"The Book of Danielle" is a biblically inspired multimedia cyber-womanist compilation, curated into a website.

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Project Statement:

The Book of Danielle is a digital think piece chronicling the hopes and fears of Black women as their journey towards gendered liberation evolves. The work is a depiction of the Black woman's confrontation with intersectional bigotry, through the use of digital art, and podcasts. It is an act of solidarity within that confrontation, meant to antagonize, comfort, and titillate the audience. The main subjects for The Book of Danielle are the various waves of American feminism depicted throughout history as Black women move toward Sovereignty, the ultimate destination. The project uses research and inspiration from the novel, All About Love: New Visions by feminist author bell hooks and the video piece, Nun and Deviant by Nancy Angelo. My work hopes to enrich the audience with the collective emotions that encapsulate each period without needing to research any particular historical event. The language of film and video seek to show and not tell; this project wants to uphold that conviction. The audience can move freely throughout the project in any order. This freedom of movement illustrates the possibility for stimulating change and widening the bridge that connects art and activism.

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Artist Statement:

Jonelle Lightbourne is a digital artist based in New York City. Her artwork seeks to combine digital paintings, digital graphics, podcasts, and hyperlinks to tell the stories of those who can't tell it themselves. More specifically, to tell the story of women of color who come from regions where access to technology is limited. The research that she does for her digital creations is extensive, but the manifestation of that research is made accessible in her work. A lot of the work is modeled after her personal experiences. Themes of love and sorrow are refracted through the lenses of Feminism, class consciousness, and media criticism.