 3.6% of white adults and 4.5% of Latino adults. In that study, Black women and low-income folks experienced the highest rates of medical discrimination.
INCLUSIVE ART AS HEALING Accessibility and equity for the disabled is a high priority for both Amaranthia and Claire, inspired in part by Amaranthia’s disabilities and by Claire’s recent cancer journey. “A significant motivator for me in the last year was seeing my Mom defy the odds as she recovered from cancer treatment. She never gave up, even when
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