The Great Migration Triptych -Erikka Polk

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“Black Migratory Patterns (1910-2019) and Making a Way Out of No Way” | Laser, Wood, Acrylic and Yarn. 2019.

This lasered triptych of wood panels tells the story, in short, of The Great Migration and The Great Reversal. It occurred when over 6 million Black-Americans up and left the South for the North for a better socioeconomic standing and is being reversed today for the same reasons.

I came up with the idea to create this project while reading Isabel Wilkerson's Warmth of Other Suns, in which she tells The Great Migration story from the viewpoint of three partakers. An influx of Black-Americans to my hometown of Houston inspired the present day portion of the triptych.

This was for a senior thesis for my Digitally Handmade for Artists and Designers course in 2019 at Texas State University. I had the time of my life researching for this project, planning and executing it in the prototyping lab I worked at.

In the close-ups below you can see that each panel of wood shows a portion of Black migratory patterns: the first wave starting in 1910 of southerners to other parts of the U.S., the second wave starting in 1940 of southerners to the northern and western parts of the U.S. and the third wave that started in 1970, that we are still experiencing today, where Black people are moving from all over the U.S. to the south.

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In the close-ups below you can see that each panel of wood shows a portion of Black migratory patterns: the first wave starting in 1910 of southerners to other parts of the U.S., the second wave starting in 1940 of southerners to the northern and western parts of the U.S. and the third wave that started in 1970, that we are still experiencing today, where Black people are moving from all over the U.S. to the south.