Sheltered Beneath Magnolia Trees
Black Women in Southern Culture
18 September 2020
Written By: Asha Abdul-Mujeeb
“Tucked away in the northeastern corner of the city of Greensboro, NC, Bennett College’s beautiful campus with its Georgian Colonial Buildings evokes tradition. It is a place where the “girls” were taught the finer things of life and social graces. It appears to be the exact opposite of political activism and radicalism. These young women, often dressed in white and sheltered beneath magnolia trees, appear to have learned the lessons of gracious living associated with life in the American South. Bennet has been called the ‘vassar of the South’ for that reason.”
- Belles of Liberty: Gender, Bennett College, and the Civil Rights Movement in Greensboro, NC
The South is a special place for Black women.
MODEL: @TYLA_GENEA | MUA: @04.20.00
My first encounter with the phrase, “Southern Belle” was watching Leila Gerstein’s Hart of Dixie. A romantic-drama based in the fictional town of Bluebell, Alabama. It was my intro 101 to Southern lifestyle from a woman’s perspective. However, it left out the story of Southern Black women.
I’ve lived in Greensboro, NC for almost three years now. In that time, I’ve become overwhelmingly infatuated with the lives of Southern Black women. Southern Belles who believe in old traditions and finer things. In my mind, I visualize the woman who spends her time “sheltered beneath the magnolia tree” on a late July evening. I adore this woman.
That was the visualization that inspired this shoot.
Tyla, a peer at North Carolina A&T State University, asked me to photograph her for her coming of age year, 20. A year that signifies the passage from teenhood to adulthood. It was the perfect person, perfect space, perfect hour that transformed my vision to life.
I shot with a FugiFilm T-X100 which has a natural grain. Golden hour was the perfect compliment to enhance the camera’s natural settings. To bind the idea of the “Southern Belle sheltered beneath the Magnolia Tree,” I choose white flowers to serve as props. The location was found randomly. I’ve always loved big white houses that have porches guarded with pillars and steps leading up to the front door. It reminds me of “the big house” which refers to the home of men and women who enslaved Africans during and after the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
I believe the South is a special place for Black women. It’s arms-length away from a cavernous history that is currently terrorizing families with generational curses. However, for some, if digested well, it can be used as the magic to conjure up your life aspirations.
