Kudzu has long been a metaphor in my work. Kudzu: the invader, suffocator, obscurer, and persister. An artist friend said it was for her, Whiteness. Kudzu is an invasive species, introduced to the US from Japan and used to address soil erosion in the South. For me, kudzu obscured and hid the truth about my history and experience. Its suffocation led me to flee the South as soon as I was able.

However now I am understanding a new aspect of the metaphor. Alice Walker wrote in 1973, “racism is like that local creeping kudzu vine that swallows whole forests and abandoned houses; if you don’t keep pulling up the roots it will grow back faster than you can destroy it.” George Floyd’s murder by police has brought much of white America to the awareness of the insidious invisible nature of systemic racism. We must all work together to pull it out by its roots. Stronger work is needed: a call to me as an artist and as a citizen. Let’s join together to root racism out.