Standing Firm, Exploring Identity and Resistance in 'I Will Not Bend an Inch' (6 Points)

Activity Category: Cultural Exploration & Academic Enrichment

Points: 6 

    With each visit to Nancy Elizabeth Prophet's I Will Not Bend an Inch, I felt the work endear itself to me in unexpected ways. Prophet (1890–1960) was an Afro-Indigenous sculptor, the first African American to graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1918, and later a teacher at Spelman College in the 1930s.        One piece I kept returning to was Discontent (1929), carved in magnolia wood. The fabric wrapped around the head and neck suggests concealment and suffocation—what Prophet herself described as a "gnawing hunger for the way of attainment." To me, this work embodies the tension of Black womanhood: the outward simplicity required in a world structured by whiteness, which juxtaposes inward complexity, and then negotiating identity. It echoes Du Bois's idea of double consciousness, a core ADW concept, where Black people must balance how they see themselves versus how they are perceived.      In the catalog for this exhibit, Kelly Taylor Mitchell perfectly encapsulates this: "To wear the mask, concealing one's Blackness and/or Indigeneity, is an act of self-protection that carries risk… In Prophet's untitled masks, which so clearly convey whiteness, the eyes are open, but they would be non-functional for the wearer. This incapacity suggests the failures of masking: its unsustainability, its built-in limitations." This insight encapsulates what I see in Prophet's work: the impossibility of hiding or erasing identity, and the deep discomfort that comes from living in a world where you are forced to try.       Nancy Prophet uses a theme of outward simplicity and inward struggle to describe the battle of Black womanhood. We can see her reference this again in one of her works, Silence. Prophet places a white head beside a Black head. The white figure suggests clarity and dominance as the words inscribed on the plaque are "I feel so much in contact with myself". In contrast, the Black figure may reflect the world's perception of the Prophet, where she is the most before an artist or an activist is Black. She remains defined by racial identity in the eyes of the world. This juxtaposition raises the problem of representation and erasure: whose knowledge counts, and whose perspective is silenced? To me, Prophet highlights how society imposes value based on status while ignoring shared humanity. She critiques racial formation and the myths surrounding Black existence.   Christine "Cycy" Cherestal