The Clayton Sisterhood Project: The Freedom In Sprouting From Our Ancestors' Wildest Dreams

Watching my sisters become mothers and nieces become women has only reminded me of the tender care necessary to enlighten the feminine divine. Together we are made from the dreams of our elders and sprout from the branches of their wildest imaginations.

At the tender age of 4, my arms were covered with lace gloves draping over my legs, propped for a camera. On my grandmother Lillie's white wooden bench, I sat alongside my sisters, our smiles as wide as a lavender field. It was my grandmother's way of documenting the family she's created. We would continue to take portraits on the same bench for years to come as tradition, similarly to waiting two weeks for the disposable film to come back from the local drug store—filled with anticipation. Prints stuffing the corners of our family albums, I wasn't aware this was the beginning of my love for analog photography, print, and the historical importance of archiving.

In the face of each woman in this series, you will experience a glimpse of our collective future—the future of our Black communities. One best informed by our past. Black women have been at the backbone of our radical revolutions, allowing for us to constitute our own definition of freedom.

In the sound above you will hear the echoes of laughter and warm hearted banter during a Steven's family gathering. Laughter illustrates our autonomy over freedom as Black women and children. Freedom is heard in our instruments, paintbrushes, laughter, shouts, stomps, poems, and photographs.

Freedom is heard in our instruments, paintbrushes, laughter, shouts, stomps, poems, and photographs. In our education system, we aren't taught enough about our creative foremothers such as bell hooks, Ntozake Shange, Alice Walker, and more.

We've sprouted from the seeds our grandmothers and ancestors have built, branching strong and far. Though through my two sisters' lead of buying a home to raise their families together on Southern land, it's apparent this ideal isn't lost.

In the sound above you will hear more of the laughter, voices, and joy flowing within Steven's family. In this joy, you see a glimpse of the beginnings of our flourishing collective future.

I hope introducing these legacies will inspire my nieces, as it has when my grandmother did the same when I was growing up. Black women, Black motherhood, and Black ancestry are the beautifully indestructible roots to who we are in our Black communities today.

In the above sound you will hear Steven's family chat with laughter about collected memories held within photos. These memories nurture legacies that will continue to sprout its invaluable roots for generations of Black women to come.