Danielle Mason

Writer | Folklorist | Educator | Mother

Friend of My Mind

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Artist Statement

I write stories that give language to the expressions that are often too difficult to put into words. I am a writer who prescribes healing through my stories, awakening sensory experiences of life and death within the human consciousness. It is my aim to showcase the broad scope of emotions that live beneath the surface…

Stay holdin… I love my city!!! Another day in the JY Photo Lab. 8 more academic days left of school. Tonight is prom! I’ll be there snapping photos behind the scenes! I received a graduation announcement today from one of our seniors, top 3 of his class. It made my eyes swell. I didn’t anticipate growing so close with the youth in this way. The rewards of the job are plenty. Here are a few more glimpses into our paper quilt, a collage of images that carry the legacy of our school and community. #3rdward #thirdward #jyphotolab I have posts for days! Let me find a quiet moment and I’ll be able to share all of the wonderful things that our students have been doing this year! Every time I step outside of my classroom I see something new on our “paper quilt” a collective mural created by my photography students to uplift the history of Third Ward & Jack Yates HS through archival images. Being able to stitch ourselves into the seams of this history was vital as well, as student work was incorporated into the collage. Stay tuned for a look into the mural in its fullness. #jyphotolab Moment of transparency. I put my camera down in 2018 to focus on my writing. I felt like I needed to take heed of the assessments of advisors that said that I was scattered and needed to choose just one of my passions to develop further. I figured that if I wanted my writing to take flight then I would need to devote myself to it and didn’t look back. Needless to say photography and narrative building go hand in hand and I’ve never stopped taking pictures. I simply approached it from a more elusive framework, capturing moments that I deemed as sacred with my iPhone, for my own personal use and archive. musing • 11:11 Salutations! Mornings be like… ✨🏹 this work is layered and it runs deep. #jyphotolab Thank you to everyone who came out to support the Aesthetic Inheritances project! The screening of our film felt extremely welcomed by such a vibrant community of artists, archivists, and supporters of the arts and culture. To also have my photography on view at @harriscocac made this entire experience transcendental for me. I still do not have the words for the offering that it has provided. For those of you who missed the screening but wanted to see, we will be showing the film again for Juneteenth and it will be accessible via @diverseworks in the near future. Our prayer is that each of the attendees of this event are inspired to take a deeper look into the legacies that have been passed down to them and will take stock of where their inheritances lie. This film was an extension of our ethnographic practices in documenting Black expressive culture with a focus on land stewardship of Texas freedom colonies and Black material culture. It is a living, breathing project that we hope will expand over time. Thank you all for such a tender embrace!

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