Felicia’s Opening Remarks – Serenity Gallery & SYT Fashion Show Introduction
[00:00:00] …space. My name is Felicia, if you didn’t get that part. And again, I’ll tell you, I received this space as a solo exhibit, right? [00:00:09] And I said, this is not the time to be solo-ish. It’s just not. I heard you, I heard you, I heard you over here, I heard Malcolm. [00:00:17] You know, this is not the time for us to be solo. So I invited other artists to participate with me. [00:00:23] There are 29 other artists that presented work based on serenity. The theme is serenity. [00:00:32] Just got a furlough, you don’t ever come back to work notice. Someone didn’t have money. [00:00:39] Someone disabled, wheelchair, can’t walk, been in the hospital all summer, made it here. [00:00:46] The stories are phenomenal. Some pieces were mailed to me with people who had the same, [00:00:53] stories, the same stories of needing serenity. [00:00:58] Through triumph and tribulations, like we, we, we did it. We did it. But the reason why we do it, [00:01:06] right, is because everyone has a voice that they don’t necessarily get to express, [00:01:13] especially when they’re going through some sort of pain, some sort of trauma, [00:01:18] some sort of thing that they think that they’re alone. And it was at one point, [00:01:23] that Tyler and I, as we, you know, dedicated our time to NAMI, we decided, we’re like, okay, hey, [00:01:30] let’s, you know, do something that speaks to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. And that is [00:01:37] what you guys now see is speak your truth. [00:01:40] Nevertheless, the reason we’re here today is because your mental health matters, [00:01:48] and how you express your mental health is very important. And we do that through, [00:01:53] through, through, through, through, through, through, through, through, through, through, through, through, through, through, through. [00:01:54] A lot of people don’t think too much about that. But I remember a time when I didn’t have the ability [00:02:02] to wear nice clothes, or didn’t even know how to wear a belt, or didn’t even know what colors [00:02:11] really matched. And that actually was traumatic for me, because of the culture that I was surrounded [00:02:20] by. And I didn’t know that even, [00:02:23] If I decided to wear the clothes the way I wanted to wear them, that that was beautiful in and of itself. [00:02:29] That even if the clothes didn’t match, right? [00:02:32] If I wore two different colored shoes, two different types of shoes, that that is my style and I can speak on that and I can be that. [00:02:39] And so that is why it is important to speak your truth and my fit speaks today.