The World is Yours

Queens, New York - April 2018

 

Born and raised in Queens, NY, Mo was so excited to help bring the first Clitorosity drawing in Queens to life in April of 2018. She picked the location for us, thought of the design and chose a message that tied together the location, movement, and her experiences. It was a much colder day than we anticipated, so thank you Mo for braving the cold, rolling up your sleeves to play with chalk and share your amazing energy with us. We are excited to share her reflections with you all: 

Why did you pick the location? 

"The Unisphere is so iconic, so uniquely Queens. It was commissioned for the World's Fair of 64/65, where the theme was "Peace Through Understanding" - with the theme of the Unisphere itself being global interdependence. So many diverse people and cultures use nearby Flushing Corona Park as their backyard, so I knew that it would be a really cool place to share this drawing."

What inspired the message and what does it mean? 

"The Nas song, "The World is Yours" was one of my FAVORITE songs as a child. I'd never seen Scarface, so I didn't get the reference then, but just that phrase: "The World is Yours" is so powerful to a child - especially to a little brown kid growing up in the suburbs. Right now, it's a really crazy time for women and we need to be reminded that the world is ours TOO. I want women/girls/trans-people to see that the world is (should be) open to them."

What do you want to communicate through this drawing?

"The more that women and people with clitorises are aware of who they are, WHAT they are, the closer to freedom (emotional/sexual) they can be. I learned about sex and about the clitoris (the info on that wasn't very detailed, mind you) through the Encyclopedia Britannica because my parents wouldn't talk about it! And, I feel like a lot of other women of color experience the same thing. Being interested in your own genitalia and your own pleasure was seen as shameful or perverse, and even though that's slowly changing, it's not changing fast enough." 

What was the experience of drawing like? 

"COLD. Hahahaha, it was really freezing that day. But as our chalk struck the asphalt, and you started to see everything emerge, it was so wonderful! Even though I have a ton of coloring books at home - I don't make enough time to really sit down and get lost in the simple pleasure of making art that way. It was liberating to just be outside with the wind biting our fingers and watching our work blossom into something truly special."