BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors debuts LA performance artwork featuring her leading group of women in matching white dresses tied together by their HAIR
BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors has made a rare public appearance in a performance art piece featuring a parade of women in white dresses tied together by their hair.
The California-born creator of the BlackLivesMatter hashtag led a procession of nine women as they walked from the UCLA Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden to the Fowler Museum in a Los Angeles spectacle watched by thousands.
The performance, known as Ori Whispers, marked the opening of the museum’s exhibition on the Yoruba diaspora: people from Nigeria, Benin and Togo in West Africa who crossed the Atlantic to Brazil, Cuba and the US.
The museum described the “visually and spiritually dynamic procession” Saturday as “a celebration of the power and strength of the black femme Ori.”
In her Saturday performance, Cullors went barefoot and wore an off-white ankle-length dress with gauze sleeves as she led the procession of women, as they were all tied together by long black braids of hair.
Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of BLM, has made a rare public appearance in a performance art piece featuring a parade of women in white dresses connected by their hair
The California-born creator of the BlackLivesMatter hashtag led a procession of nine women as they walked from the UCLA Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden to the Fowler Museum in a Los Angeles spectacle watched by thousands of people
The performance, known as Ori Whispers, marked the opening of the museum’s exhibition focusing on the Yoruba diaspora: people from Nigeria, Benin and Togo in West Africa who crossed the Atlantic to Brazil, Cuba and the US.
She looked expressionless as she walked with the other eight women following behind her, wearing brighter white dresses and Crocs.
Ori is a Yoruba metaphysical concept that connects the themes of ‘consciousness, individuality and spiritual intuition’, according to the museum.
The museum’s new exhibition, titled The House Was Too Small: Yoruba Sacred Arts from Africa and Beyond, features a multimedia installation by Cullors titled Free Us.
Cullors, 40, co-founded BLM in 2013 before resigning in 2021
Cullors, 40, became a co-founder of BLM in 2013 before stepping down in 2021. The movement began in the courtyard of her Los Angeles home.
Now the national organization of Black Lives Matter is at risk of bankruptcy after its finances plunged $8.5 million into the red last year — while simultaneously handing out seven-figure salaries to several employees.
It comes as it emerged in May that 33 per cent of Black Lives Matter’s $90 million donations collected found its way to charities, a report said.
The group distributed approximately $30 million between 2020 and 2022, during which time it raised $90 million in donations while promoting itself as the preeminent civil rights organization in the US.
Benefactors of BLM’s meager donations included friends and family of Cullors, particularly her graffiti artist brother Paul, who received $1.7 million in salaries and contracts during that period.
Ori is a Yoruba metaphysical concept that connects the themes of “consciousness, individuality and spiritual intuition,” the museum said
The Fowler Museum described the “visually and spiritually dynamic procession” Saturday as “a celebration of the strength and power of the black femme Ori.”
In her Saturday performance, Cullors went barefoot and wore an off-white ankle-length dress with gauze sleeves as she led the procession of women, as they were all tied together by long black braids of hair.
Cullors denied allegations of financial irregularities and said in an interview with AP that neither she nor anyone else in the BLM leadership misused the donated money.
However, she did acknowledge that BLM was ill-prepared to handle a flood of contributions in the wake of the protests over the 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
She said the foundation was slow to lay the necessary foundation.
The same month that the company’s finances came to light, Cullors was quietly fired from her Warner Bros TV deal after failing to produce any content.
The artist signed the deal with the media giant in 2020 with much fanfare, but it ended secretly in October 2022, it emerged on Friday.
“The deal unfortunately did not result in any shows being produced,” a source told the New York Post.
Cullors claimed in January 2022 that she was working on a documentary about how reparations were similar to the idea of landback, with Native Americans getting their land back, and another about black social mobility.
She had also reportedly written series about marijuana and black women leaders, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The Fowler Museum’s new exhibition, called The House Was Too Small: Yoruba Sacred Arts from Africa and Beyond, features a multimedia installation by Cullors titled Free Us
Black Lives Matter says it is “building power to bring justice, healing and freedom for Black people around the world” and that it aims to convince governments to “defund the police.”
Earlier this year, Cullors’ cousin Keenan Anderson, 31, suffered a cardiac arrest and died in hospital after being tasered by police. Cullors said he was “killed” by the LAPD.
Anderson caused a car crash before “behaving erratically” in the middle of Venice Boulevard and trying to run from officers conducting a DUI investigation, Los Angeles police say.
He left behind a five-year-old son, and lawyers acting on behalf of the child filed a $50 million compensation claim against the city.