Crowns in Chaos
Dear Diary Collaboration
Dear Diary of Madison is committed to fostering a community in which Black and Brown girls feel supported, competent, and safe. The “Crowns in Chaos” mural is a culmination of a collaboration between Dear Diary Teens, The Bubbler at Madison Public Library, and artist Shiloah Symone Coley.
This work speaks to the wholeness Black women experience when supporting one another for exactly who they are. Living as a Black young woman in the Madison area can feel extremely isolating, but living as Black young women, together, can bring a sense of strength and understanding.
STATEMENT
We are a group of strong and independent young women. We are very cool.
When we work together, we get stuff done and do our work with passion and pride. We each have different strengths as well as our own personalities. Our identities as Black women is empowering and eminent.
The mural as a whole represents Black sisterhood, and a support between Black young girls. I interpret a sense of calmness yet chaos in different parts of the mural. The braids symbolize peace and safety. The vines and their color scheme is important. It adds a pop of color, the thorns are pink. Norms of “femininity” have not always been kind to Black women. Sometimes what might seem harmless to others is severely oppressive to us. The two girls are protecting and looking out for each other. It shows how people within the Black community have to look out for one another. This mural brings so much to schools. I hope this mural expresses a sense of acknowledgement to Black girls and their identities.
Working on this mural has meant gaining friendships and feeling comfortable with being who I am around others. I am proud of the work we have done as a group. We have created a safe space for Black girls and have given each other respect and appreciation for being ourselves.
This group has amazing music taste.
This group's convos are the funnest I’ve had in a while.
This group has all different styles!
This group is very supportive.
This group is full of really funny people.
This group is really artistic.
This group has a comforting feel to it.
This group doesn’t always have that awkward silence.
This group consists of queens and a sense of sisterhood in ways that other groups or spaces are lacking in.
The mural means pretty much everything to me.
- Aviana, Kadence, Sariyah, Allycia, and Sydney
(Dear Diary of Madison teens)
ABOUT THE LEAD ARTIST: SHILOAH SYMONE COLEY
Shiloah Symone Coley (@blckslimshady) is an artist, researcher, and writer committed to community-engaged practices - which she sees as inseparable from her studio practice. Shiloah uses the arts as a tool for liberation and agency-activation with system-impacted youth. Her studio research is in identity deconstruction + reconstruction on the individual, familial, and community level via assemblage, collage, painting, and comic-making.
