Gullah Me 2.0, NFT Project by Verneda Lights
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How "Gullah Me 2.0" Started
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My father, Vernon Lights, Sr., (d. 2013), was a veteran of the United States Navy and Marine Corps. A member of “the greatest generation,” he fought in WW II and the Korean Conflict. While growing up, he often regaled my siblings and I with stories painting a vivid picture of what it was like to grow up Black and poor in the Jim Crow South, during the early 20th Century. With time, my siblings and I learned his narrative, and in the process, we also learned about social justice (and injustice), socioeconomics, military hierarchies, foreign leaders and governments, American history, Black history, and family histories.
My father’s stories inspired me to want to know more about history, and storytelling. While attending Bryn Mawr College in the early 70s, I was a pre-med student, but I majored in history, and graduated with honors in that subject. I think my father secretly knew that I would one day write his story, though he did not press the point. In my freshman year of college, I wrote a long narrative poem about my father’s life, called “Song of Blackfire,” for one of my history courses. My professor, (feminist Lila Karp), was impressed. But the poem was never published. The turning point that put me on my current path to write about my family’s history occurred earlier this year, when I participated in a justice memoir writing class held via Zoom, that was organized by my Bryn Mawr classmate, Luvon Roberson, of the Riverside Writing Group, (sponsored by Riverside Church, in NYC). Luvon is also a Black writer, (from Mississippi).
Vernon Lights, Sr. picked cotton at the age of three. Image by Verneda Lights, using DALL E ai software, combined with photomontage of clouds overlooking the Lights homestead, and digital painting. A "Gullah Me 2.0" illustration. © 2022
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In that fateful session, the group had to respond to the writing prompt to tell about an artifact in our environment that represents justice or our justice heroes. I looked around my living room, and my gaze landed upon the triangular wood and glass casing that holds the folded flag that draped my father’s coffin. After I read what I wrote, one of the other attendees told me that I had to write my father’s story. I knew she was right, but, still stunned by the upheavals in my life caused by the pandemic, I had no idea how to start.
My “aha” moment arrived after I applied for, and was accepted as, an Niftorian fellow in their NFT Artist Accelerator Program. I learned about the program from members in the Techspressionism artists' group, that I belong to. I had also just begun to explore using artificial intelligence platforms for the creation of fine art. Initially, I was deeply frustrated by the fact that ai platforms often lack competence in the ability to render female and ethnic faces. I was determined to find a way around that intrinsic bias. So, in the process of identifying my NFT project, I decided that I wanted to continue to explore the artistically rich heritage of my Gullah heritage, as I had with my initial “Gullah Me” project. I also decided to embark upon this venture by using artificial intelligence platform, DALL E. Upon further thought, I decided that I wanted to tell my family’s history and use that as a broader lens through which viewers could learn more about my people, the Gullahgeechee Nation of the South Carolina Low Country. Thus, “Gullah Me 2.0” (an NFT project and book), was born. Please watch the video for more content on this ground-breaking venture. Questions? Send us an email!
Aniconic Gullah Girl # 2 by Verneda Lights, using ai software DALL E, combined with digital photos of clouds in the sky above her family homestead, combined with digital painting. A "Gullah Me 2.0" illustration. © 2022
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