EP 4 Edmonia Lewis - Sculpting Freedom I Women And Resistance

In this episode of Women in Resistance, host Adesoji Iginla engages with Aya Fubara Eneli, who embodies the remarkable story of Edmonia Lewis. 

This conversation explores the life and legacy of Edmonia Lewis, a pioneering artist of Native American and African American descent. The discussion covers her early life, education, struggles with racial injustice, and her journey as a sculptor, highlighting the challenges she faced and her eventual recognition in the art world. 

In this conversation, Edmonia Lewis reflects on her journey as a sculptor navigating the complexities of identity, race, and gender in the 19th century. She discusses her experiences in Rome, the challenges of being a Black woman artist, and the significance of her works that challenge societal norms and represent the struggles of marginalised communities. 

Lewis emphasises the importance of authenticity in her art and the role of faith and community in her life. The conversation culminates in a powerful reflection on legacy and the enduring impact of her work.

Takeaways

*Edmonia Lewis was born to a mother of Ojibwe and African-American descent.

*She faced significant challenges in her early life, including the loss of her parents.

*Lewis attended Oberlin College, a progressive institution for its time.

*She was accused of poisoning two classmates, leading to a legal battle.

*Despite being acquitted, she faced violence and discrimination.

*Lewis became a successful sculptor, known for her bust of Robert Gould Shaw.

*She sold her sculptures for significant amounts, enabling her to pursue art in Rome.

*Her legacy was recognised posthumously by Oberlin College in 2022.

*Lewis's story reflects the intersection of race, gender, and art in American history.

*Her experiences highlight the resilience of marginalised artists. 

*The struggle for identity is ongoing and multifaceted.

*Art can serve as a powerful medium for self-expression and social commentary.

*Navigating the art world as a woman of colour presents unique challenges.

*Authenticity in art is crucial for true representation.

*Historical figures can be reimagined to reflect contemporary issues.

*The intersectionality of race and gender is a critical lens in understanding art.

*Community support is vital for artists facing systemic barriers.

*Faith can provide strength and guidance in difficult times.

*Legacy is shaped by both personal and collective experiences.

*Recognition of marginalised artists is essential for a complete historical narrative.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Edmonia Lewis

02:55 Her Early Life and Heritage

05:58 Education and Challenges at Oberlin College

11:55 Legal Struggles and Racial Injustice

19:57 Artistic Journey and Breakthroughs

30:07 Legacy and Recognition

37:08 Navigating Ide

Welcome  to Women and Resistance, a powerful podcast where we honour the courage, resilience, and revolutionary spirit of women across the globe. Hosted by Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla...

You're listening to Women and Resistance with Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla—where we honour the voices of women who have shaped history through courage and defiance...Now, back to the conversation.

That’s it for this episode of Women and Resistance. Thank you for joining us in amplifying the voices of women who challenge injustice and change the course of history. Be sure to subscribe, share, and continue the conversation. Together We Honour the past, act in the present, and shape the future. Until next time, stay inspired and stay in resistance!

Transcript

Adesoji Iginla (00:02.74)
Okay, welcome welcome and greetings greetings to another episode of Women and Resistance. I am your host Adesuji Iginla and with me before she goes into character is Aya Fubara Eneli Esquera and how are you sister?

Adesoji Iginla (00:24.65)
Okay, today we are, you know, traversing the life and times of Edmona Lewis. Who is Edmona Lewis, you might ask. We shall find out in the course of our conversation with Miss Lewis in the next one hour or so. So, Miss Lewis, welcome to Women and Resistance.

Aya Fubara Eneli (00:50.675)
Thank you.

Adesoji Iginla (00:53.162)
It's a honor. And for those who might not have heard of you, could you just give us a quick rundown of how you came to enter our consciousness?

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:07.113)
Quick run down.

Adesoji Iginla (01:08.909)
Yes, please.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:12.009)
How does one give a quick rundown of an entire lifetime?

Adesoji Iginla (01:17.774)
Good question.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:22.279)
Well, first, where are my manners? I must thank you for the opportunity to be in conversation with you today. And I want to thank all of your audience, although this is a weird medium because I can't see them. But I have been assured that they are here indeed.

Adesoji Iginla (01:46.762)
Yes.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:47.373)
and it would be great not just to have this discussion with you but even to hear from them as well.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:58.781)
where do I begin? Well, let's start with my name. I was named Mary Edmonia Lewis.

but I also had another name and that name was from my mother's people, the Ojibwe and that name was wildfire.

Adesoji Iginla (02:26.094)
Okay.

Aya Fubara Eneli (02:28.337)
I was born in 1844 near Green Bush, now Rensselaer, New York. And I was born to my mother, Catherine Mike Lewis, who was of Ojibwe and African-American descent. And my mother was known as a skilled weaver and an excellent craftswoman.

There are different versions of who people believe my father to have been. According to one version, my father was Samuel Lewis, an Afro-Haitian man who worked as a gentleman servant. And others say that my father was Robert Benjamin Lewis.

who was a black writer, he was a black writer and a lecturer. Whatever version you go with, I am of.

the Native Americans, the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, and I am also of African heritage.

Adesoji Iginla (03:44.686)
OK, interesting.

Aya Fubara Eneli (03:45.659)
And I wonder if that is one of the reasons you chose for me to come and speak with you today on the eve of, well, that the government term and what most people have come to embrace it as is Thanksgiving. But I assure you that for those of us.

Adesoji Iginla (03:51.456)
in light of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving.

Adesoji Iginla (04:10.318)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (04:12.521)
who are indigenous Americans, who are the Native Americans as we're called, from all nations. We were nations before we were stripped of our land and colonized. We would call it a day of mourning, wouldn't you?

Adesoji Iginla (04:28.206)
Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (04:33.058)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, rightly so, rightly so.

Aya Fubara Eneli (04:37.381)
Now my birth date is listed as July 4th.

I should note this. Back in that time, there were many black people who chose July 4th as their birth date because these dates weren't necessarily recorded the actual day of your birth. But July 4th being Independence Day of the United States of America, we

Adesoji Iginla (05:02.059)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (05:14.237)
perhaps in the hopes that America would live up to its written ideals of all of us being created equal, that.

Adesoji Iginla (05:19.53)
It's promise.

Aya Fubara Eneli (05:30.661)
that would be a day that would mark our rebirth, if you will, in this now United States of America.

If they say it was July 4th, I quibble with nobody. It's not relevant, but I did want to at least inform people of how some of these dates got chosen. There was definitely very much an idea of attaching to yourself to names and dates of significance. And so you see so many black people with Washington or Jefferson.

Adesoji Iginla (05:58.616)
Okay.

Aya Fubara Eneli (06:15.113)
wanting to be tied to the presidency in some in some way speaking power that hope of what might you what might become

Adesoji Iginla (06:25.726)
become yeah yeah

Aya Fubara Eneli (06:29.371)
Unfortunately for me, both my parents died when I was rather young and I and my older half-brother, Samuel, went to live with our maternal relatives near Niagara Falls. We lived with our Ojibwe kin and they sold

Adesoji Iginla (06:51.158)
Okay.

Aya Fubara Eneli (06:57.711)
arts and crafts they sold homemade items moccasins things of that nature similar to what my mother had also made they sold them to tourists there's always there's always certainly in my time you can let me know if it is true for your time this fascination

with the very peoples that you are oppressing, where they are objectified and the fascination with everything that we have and are without.

Adesoji Iginla (07:28.352)
Yes.

Yeah, yeah, the naming of sporting. Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (07:45.353)
ascribing to us our humanity. So there was a market for the things that the native peoples made and used in their daily lives, but then we're now.

Adesoji Iginla (07:56.43)
Mm, mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (08:03.675)
objectified just as artifacts, things to collect.

Adesoji Iginla (08:06.627)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (08:10.511)
I remember as a young child roaming the forests with my mother's people, with my people, and selling my own small crafts. They would tell me, my aunts would tell me that I was just like my mother. I was very good with my hands.

Aya Fubara Eneli (08:33.993)
Because I eventually made a name for myself, I suppose today your generation will call it branding. I would say that I was cognizant of a need to, well not a need, cognizant of the

Adesoji Iginla (08:43.31)
You

Aya Fubara Eneli (08:57.415)
benefits that could accrue to help me with my work as a sculptor, which is what I became and I will tell you that story brief shortly. But I was aware of how a certain mystique or embracing a certain narrative that appealed

Adesoji Iginla (09:10.241)
Okay.

Aya Fubara Eneli (09:22.833)
to my would-be benefactors and sponsors and clients could assist me in my work. And so this origin story of living with the Ojibwe and at one time even she was born in a wigwam and look at where she is now was part of the allure.

obviously being of both Native American and African heritage.

Aya Fubara Eneli (10:06.863)
resulted in certain physical features of mine that also lent itself to this sense of exoticism and later when I would move to London and I'm getting ahead of myself here I actually listed my place of birth as India.

Adesoji Iginla (10:17.666)
Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (10:32.877)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (10:33.103)
and it was believable to them because take a look at our darker skinned Indian friends and family across the globe and there was not that much difference in how we looked.

Adesoji Iginla (10:36.238)
because of the look.

Aya Fubara Eneli (10:53.265)
And so I suppose as a child, I was content with the life that I had living with my people, living off the land, selling the items as we made them. But my brother, Samuel, who had left and had found he had made a fortune of sorts.

in the gold mines of California, he sent for me. He wanted a different life for me. He wanted more opportunities for me. And he wanted me to get educated. And so my brother provided the crucial financial support for my schooling. He allowed me to study at secondary.

and at college level institutions that would otherwise have been definitely inaccessible. I think it's important, not I think, I know it's important for you and your listeners to not just hear my words but to remember the time in which I was born.

Adesoji Iginla (11:55.68)
Out of reach.

Aya Fubara Eneli (12:17.841)
What was happening across the United States of America in 1844? What was the fate of the Native peoples at that time? And what were they dealing with? What was the fate of African Americans at that time? Of course, we didn't use the term African Americans. We were Negroes. We were niggers.

Adesoji Iginla (12:42.242)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (12:47.697)
and sometimes colored people.

Aya Fubara Eneli (12:52.377)
this was well before the Civil War as I hope your audience knows. Well, my brother eventually sent me to Oberlin College.

Adesoji Iginla (12:58.318)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (13:09.597)
This was one of the most progressive tertiary institutions of the time because not only did they admit women, they admitted people of color, which was strictly unheard of across the vast lands of the United States of America.

Adesoji Iginla (13:26.477)
that time.

Aya Fubara Eneli (13:37.967)
Now, Oberlin College was located in Oberlin, Ohio, and there were a lot of well-to-do Black families there. Middle class teachers, pastors, people who worked jobs that allowed them to make a fairly decent living. And some of the

Colored students who would attend Oberlin would live with some of those more affluent Black families. There was a sense of community where people would take in other people's children of the same race just because they wanted to be part of elevating the race.

Of course, we at that time did not really have the opportunity to mingle in certain ways with the white students. And then of course, there was this strict line as well between the male students and the female students. And so the female students were enrolled in curricula that pertained to being a woman, the young ladies course.

Adesoji Iginla (14:39.372)
those students.

Aya Fubara Eneli (14:51.271)
We did not learn Latin in some of the higher mathematics classes because I suppose there was a concern of our brains may combust because that was entirely too much mental work for genteel women.

Adesoji Iginla (15:11.491)
Hmm

Aya Fubara Eneli (15:13.77)
I ended up boarding with an abolitionist trustee. He was a white man and his family, Reverend John Keep.

Aya Fubara Eneli (15:27.023)
Orville in definitely styled itself as a progressive experiment. And while there was some support for the experiment, there were many in the town who were also very upset at the notion of colored children and white children mingling and being taught in the same institution. And so we

Adesoji Iginla (15:49.102)
Mixed in oval.

Aya Fubara Eneli (15:56.489)
colored students faced a great deal of racism. And then we colored students who were women were doubly impacted because we faced not just racism, but also sexism.

Adesoji Iginla (16:11.704)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (16:15.165)
Well, back then, women were not supposed to fraternize or socialize without chaperones. I had an opportunity to socialize with two white classmates, Maria Miles and Christina Ennis. I should say that I went to Oberlin College in...

Aya Fubara Eneli (16:44.728)
1859. I was 15 years old when I went off to college.

And I had shared a mixture of wine and spices with these classmates at the Keeps home where I was staying. Well, these two young women took ill and ended up at the hospital. And I was then accused of poisoning them.

Adesoji Iginla (17:04.878)
Okay.

Aya Fubara Eneli (17:19.141)
it was said that I poisoned them with a substance then known as Spanish Fly.

And they chose Spanish Fly because although it was very hard to get, it was also a substance that would be hard to detect within the bloodstream. Now at no time was there any analysis of their blood or to find out exactly what could have caused their illness. But because they got ill and I didn't, I was accused of attempted murder.

Adesoji Iginla (17:59.48)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (18:00.029)
I was arrested, I was charged, and a local mob took delight in using my predicament as proof that the Oberlin experiment was indeed a flawed and failed one and should be discontinued. I was fortunate enough to be represented by

abolitionist lawyer John Mercer Langston. He himself had attended Oberlin. He was an Oberlin alum who later became a major black political figure. And he agreed to defend me. And after he did not call me to the stand, there were many people who testified against me, but he never called me to the stand.

but he gave us six hour closing argument that largely hinged on the fact that there was no chemical analysis of the woman's stomach contents and therefore there was no evidence to prove, certainly not beyond a reasonable doubt, that I had indeed poisoned them.

Adesoji Iginla (18:56.366)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (19:20.571)
And so the judge dismissed the charges for lack of evidence. At a later point, I'm going to share with you my thoughts on what I call good spirits. Because think about the time.

Adesoji Iginla (19:25.731)
care.

Aya Fubara Eneli (19:40.189)
This was right before the Civil War broke out.

Aya Fubara Eneli (19:48.138)
And even today, how often are people convicted?

with no evidence, with less evidence. And so I attribute good spirits to the fact that I got to live and continue as a free woman.

Adesoji Iginla (20:11.597)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (20:14.075)
but my legal victory did not protect me.

Shortly after I returned to college and was allowed to continue with my studies, a white mob kidnapped me, they dragged me into a field, and they beat me to a pulp and left me for dead.

Aya Fubara Eneli (20:42.311)
I may have neglected to tell you that I was always considered small of stature. People described me as tiny, petite and built, barely five feet tall. They described me as small and quiet, but with a determined spirit.

and after facing the attack by this mob and being left for dead.

Aya Fubara Eneli (21:16.605)
When I did not return to where I lived with the keeps, there was a search party sent out for me and they did eventually find my beaten and mangled body.

Aya Fubara Eneli (21:34.793)
clinging to life. Again, good spirits.

and they nursed me back to health.

Aya Fubara Eneli (21:47.041)
I returned to Oberlin College, determined to get the degree that I set out to get it, still financially supported by my brother Samuel.

and then a series of unfortunate events occurred. And you might ask, could it get worse? A potent murder, almost beaten to death? Yes. I was now accused of buglary and of stealing art supplies.

Adesoji Iginla (22:06.612)
Again.

Aya Fubara Eneli (22:28.891)
Again, I was able to beat those charges and get legally cleared, but...

the faculty overseeing the young women's program, the young women's course, decided that she would not let me enroll for my final term at Oberlin. And since I was not enrolled, I could not take my exams. And so I left the, I was dismissed from the institution. I left the institution without my degree.

Adesoji Iginla (23:02.062)
you

Aya Fubara Eneli (23:12.553)
As you no doubt have heard, your listeners have no doubt heard time and time again as you have spoken with other women in your sessions of Women in Resistance, and I'm very proud to be in the company of the women that you have discussed so far. You will know that

Adesoji Iginla (23:29.741)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (23:38.409)
American institutions have this way of trying to rewrite history. And so in 2022, and you might want to know, well, when exactly did she die? And I will get to that. But put a pin in this. In 2022, Orbelin

Adesoji Iginla (23:43.628)
Very much so.

Aya Fubara Eneli (24:04.713)
posthumously awarded me a Bachelor of Fine Arts, formally acknowledging my talent and the injustice I endured in 2022.

Adesoji Iginla (24:23.054)
What was happening in 2022 that they will award you? Oh Okay, okay This is

Aya Fubara Eneli (24:31.133)
We were still coming off of the guilt of, I believe, George Floyd, who is now an ancestor on this side with me. And we were making promises, or should I say they were, and attempting to distance themselves, some institutions, from their history.

Adesoji Iginla (24:38.734)
Correct, yes.

Adesoji Iginla (24:47.886)
You

Aya Fubara Eneli (25:02.217)
I suppose to the extent that one might want to be vindicated by history, I should be grateful. But of what use is that degree to acknowledge my talent, the talent I proved time and time again? I don't need that. I don't need that degree for that purpose. Well, since Oberlin didn't work out.

Adesoji Iginla (25:21.784)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (25:32.585)
I went to Boston around 1864 to pursue art.

Aya Fubara Eneli (25:40.357)
I had seen a sculpture of Benjamin Franklin in Boston, and although I did not know the name of the art form, I thought.

I too can make a stone man.

Today, there are all kinds of artwork, not quite in the manner that we did it, because I went into the neoclassical style. But this will be an example of a sculpture, right? Now, of course, they make casts and they can mass produce these things. But that wasn't quite the way it was. And you may recognize this young man who's also now an ancestor.

Adesoji Iginla (26:13.495)
right.

Aya Fubara Eneli (26:26.121)
That will be Martin Luther King Jr.

Adesoji Iginla (26:28.078)
King, yeah, yeah, I love that.

Aya Fubara Eneli (26:36.153)
Upon arriving in Boston and deciding that I was going to be an artist, I needed to find

someone I could learn under. I needed to be under the tutelage of some other of an artist.

Adesoji Iginla (26:53.527)
of a mentor.

Aya Fubara Eneli (26:55.753)
abolitionist allies opened the first doors. Reverend and Mrs. Keep, who had assisted me in Oberlin and whose home I had resided, sent letters. Henry Highland Garnett wrote letters of introduction to William Lloyd Garrison. And then William Lloyd Garrison connected me to Boston's circle of sculptors and reformers.

Adesoji Iginla (27:24.952)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (27:25.813)
And again, understanding the times. So 1864, I'm 20 years old now, and the Civil War is still raging. the abolitionists were always looking for representatives of the race of the oppressed that they could hold up.

Adesoji Iginla (27:29.198)
times.

Aya Fubara Eneli (27:53.041)
as an example of what the race could be if given a chance.

Adesoji Iginla (27:57.805)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (28:00.211)
But finding a teacher was incredibly difficult for a number of reasons. The sculptors were male, I was female, and I was a black and something else female at that.

and how many female artists were there, let alone black female artists, at a commercial level. Of course, we know within the homes, women were artisans and made many things that the family relied on. But we just didn't get that same respect of our abilities.

Adesoji Iginla (28:35.331)
the right.

Aya Fubara Eneli (28:42.889)
And certainly we did not get the same opportunities. Finally, a brave sculptor named Edward Augustus Brackett agreed to take me under his wing. He was a sculptor of marble portrait busts and his clients included Garrison, Charles Sumner and others.

and under his tutelage, I copied his sculptures in clay.

and then he would critique my technique. Under his tutelage, I made my first tools, the tools that I would use for my trade. And under his tutelage, I sculpted and sold my very first commercial piece, which was a woman's hand.

and back then I sold it for $8, which would be the equivalent of about $120 or so today.

I learned a great deal from Edward Augusta's brackets, but our relationship soon soured and I was on my way.

Aya Fubara Eneli (30:07.505)
I had many early patrons in those days and promoters. I was featured in quite a few of their abolitionist papers, held up as an example of what was possible with my race. For women in the abolitionists and literary circles, they became some of my biggest champions.

People like Lydia Maria Child who biographers have been able to go and find her letters and see you know the things that she wrote about me Elizabeth Peabody was another one of my benefactors and believe today we still have the Peabody Awards Anna Quincy Waterston, Laura Curtis Bullard

Adesoji Iginla (30:54.668)
Yeah, people to trust.

Aya Fubara Eneli (31:02.471)
And these women quite often also served as editors of the papers, papers like the Independent Christian Register and Broken Fetter. These were all abolitionist papers and they really helped me reach a national audience and secure commissions for my work. And one of the things I would do is I would sculpt

famous abolitionists and their families or other patrons would then purchase those sculptures. My breakthrough sculpture was a marble bust of Connell Robert Gould Shaw. And some of you may remember him.

because in the movie Glory with that really handsome young man Denzel Washington.

Adesoji Iginla (32:07.672)
You

Aya Fubara Eneli (32:11.433)
He was played by Matthew Broderick. Matthew Broderick played Connell Robert Goldshaw in that movie, Glory. And if you remember, he led the group of soldiers, including black soldiers, who initially were so poorly taken care of in terms of...

Adesoji Iginla (32:22.702)
sure.

Aya Fubara Eneli (32:40.105)
their equipment, shoes, things of that nature. And we know that that regiment, I believe, suffered about 42 % death, 42 % of their regiment. And he eventually also lost his life.

Adesoji Iginla (32:52.92)
Correct. Correct.

Aya Fubara Eneli (32:59.187)
He was the commander of the Black 54th Massachusetts Regiment. And some of you may have heard of them, and if you haven't, you definitely want to go and read up about them and remember.

Aya Fubara Eneli (33:15.921)
Remember them as you enjoy your feast tomorrow. Because whatever thanks people are giving for this country, this country was paid for with the blood of my people on both sides of my family.

Adesoji Iginla (33:33.964)
was a debt of gratitude. Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (33:44.7)
and some others as well. Well, I sculpted the bust of Cornell Robert Gould Shaw and his family bought that bust and they were incredibly proud to have a bust of this great abolitionist. I then made a hundred plaster copies of that bust and

I sold them all, I sold out all 100 of them at a cost of $15 per bust, which was a significant income for a sculptor of that time, for a woman of that time, and most certainly for a Black and Native American woman of

Adesoji Iginla (34:22.359)
Wow.

Aya Fubara Eneli (34:40.061)
Those sales and the benevolence of some of my sponsors enabled me to make my way to Rome. Rome was the place where all real sculptors of marble went. That was the place for the artists. So somewhere between the end of the Civil War and 1866, I left for Rome.

Adesoji Iginla (34:54.432)
Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (34:59.734)
New classical.

Aya Fubara Eneli (35:11.143)
And on my passport, and there's a picture of it in this little book written for young readers called Seen, True Stories of Marginalized Trailblazers, and this one is on me, but they're actually stories of other women as well. Not in this one, but in others. But this is what my passport looked like. That's a picture replica of what it looked like.

And what it wrote under my description is, Edmonia Lewis is a black girl sent by subscription to Italy, having displayed great talents as a sculptor.

Adesoji Iginla (35:59.758)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (36:06.599)
was practically driven to Rome in order to pursue opportunities for my art and to find a social atmosphere where my color was not this albatross around my neck.

Aya Fubara Eneli (36:28.009)
Hope that your audience is able to appreciate.

Aya Fubara Eneli (36:39.515)
and off.

Aya Fubara Eneli (36:44.849)
not quite fitting into any world.

Aya Fubara Eneli (36:54.601)
to harrowing

trials, one of which could have cost me my life.

Aya Fubara Eneli (37:08.241)
and then trying to make a living.

Aya Fubara Eneli (37:15.579)
in a profession that was not just the purview of men, it was the purview of white men.

Adesoji Iginla (37:24.782)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (37:29.671)
and there was this constant weight on my shoulders.

the experience of always being objectified. Who am I? Do you see me? Which is why I appreciate this book, Scene. What do you see when you see me?

Adesoji Iginla (37:46.273)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (37:57.321)
I concluded that this United States of America, the so-called land of liberty, had no room for a collared and female sculptor.

Aya Fubara Eneli (38:23.613)
dependent again on the benevolence of some of my abolitionist friends to make introductions for me to make my way in Rome.

Initially, I worked in a studio and in a space that was established by a sculptor called Hiram Powers.

I eventually was able to rent my own studio near the Piazza Barberini and this was the former workspace of Antonio Canova.

Aya Fubara Eneli (39:03.332)
and

Through a series of activities that my benefactors in the United States felt were frivolous and a waste of money and time, I was able to ingratiate myself into a community of expatriate women sculptors who were dubbed the white Mamorian flock.

Henry James gave them that title, but I would pay for music lessons. I took piano lessons. It was a great way to meet other people. I think today you all will call it networking. And I would also play badminton, which was a sport that genteel women were allowed to engage in at the time. And

Adesoji Iginla (39:43.48)
Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (39:52.152)
Correct.

Aya Fubara Eneli (40:06.001)
Some of my sponsors from the United States felt that these were frivolous acts and a waste of their money. And you have to believe that with everything in me, I needed to be self-sufficient. I did not want to be beholden to anyone. I did not want to be used as an object, even for well-meaning abolitionists.

who again could tout me as a representative of my race or make themselves feel better as the white savior of the black or native peoples. I think still today we have many well-meaning.

Adesoji Iginla (40:44.718)
Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (40:51.406)
Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (40:55.496)
Right, save this.

Aya Fubara Eneli (41:03.891)
This group that I joined of expatriate women sculptors is what has now lent some writers and scholars to speculate as to my sexuality and to draw inferences and make.

Aya Fubara Eneli (41:27.825)
assumptions and conclusions that I must have been queer.

Adesoji Iginla (41:29.442)
conclusions, yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (41:34.547)
There is nothing that I'm aware of that I have shared to lay, give any credence to these assertions, but.

Aya Fubara Eneli (41:51.035)
I suppose once you die, people can make up your life what they will. Of course, we know that for many decades, my name was largely forgotten.

Adesoji Iginla (41:55.726)
True. Yeah. Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (42:08.199)
Recent scholarship, know to this effect will argue that the relative freedoms that white women Sculptors found in Rome the financial support the queer partnership and What they call the bohemian life Wasn't something that I was totally immersed in because I still had to navigate This racial

Exhaustive exoticism, you know that that was I was labeled with and then also just this sense of tokenism Which is why in even many of these Liberal spaces you can have only one white. Sorry one black darling at a time

Adesoji Iginla (42:57.262)
You

Aya Fubara Eneli (43:02.099)
We just need one token, not too many of you.

Adesoji Iginla (43:04.056)
Yeah, yeah, that's to get comfortable.

Aya Fubara Eneli (43:09.989)
Another charge against women sculptors at the time to diminish who we were as artists was this idea that we hired men to do most of our chiseling and our sculpting because we just did not have the physical ability to do so. That we could not execute our own designs and so we hired stone carvers.

And so to that extent, I insisted on carving my own marble.

fearing that given not just my gender but also my race that for sure authorship of any of my pieces would be doubted if in any way anyone else had assisted me.

Adesoji Iginla (44:02.024)
If, yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (44:07.896)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (44:08.829)
That meant a lot of work on my part.

So for instance, one of my best known works, The Death of Cleopatra, actually took me over four years to complete.

Aya Fubara Eneli (44:29.361)
The Smithsonian today notes that I did my own stonework out of fear that if I didn't, my work would not be accepted as original. Again, although I speak of it rather impassionately,

you to put yourself in the shoes of a young woman, orphaned, traveling the world alone, trying to make a name in spite of the significant obstacles.

Adesoji Iginla (45:12.31)
in the 1870s.

Aya Fubara Eneli (45:16.527)
I worked in what was called, or what is called, the neoclassical style. Smooth marble, idealized figures, Reco-Roman drapery. But what I did was I chose to fill it with stories of Black freedom, Native survival, and biblical outcasts.

Adesoji Iginla (45:44.942)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (45:47.869)
want to read something that was touched upon in this small book about me. It's a direct quote from me. I have a strong sympathy for all women who have struggled and suffered. For this reason, the Virgin Mary is very dear to me.

Adesoji Iginla (45:58.807)
Okay.

Aya Fubara Eneli (46:16.623)
I was a devout Catholic, and in my later years, the Catholic Church was one of my most important clients, especially as new classical art began to fade from the scene. Some of my subjects that you should be aware of include Hiawatha,

tell you a little bit more about these art pieces. Minnehaha and the Arrow Maker. And these were the more celebrated so-called Native American pieces that I made.

Henry Wadsworth Longsfellow had written a piece based on my people, the Ojibwe. It was called Song of Hiawatha. And again, in those days, there was very little written about my people, indigenous Americans that, and of course, people of African descent, of colored people.

that.

recognized and celebrated our humanity, the complexities of who we are as human beings that put us in a positive light. But Henry Wadsworth Longfellow did just that in Song of Hiawatha, which is based loosely on Ojibwe stories. And so I sculpted busts of Hiawatha and of Menehaha.

Aya Fubara Eneli (48:02.865)
And then I did a group sculpture called the Arrow Maker that depicted a Native father teaching his daughter to make arrows.

Adesoji Iginla (48:15.414)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (48:17.777)
I did receive quite a bit of criticism for this work and many of my other art pieces because although it affirmed Native people as figures of, as human beings period, but with tenderness and skill and familial affection as opposed to us just being savages who sculpt heads, right?

Adesoji Iginla (48:44.662)
Yeah, red Indians as well.

Aya Fubara Eneli (48:48.197)
I humanized, and what a thing to even consider, that I would have to in my art affirm.

Adesoji Iginla (49:02.094)
the humanity of others.

Aya Fubara Eneli (49:03.409)
my humanity, essentially.

But I was criticized because I still used what would be considered European features, facial features, and the smooth whiteness of neoclassical marble. And so some argued, and I would not disagree with them, that it re-inscribed whiteness as aesthetic norm, even as I was trying to honor

Adesoji Iginla (49:29.559)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (49:36.827)
Indigenous identity. Again, pause and think of the times.

Adesoji Iginla (49:45.262)
true.

Aya Fubara Eneli (49:46.099)
Who exactly was going to buy my sculptures?

Adesoji Iginla (49:51.63)
and to be like.

Aya Fubara Eneli (49:51.901)
Who had the resources to invest in my art?

Adesoji Iginla (49:54.936)
going to be the white libra.

Aya Fubara Eneli (50:00.595)
Do you not present?

Aya Fubara Eneli (50:07.439)
whatever it is you are trying to market in a way that will appeal to the sensibilities of the people you are marketing to.

Adesoji Iginla (50:20.984)
So you will call that a compromise.

Aya Fubara Eneli (50:21.521)
And so I welcome the critique. What I did was given the times that I was in.

Aya Fubara Eneli (50:36.761)
used my art to make a statement.

Aya Fubara Eneli (50:43.251)
but I also incorporated aspects of the art of that time that would provide an audience for my work.

Aya Fubara Eneli (50:59.803)
Now there was another piece that

Aya Fubara Eneli (51:08.293)
I called forever free. These are part of my so-called emancipation pieces. It was also titled, Mourning of Liberty. And it commemorated the abolition of slavery after the Civil War. Now, you all may have heard of...

Aya Fubara Eneli (51:32.785)
or seen the sculpture that was created with Abraham Lincoln as the white savior and a crouching black man with his chains looking up to this white savior. Well, in my sculpture, Forever Free, I have a black man who stands upright.

Adesoji Iginla (51:45.589)
with chains

Aya Fubara Eneli (52:00.423)
his left arm raised, broken shackles hanging from his wrist, and a ball and chain lay broken beneath his foot. We were not looking to any white savior. We were breaking free of our chains, ourselves. But there's another piece to this.

Adesoji Iginla (52:19.918)
free of our chains here.

Aya Fubara Eneli (52:28.859)
sculpture. I have a woman kneeling beside him with her hands clasped.

His other hand rests protectively on her shoulder.

Aya Fubara Eneli (52:48.763)
Why is he standing and she is still kneeling? Well, we could speculate. Of course, the emancipation of Black people as a whole, but the double bondage of Black women.

Adesoji Iginla (53:08.888)
That's women, yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (53:12.278)
and even in that state.

black women still had more work to do to be free.

We were still kneeling in passive.

Scholars in critiquing this piece of art Notice that the features of a woman were Europeanized Some read this as me showing the mixed heritage of African Americans including people like me Some again read it as a strategic move to soothe racist expectations of white patrons

And of course, some were just downright critical and felt that I was not properly representing our race.

Aya Fubara Eneli (54:15.419)
in some readings of what of the sculpture.

The chains of the woman are still attached to the base of the sculpture. So the man's chains are broken, but the woman's chains are not. And of course, people are speculating that again, this is a quiet critique of gender. men haven't been won in the law. The black men's freedom haven't been won in the law. The right to vote.

but black women, as I stated earlier, being doubly bound. Another sculpture that I did was Hagar in the Wilderness. I chose this biblical figure, this enslaved Egyptian woman who was cast out with her son to embody again black female suffering and yet our resilience. And that had certainly been my life, hadn't it?

Adesoji Iginla (55:21.688)
true.

Aya Fubara Eneli (55:23.465)
Critics again argue that by idealizing Hagar's features in classical style, I was asserting some kind of moral and aesthetic dignity to the figure. I suppose if she looked more whatever we think black looks like because do we not have blackness in every hue and in every facial feature?

Adesoji Iginla (55:47.822)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (55:54.461)
But some argue that I was asserting a moral and aesthetic dignity of Hagar, which would better plead her case for being cast out. And that I was distancing my work, if you will, from racial otherness.

Now the work that I would say has garnered the most interest, if you will, would have been the death of Cleopatra. It was my largest and my most ambitious work and it was featured in the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. It was 3,000 pounds of marble.

Aya Fubara Eneli (56:50.407)
You have heard the story of Cleopatra, I hope, and if you haven't, then this is a great opportunity to go and study it. But rather than portraying Cleopatra as she's typically portrayed this beautiful woman who tragically takes her life, I portrayed her, I sculpted Cleopatra, slumped on her throne.

head back, body heavy, there was nothing lith and graceful about it. The asp at her breast, her face slack in the moment of death. And it was a shocking piece of art to most in the world. Critics called it the most remarkable piece of sculpture in the American section of the fair.

but many viewers were very shocked by its rawness. Should a white woman be portrayed in this swanked-on manner? Is this sacrilege?

Adesoji Iginla (57:58.198)
Hehehehehe

Aya Fubara Eneli (58:03.077)
Now that sculpture needs its own episode of your show because after the exposition it was stored then it was sold.

And by the early 20th century, it sat, so we're talking about from 1876, right? It sat partly damaged at a Chicago horse racing track. And later, my...

Adesoji Iginla (58:24.045)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli (58:39.113)
3000 pound marble sculpture was given the very undignified placement of being the headstone of a dead horse. The racetrack owner had a horse called Cleopatra. And when that horse died, the horse was buried

and my sculpture was put on the tomb of a horse as the horse's headstone.

Adesoji Iginla (59:28.206)
The insult.

Aya Fubara Eneli (59:30.441)
And it stayed there for a significant amount of time.

And afterwards, that piece of land, the deed of the land indicated that the sculpture was not to be moved. That land became, after it was a racehorse track, it went through so many iterations, it ended up becoming some kind of postal service space. And then finally, the sculpture was moved.

and was housed in some kind of barn or something. This was after a well-meaning scout troop noticing some of the damage to the sculpture had painted it white.

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:16.91)
Mmm.

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:24.546)
you

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:29.741)
Hmm

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:00:31.759)
Art historian Marilyn Richardson finally tracked it down because how does a 3,000 pound

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:40.568)
found marble.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:00:43.337)
Marble sculpture just disappear. She tracked it down in 1994 and had it transferred to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which funded its restoration and it costs in excess of $50,000 to restore it.

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:46.03)
Good beer. Yeah. £3000.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:01:10.991)
Art historians challenged, read that piece of sculpture as challenging Victorian norms by showing a powerful woman in an unglamorous moment of self-determined death. Some argued that I was enacting my own fascination with women who refused domination, even at a terrible cost.

And of course, there was a whole commentary on race and empire and a Black Indigenous sculptor reimagining an African queen for an American audience obsessed with classical whiteness.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:01:59.613)
And what was my reason for moving to Rome? To just be human. To not have everything about me analyzed from a place of race.

but I was almost always the subject, or the object.

And I did not do autobiographical pieces because I was tired of being the subject. I wanted to just do my art.

Other pieces of art that garnered me some attention in 1877, the president Ulysses S. Grant sat for me in Rome and I made a bust of his. He was very pleased with it. I sculpted a bust of Charles Sumner for the 1895 Atlanta Cotton States Exposition, linking abolitionist memory to a showcase of New South progress. I created a marble bust of Christ

crapped carved in Rome in 1870 and this went missing for decades and was rediscovered in a Scottish church in 2015 and I did a lot of work for churches Catholic churches in particular and some of those works are still being found even now just a few words and then I have one final thing I want to share with you I'm sorry I have spoken for so long

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:03:32.393)
Aya Fubara Eneli (01:03:40.135)
went to Italy to do something for the race, something that will excite the admiration of the other races of the earth, but I needed room to go and just be an artist. I believe that the good spirits always send me friends and I'm going to tell you a little bit more about that.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:04:07.985)
I am grateful for all the people who assisted me and I've shared some of their names with you already. Charlotte Cushman, who was a celebrated actress who acted as a hub for women's sculptors in Rome and helped connect me with many patrons. Harriet Hosmer and Whitney and other women's sculptures, who also helped connect me with this expatriate community.

Adesoji Iginla (01:04:25.635)
Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:04:37.351)
the Shaw family in Boston, Catholic patrons in Europe and later in my career.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:04:49.385)
From about 1896, I lived in Paris. And then by 1901, I had settled in London's Bloomsbury-Hulburn area. Don't know if you know that area. The British census in 1901 listed me as an artist living on my own means with my birthplace as India.

Adesoji Iginla (01:05:00.138)
Yeah, central London, central London, central London.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:05:17.901)
And although I died on September 17th, 1907, most of the world was not aware of my death because it was not published beyond a very small circle. And it was again historian Marilyn Richardson who discovered my death certificate and noted that I died in Hammersmith Borough Infirmary in London.

Adesoji Iginla (01:05:39.182)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (01:05:45.603)
Wow.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:05:45.801)
and that I died of kidney disease. I am buried in St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery in Cancel Green. I left my estate to one of the priests at the parish. Nonetheless, my grave was neglected and no headstone ever put on my grave until 2017, over 100 years after my death.

I believe you have covered other black women such as myself who faced the same fate. In 2017, historian Bobby Reynolds led a fundraiser to restore my neglected grave and to add a proper marker honoring me as an internationally significant sculptor. I never married. I have no known children.

I was briefly engaged in 1873 but never got married. My will mentioned no relatives.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:07:00.765)
My life was one of great significance, but also of an enduring loneliness. I found great solace in my faith as a Catholic, and I really did actively practice that faith.

There are so many books about me, I can't go into all of them, but a cursory search would show some of them, but this is one of them. And that is a picture of me in a portrait that is widely noted. But I wrote something that I would like to share with you at this time as we end our time together, unless you have questions for me. I should note that...

Adesoji Iginla (01:07:34.744)
Shards of Fire.

Adesoji Iginla (01:07:45.326)
Please do.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:07:50.953)
There was an obituary about me in 2018 titled Overlooked. In 27, there was a Google Doodle. And in 2022, there was a US Postal Forever stamp in my honor. Oberlin's Edmonia Lewis Center for Women and Transgender People was named for me. And there's the Alto Borough Art Museum.

MLK committee's Edmonia Lewis Art Education Scholarship that honor me as a symbol of intersectional liberation. And there have been many exhibitions, including Edmonia Lewis, Set in a Stone, Edmonia Lewis, Indelible Impressions. There are documentaries about me and like I indicated, many, many books. But this is what I would like to share with you.

Adesoji Iginla (01:08:46.915)
Yes.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:08:47.017)
People have always wondered why I speak of a good spirit. They listen for a proper name, God, Jehovah, the saints of Rome. But I have lived a life too wide, too wounded, too wandering to bind my faith to a single tongue.

When I was a small girl and often I and worked with my mother's people along the Niagara Trail. The Ojibwe taught me that the world was alive, the trees, the water, the winds, each moved with breath, with intention, with a spirit that listens and answers. They said, a good spirit watches the child who is alone. A good spirit leads her to what she needs. I believed them then and I believe them still. When I left the forest for the schools of the East, I learned new prayers, I sat in pews,

made by hands and heard of angels and Providence of a father who watches of a son who suffers of a spirit of comforts those words were familiar to my to familiar to my heart those shaped by another nation but let me tell you plainly it was not the church at Oberlin that saved me when the world turned cruel

When the mob dragged me into the cold, when lies were tied to my name, when I lay bruised and bloodied in a field, it was not the institution that raised me up, it was the good spirit. Not the white man's charity, not the pity of a system designed to break me, but the ancient watchful presence that guided me since girlhood.

Some say it was luck that sent me John Mercer Langston to defend my name. Some say it was coincidence that brought me patrons, friends, protectors, people who opened doors when others tried to bar them. But I know better. I have always known better. The good spirit walks. The good spirit walks ahead of me and arranges the path.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:10:36.967)
When I left America, when I crossed the ocean and stepped into Rome, the city of marble and saints, I found yet another language for the sacred, a faith of incense and candles, of carved Madonnas and quiet chapels. I saw my own reflection in those women of stone, suffering yet serene, cast out yet chosen. And so I embraced the Catholic faith, though I carried my mother's teachings beside it.

people ask did the good spirit come from the Ojibwe or from Rome? I say it came from both and from neither. It is the voice that whispered to me when I first touched stone in Boston. It is the strength that steadied my hand as I carved Cleopatra hour after hour late into the night, muscles swelling and fatiguing. It is the peace that settled around me when I shaped Hagar, the outcast woman who finds God in the wilderness. It is the spirit that tells

me I am more than the world believes, more than race, more than nation, more than woman, more than the names they gave me, wildfire and such, or the ones they tried to take. I have walked through countries and courts, through insult and applause, through darkness and triumph, and through it, all through it all, the good spirit said, stand, carve.

Live. Do something for the race and for yourself. So when you hear me say the good spirit always sends me friends. Know that it is not a simple phrase. It is my testimony, my inheritance, my shield, my truth. The good spirit carried me from the forest of my childhood to the marble halls of Rome.

and it carries me still and it will carry me even further as you never forget my name and my suffering and my legacy. Thank you.

Adesoji Iginla (01:12:46.968)
Thank you. It would be difficult to forget your name because the cemetery you said, Kenzo Green Cemetery, is literally down the road there. It's literally down the road, that cemetery. It's... my God. The fact that... Wow. So, okay, okay, okay.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:13:03.209)
Perhaps you will pay me a visit.

Adesoji Iginla (01:13:15.682)
And yeah, when you mentioned Bloomsbury and Holborn, that's the art center in London. So the fact that she passed through there and now she finally rests in Kensal Green Cemetery means, okay. The job still continues of lifting up her name as it were. And yes, thank you for sharing your story with us. And

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:13:42.646)
May I realize that we have gone beyond the time you allow. You started off by saying this would be about an hour.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:14:01.404)
Is the struggle any more different today than it was for me?

Adesoji Iginla (01:14:08.302)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:14:11.355)
What can you take from my story? How can you hold on to your dreams? How can you fight when all seems bleak? Can you imagine?

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:14:31.113)
still a teenager in court against a whole establishment accused of attempting to murder precious white women.

Adesoji Iginla (01:14:47.651)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:14:49.801)
Can you also?

Take the hand of the good spirit and fight today those dreams that you are letting languish.

If I could.

You most definitely can and must. Mustn't you?

Adesoji Iginla (01:15:17.25)
Yes.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:15:19.209)
For the race. For yourself.

Adesoji Iginla (01:15:33.262)
Hmm.

Yes, thank you, thank you. Yes, someone said I should pay her a visit. I would. Hopefully it's not too cold this weekend. I'll try and go look out for our gravestone. I mean, if I go there, somebody probably know where it is. Again, thank you, Miss Lewis, for coming through. And...

We thank our audience for listening and for listening and watching. And for those who will also then download the podcast that should be there tomorrow, sometime tomorrow. And as is customary, we talk about who is coming up next. And that will be Braveful, Queen of St. John. That will be next week. The name again is Braveful.

spelled B-R-E-F-F-U, Queen of St. John. Again, it promises to be a remarkable episode. Miss Lewis, any final thoughts?

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:16:47.389)
Just gratitude, thank you for the opportunity to share with you.

Adesoji Iginla (01:16:50.798)
Thank you very much for coming through. Again next week, join us again for Women and Resistance when we look at the times, life and times of Bréfou, the Queen of Saint John. Until next week, it's good night and God bless.