Sean G. Clark

 I cut a lot of grass as a teenager. I quite enjoyed it. Sometimes I would make criss cross patterns and try to outdo the work my neighbor had done on their lawn. My dad sometimes cut the grass too. In the yard I would occasionally find the twig, acorn or fallen magnolia leaves, but I never imagined the possibility of their being much more than soil, rocks and clay beneath my emerald canvas. I wondered if others ponder the possibility of a lifeless body beneath their footsteps while they prod and  prune their lawns to America’s standards. I wonder if the people who own the land that my grandmother and aunt are buried in know that their lost and lifeless bodies rest beneath their barbecues. Hopefully my relatives went to whatever they call heaven because hell is above their heads. I wonder if any so called American wonders as they traverse this landscape if there might be a bone or two beneath their Nikes.

No one can tell me too much other than at one point in Medina Tennessee there was a church that my great ancestor preached at which had a cemetery where my father’s mother and sister were buried along with possible other family members. When the church fell and the land was sold the headstones were bulldozed into some unknown corner of land.  I do not know who owns the land but I intend to find out. I intend to find out why even in death black bodies are disrespected and put in the same position that they arrived in this country in a position that serves as the foundation for someone else's freedom.  

“Medina, TN”

My family was onced a loaned a plot of land to conduct their religious practice on. On this land was a church and family graveyard. My grandmother (Lessie), aunt(Blondell),and others were laid to rest here for almost 70 years. When the church burned down the land was returned and graves were desecrated by a bulldozer and the locations of my ancestors were lost. The 12x12 foot quilt titled, “Medina, Tennessee” was made to represent this plot of land. The improv floating square style of quilting lends itself to the idea that the plots could floating around anywhere on this piece of land.