Day 11 / The First Time
Channell Phillips, The Muse: Christen Harvey, 2020. Photo by Zamani Feelings. From The first time, ever I saw your face, a collaboration between the Colored Girls Museum and Slought, curated by Michael Clemmons, Vashti DuBois and Ian Friday with video installations by Erica Hawkins. Photograph provided by The Colored Girls Museum, Philadelphia
THE FIRST TIME, EVER I SAW YOUR FACE
I THOUGHT THE SUN ROSE IN YOUR EYES
AND THE MOON AND THE STARS
WERE THE GIFTS YOU GAVE
TO THE DARK, AND THE ENDLESS SKIES
MY LOVE
— PERFORMED BY ROBERTA FLACK (1972), LYRICS BY EWAN MACCOLL
In this photograph taken at The Colored Girls Museum (TCGM) in Germantown, Philadelphia, Christen Harvey holds a portrait of her younger self painted by her mother, the artist Channell Phillips. The portrait lovingly captures a fleeting moment of Black girlhood. As Harvey stands behind her portrait and beside a dress that no longer fits, we are invited to see her through a maternal lens—as a daughter maturing before our eyes.
The portrait was featured in the exhibition The first time, ever I saw your face — a reference to a folk song of the same name popularized by Roberta Flack in an iconic 1972 recording. Curator Vashti DuBois explained the impetus for the exhibition was to elevate a particular way of seeing black girls through the eyes of black women artists. “The first time, ever I saw your face is a love letter to the ordinary colored girl, and an exercise of having black women look at black girls, to elevate their girlhood. Black girlhood is not a protected space. Black girls are not ascribed the humanity that we provide other people’s children. No matter how young she is, she is evaluated through the lens of adulthood.” An alternate view of young Black girlhood is offered here, one that preserves tenderness and intimacy and elevates a particular way of seeing Black girls with love. The exhibition helps us recognize our shared responsibility in seeing, honoring, and ensuring the safety of the “ordinary colored girl.” We can sense the love and care that suffuse Phillips’ portrait of Harvey.
reflections
How can we cultivate more space for love and sanctuary in our lives?
As DuBois asks, “What happens to us when we look long enough at someone to see them? What happens when we look long enough to see ourselves? What can we see when we look with love?”
As a patient, who has looked at you with love? How can you find strength in being seen at your most vulnerable moments?
Sources
DuBois, Vashti and Aaron Levy. “The First Time, Ever I Saw Your Face.” Slought Foundation. Last modified February 26, 2021. slought.org/resources/the_colored_girls_museum.
Herr-Cardillo, Starr, et al. “The Ordinary Extraordinary: Making History Tangible at the Colored Girls Museum.” Hidden City Philadelphia, February 18, 2021. hiddencityphila.org/2021/02/ the-ordinary-extraordinary-making-history-tangible-at-the-colored-girls-museum.
Vashti DuBois, email message to Aaron Levy, March 8–12, 2021.
