THE BLACK IMPOSTeR
By Liz Lambson
Photography: Liz Lambson
When I garden, not hiding my brown face under a wide-brim sun hat, dropping gladiolus bulbs into muddy holes, I wonder if the passersby, the white homeowners of the East Bench, assume I’m the hired help — not a resident. When I push a stroller, do they think I’m the nanny? And when they see my white nanny, do they think she’s the resident? How did a Black woman end up in a Dutch Colonial near the organic grocery store and the neighbor with the vineyard who bottles his own wine anyway? I haul out the 4-by-4-foot portrait I painted of Martin Luther King Jr., propping it up on an easel amongst the irises: my own Black Lives Matter yard sign. Yes, I live here.
Liz Lambson, an artist, musician and writer, is the mother of five boys. She performs with the Ballet West Orchestra, and is the creator of “Yoga Storytime and Songs.” She is a member of the Utah Black Artists Collective and board member of the Utah Black History Museum.