MOAD Museum

On May 2, 2011 was the perfect day to spend time with one of my aunts that I rarely see because she lives in stockton. As we met up during her lunch break from one of the corporate offices in downtown San francisco we began to stroll down Mission and 3rd where we stopped at the Museum of the African Diaspora. The design of this Museum is small but in an interesting way uses all its space very efficiently. On the second floor my aunt and I watched a video about Celia, an African/Cuban woman, documentary about the contributions she made to salsa music, because as it stands she is known to be the currator of the music. Next there is a long hallway that explains how food, hairstyles, and the way we dress as Americans has long roots from Africa. My favorite part of the Museum was the Slave Narrative Room. The room is dark with two rows of bench chairs that are anchored against the wall, and all thats left is empty space in between the two benches. The room is small and boxed in, and on the wall directly in front is a projector that swirls images around as the narrator of each story speaks. Some stories are spoken with so much pain and grief that it makes you cry. Some are very technical and tells their story in a manner that explains what a slave is. The slave narrative room had a profound effect on me because I use to feel as though the days when African American people had been enslaved were long over, but when I listened to the Slave Narratives I couldn't help but feel like lots of people that look like me and have the same color skin as me have been trapped by a slave mentality. In an attempt to lighten my mood I went to the 3rd floor where there is an African Art Exhibit that  embraces all the beauty of being black, bold, and inventive. The last place I stopped was the 2nd floor, and there was this kind of interactive painting that ask all those who view it, "If you were going on a journey what would you take", and I put on a stick note that I would take my family, love, forgiveness, and God. The things I experienced in this Museum makes me question my thoughts about how other nationalities perceive black people. Do they think of use as capable of intelligence or merely freed wild animals? Is our diversity a factor that defines a culture or is it over looked? All I know is my black is beautiful and the creator of this world embed a type of charm in African American people that is found in no other group of people.