I Feel Most Colored, 11x14" Fine Art Print

“In 2019, I was gifted the opportunity to live on Anastasia Island off the coast of St. Augustine, FL to focus on my art without worrying about the costs of living. Not many people know about the incredible archives of Black history housed in that part of the country, including the fact that Zora Neale Hurston loved the place so much that her old home there is still standing, shrouded in an elegant mural of her painted by a local artist. I was able to visit the house, which stirred something within me. The property is quite derelict as the state & federal government refuse to fund it as a historical site-aside from the sad & sorry placard placed in the lawn. When I visited, I stood in the long dead patch of grass that made up the lawn, stared at the bloated wood of the sagging porch and allowed my soul to weep. St. Augustine is ripe with Black history, but most of it is reserved to Lincolnville, where the bulk of the Black population is redlined into residing forever. I visited Lincolnville during a time where I was struggling to create work & the struggle didn’t end once I stepped foot back on the island—because I wasn’t in Lincolnville with the rest of the Black folks. I was off the mainland, on a ridiculously overpriced resort island that had only recently removed a billboard that declared, ‘Muslims would NEVER be allowed residence here.’ I have never felt more colored than I did when I lived on Anastasia Island. Stepping onto Zora’s porch, back in Lincolnville, I finally understood what she meant. Being surrounded by non-Black people had started to drive me insane. I felt my Blackness so starkly that I grew a new limb made from my loneliness. I felt so alone that I wasn’t able to create art, so I wasn’t able to be happy. On the island, I was a dark rock, surged upon & overswept-but once I stepped into Lincolnville, I was revealed again. I’m forever grateful for the experience because it put me into Zora’s shoes. But I will never bless any place with my presence that refuses to honor my Blackness and the Blackness of those before me ever again. Anastasia Island is a blank nightmare. If you’re in the mood for a Florida vacation, go to Lincolnville instead and find yourself some color.” -B.N. Blithe de Carona