“yes. surrender. bloom. (number 3)” — ORIGINAL (2020)

to say yes, to surrender, to bloom, to be open, to consent, to flourish. i love this image of one of the leaders from Elder Lucy Smith’s All Nations Pentecostal Church in chicago, hand raised while testifying. testifying is so important to black life, to saying after all of the things i’ve been through, i still have joy; or i know we will have the victory; or a way was made out of no way so keep holding on, saints! testifying is important because it can solicit prayers and support and simultaneously encourage others to keep going, to keep pressing, to keep saying yes. to engage the posture and practice of the yes while speaking with conviction to the saints about what happened, what is is happening, what is hoped for to happen. (photographer Lee Russell, 1941).