I AM

This is an artifact from the Los Angeles performance of (Don't) Use Me in 2022. Due to pay inequity, it takes a Black woman eight months into the next calendar year to earn what a white man earned in 365 days. To further quantify this lost time, the artist (and subject of this portrait) invited Black women to share how they would reclaim 8 months of stolen time. During the performance, Autumn Breon wore each handwritten reclamation of time as a flower in her afro. This piece is the fourth in a series inspired by Black women's reclamations and includes the authors as co-creators, sharing profits in perpetuity as a direct action against pay inequity.