Society of Clotilda
MOBILE, AL
WE-Making is a suite of resources that explores the relationship between place-based arts practices and social cohesion as a means to advance health equity and community wellbeing. This We-Making story is one example of how place-based arts and cultural strategies uniquely contributed to social cohesion and wellbeing in this community. Throughout this story you’ll see terms paired with actions in parentheses (e.g., social capital, collective action, place attachment, civic engagement, self-determination of shared values). This is to denote for the reader how the WE-Making framework was specifically incorporated. Explore the WE-Making framework and resources.
From 2014-2020, there were 35+ domestic violence homicides of African American women in Mobile, AL. We waited for the outrage, the despair, the disgust. We waited and waited and waited. Hoping someone would do something. So, Jessica (co-founder) and I decided to do something. We wanted to reverse engineer everything we had learned about the anti-violence movement. We wondered what if we started with the end in mind — joy, love and healing.
We imagined the group as a Black Women and Girls’ collective rooted in the traumatic histories we share, globally and locally. Globally, Women of African descent have high incidents of sexual assault, domestic violence and other forms of interpersonal violence. In Mobile, Alabama, the legacy of slavery remains. Our city is the site of the last slave ship coming into the United States, illegally, the Clotilda. Mobile was also the site of the last reported lynching in the United States, the lynching of Michael Donald. Although we are rooted in trauma, The Society of Clotilda was inspired by our shared community celebration, Mardi Gras. Mobile is the birthplace of Mardi Gras in North America. Our goal is to change our shared trauma into a collective of joy (creative responses to trauma and racism).
When we started the Society of Clotilda, we wanted to center the health, wellness, joy and beauty of Black women. After months of meeting with black women in focus group and taking one-on-one meetings Black female community leaders (social capital- bonding), we learned that this initiative was the first of its kind. In our conversations, we were creating safe spaces and sister circles to discuss domestic violence and sexual assault in the Black community and creating a uniquely Black Female perspective rooted in the white male dominated Mardi Gras (place attachment- fostering a sense of belonging).
This is unlike anything you’ve seen before, a community of practice that mixes Mardi Gras and Black Girl Magic to solve a public health crisis. Rooted in deep joy, Society of Clotilda is a cultural experience centered on Black women that uses its proceeds to support our community initiatives for Black women. Since 2019, we have connected 300+ Black women online and in-person with actionable tools to take command of their lives and their communities’ health (civic capacity for structural change- creating platforms for socially excluded groups).
We are modeled after social and pleasure aid clubs that were popular in our community from the 1920s - 1960s. As community culture bearers, our goal is to redefine our traditions and celebrate our Black femaleness in Mobile (celebration and preservation of culture).
...Place-based arts and cultural strategies…
When we began this project in 2019, our goal was to disrupt the economic power of Mardi Gras and shift it. So monies could flow into the Black community for our social issues. We also wanted Black women and men to understand the horrors and pain of domestic-violence homicide in our community. As this project has evolved, what we are challenging and changing is the invisiblility of Black Women. Mobile is a majority
Black and female city, but our presence in economic, health and political leadership is limited. If we can be seen and heard around one issue, we can catalyze, coalesce and organize around many issues (civic capacity for structural and policy change- building social cohesion through participant ownership and aligning structural change goals to create collective efficacy).
Our challenge is that we don't see ourselves in these spaces. So we don't see ourselves in these spaces. Since 2019, we have conducted community phone calls with speakers on reproductive justice, economic justice, voters rights and finding our joy outside of oppressions. We created intergenerational healing circles, through our How I Wear My Crown series, to discuss what oppresses us, how to heal our hurts and how to advocate for self and others (social capital- bonding; mindset- connect people across difference, opening opportunities for community members to share experiences). In our latest iteration, we are working with The Kinfolk Effect to create a multimedia sculpture, reflecting our healing.
…amplify the drivers of social cohesion…
To create that world, we need to create spaces where Black women can tap into our ancestral lineage and understand our connection to this history. We need to create a space where Black women can heal our bodies, minds and spirits. In these spaces, we can release our guilt, shame, exhaustion and pain (place attachment- creating and sustaining attachment and sense of belonging). We can release our invisibility and see each other again in our full humanity. We can release all myths of Black woman-ness. Once we are present and filled with our power, our lights can shine. We can dream, imagine and completely feel joy. We can discover ourselves outside of white supremacy, trauma and oppression. We can now forge new paths for the young Black women behind us and show them the way, not for survival, but for growth and the betterment for womankind. Black women and women of color to unite and create new systems to establish a new world order.
Black women are the face of community leadership - economically, socially and politically. We are not just seen and heard. We are joyfully celebrating our cultural and community contributions. Our community is a reflection of our collective joy and healing.
…to increase equitable community well-being.
Through this process, each step has been intentional. The co-founders spent six months in community with each other. It was important for us to create expectations for each other and our relationship. So a healthy Black female relationship can be modeled. We also wanted to center our Black female leadership and how it can look different in this process. As we involved other women, we took time to discuss what makes us joyful, how we envisioned our future and what's needed for this new world (collective action- community participation designed to facilitate dialogue to increase community ownership). We took time to dream, imagine and reflect.
We created an ambassador's circle. We had a family-meal at a Black-owned restaurant (that has mostly white customers). We spotlighted our project with a beautifully decorated table, with specially selected colors, teal (sexual assault awareness) and purple (domestic violence awareness). We created a look book to celebrate our beauty. We had an all Black female crew (photographer, make up artist, set designer and models). While we were being adorned in capes and crowns, the group discussed our pains, our dreams and our joys. The joy emanated through the camera, in the photoshoot. We will continue to use varying modalities of art, as a method of healing.
This project advances racial justice by centering Black Women. We are creating the community that we want to reflect. We engage Black women as artists, ambassadors, consultants, focus group participants, collective members, etc. We believe in Black women, as leaders, economically, socially and politically.
