Softly Softly Expressions

"In a place both mystical and real, we gather to untie the dehumanizing tethers of the myth of the strong black woman. It is a place where narrative is queen & art is medicinal. That place is Softly, Softly Expressions. It is a reclamation of our lives."

-Maria Fenton, creator
 
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Softly, Softly Expressions is a powerful conglomerate of artistic mediums:film, ballet production, art exhibition, readings, and fashion collection centering Black women's humanity.  It illuminates Black women’s costly, treacherous & seemingly mythic composure as they navigate life. Created by multi-hyphenate artist and Howard University professor, Maria Fenton, it touches on race, gender, suicide prevention, domestic violence, mental health, politics, and more. Softly, Softly is a both a battle cry and love story about the grace, reality, & magic of Black women and their often invisible embattled journey.
  

Softly Softly: Debunking the Myth of the Strong Black Woman a powerful feature length docufantasy film that centers around the humanity of Black women directed by Mignotae Kedege & Maria Fenton. Through the use of dramatic vignettes told through dance with theatrical performance, it puts into words, images, conversations & movements what has squarely sat on the shoulders of Black women projecting an unmanageable misnomer of strength for too long.

Softly Softly: the Ballet, punctuated with poetry, a narrative contemporary choreopoem ballet linguistically heightened with ASL. SSB tells the story of Sis, a fictional Black Woman & the circle who fight alongside her in her battle confronting the swarm of systemic, generational & contemporary obstacles. SSB vacillates between clarion call & war cry, serenade & lullaby. 

Softly Softly: Poetical, a series of poetry and prose in three acts by Maria Fenton. It embodies, prefaces & extolls the namesake poem, Softly Softly.

Softly Softly: Sightings, an exhibition that shares the collection of reclaimed stories, experiences, & nuanced knowings via sculpture, photography, short film, & contemporaneous artifice capturing the lifeline of Softly Softly extended through the art continuum's call & response to Softly Softly Expressions in its myriad forms.

Softly Softly: the Collection, a sartorial response to the pregaming, birthing, development & reflection of the namesake expressions. Designs by EmmaEffa.