“I really don’t give away sculpture. But, in this case, Maya has my respect and has had it for a long time because she was at the center of the struggle of our people and definitely has assisted in our progress. We just wouldn’t be where we are without people like her.”
O nce belonging to the personal collection of Maya Angelou and made specifically in her honor, Melvin Edwards’ OWWA Maya is a stunning homage to the poet and continues the artist’s decades-long investment in exploring themes of African-American history, politics, and oppression through a mastery of metalwork. Hailing from Edwards’ series of Lynch Fragments of which he has explored for over four decades, OWWA Maya challenges perception and prompts the viewer to reflect upon layered symbols of brutality, such as sculpted chains, nails, bolts, and hooks which jut out of the wall. The present work is particularly special for its dedication to Angelou, given to her by Edwards himself at a ceremony for the Organization of Women Writers of Africa (OWWA) in New York, and features a writing utensil amongst the other symbolic additions. OWWA was co-founded in 1991 by Ghanaian writer Ama Ata Aidoo and Edwards' late wife, poet Jayne Cortez. Angelou was a fierce mentor and friend to the organization, which established some of the very first international Black women's writers conferences. With the cool welded steel, OWWA Maya unites Angelou’s incisiveness and Edwards’ political framework in an assemblage which reconstructs the familiar and responds to an implicit struggle.
