Columbus, Ohio–based artist Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson combined traditional art techniques with found objects and everyday materials such as buttons, cloth, leather, twigs, shells, and music-box workings to create her prolific body of two- and three-dimensional works of art. This image is a page from an illustrated book with accordion binding and hand-painted lithographs that show marriage celebrations performed by enslaved people of African descent in America. 

Marriages between the enslaved were not legally sanctioned in most states, so slave communities adapted marriage rituals for their own ceremonies. Robinson focuses on the tradition of jumping forward and backward over a broomstick three times. Using brightly colored, simplified images and handwritten text, she relays stories of these weddings as passed down through generations and told to her by her Uncle Alvin. 

The entire book can be seen on the Toledo Museum of Art’s website here.

Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson (American, 1940–2015), The Broomstick Ritual—Slave Marriage Celebrations. Book with hand-painted lithographs, 1993. 18 3/8 × 24 3/8 × 1/2 in. (46.7 × 61.9 × 1.3 cm). Gift of the Artist, 2007.88. Not on view. *

Image Description: This is a colorful image showing a joyful scene of a couple jumping over a broomstick on the ground, flanked by spectators. All of the people have dark skin and wear bright clothes in red, pink, green, and blue. The couple is in motion, with arms forward and legs bent as they leap over the broom in the center of the image. Around them, others appear to cheer and celebrate. Below the scene, two white chickens walk through green grass. At the top, handwritten text says, “It was the license to jump high 3 times.” At the bottom, it says, “Uncle Alvin says that during the days of slavery, the marriage celebration was always celebrated with a broomstick among community people—jumping backwards and forward over a broom.”