The Sacred Dark Feminine in Station North
A conversation between Sheri Parks and Inviting Light artist Zoë Charlton
📅 Friday, August 8 | 🕕 6:00–7:00 PM
đź“Ť Waller Gallery, 2420 N Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD
🎟️ Free and open to the public | Seating is limited
Join us for an evening of conversation, reflection, and cultural insight as scholar Sheri Parks, Ph.D., and local artist Zoë Charlton come together to explore the presence—and power—of the Sacred Dark Feminine in Baltimore’s Station North Arts District, channeled through Charlton’s Inviting Light piece, Third Watch.
This intimate discussion will center on Charlton’s Inviting Light installation, Third Watch—a series of three glowing sculptural figures inspired by African art traditions and installed high above the North Avenue Market. Together, Dr. Parks and Charlton will consider how these maternal, protective forms reimagine surveillance and safety, invoking an ancient archetype: the Sacred Dark Feminine, the fierce and nurturing mother found in myth, culture, and community.
Dr. Parks, author of Fierce Angels: Living with a Legacy from the Sacred Dark Feminine to the Strong Black Woman, will draw connections between this archetype and the roles played by Black women throughout history and in contemporary society. Charlton will speak to how her artistic practice—especially Third Watch—channels this lineage to offer care, presence, and healing in public space.
About the Speakers:
🟣 Sheri Parks, Ph.D. is a cultural critic, community strategist, and professor emerita known for her work on public aesthetics and Black feminist thought.
🟣 Zoë Charlton is a nationally exhibited artist whose work explores the entanglements between people, place, and identity. Her Inviting Light installation, Third Watch, offers a new visual language of care and safety in urban Baltimore.
About Third Watch:
Hovering above one of Baltimore’s busiest intersections, Third Watch features three illuminated figures that transform the city’s harsh blue surveillance lights into symbols of protection rooted in community care. With glowing forms inspired by African fertility sculptures, Charlton’s work suggests a future in which safety is offered—not enforced—by nurturing presence.
The Sacred Dark Feminine and Inviting Light
The Sacred Dark Feminine has always been revered as a particularly efficacious, miraculous Mother, the one who brings us through the most terrible. The founder of Alcoholics Anonymous wrote a thank-you letter to Carl Jung to say AA was “watered down” Jungianism, particularly the “hitting bottom” phase necessary for redemption. In Jung’s dark bottom, one is not alone. The Sacred Dark Feminine is with you and ushers you back to the light. She is all around us, in popular culture, religion, politics, and neighborhoods where Strong Black Women play the same roles in Black communities and the larger society.
Transformations, always an interplay between the terrible and the change, the necessary darkness and her light child. The goddess is described as light and dark at the same time. Her dark skirts “shimmer with light.” She is the Dazzling Darkness. She is the invitation.
👉 RSVP now to save your spot and join the conversation!
About Inviting Light:
Informed by the Station North Public Space Plan and Signal Station North, a two-year community engagement, planning, and prototyping process that sought to understand light’s impact on the nighttime environment and our sense of comfort and place, illuminate the city’s lighting history and infrastructure, and bring transparency and access to everyday citizens, Inviting Light’s five distinct artistic light installations will promote safety and further revitalization efforts in a historically disinvested area.
Inviting Light is sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies and facilitated by Central Baltimore Partnership in partnership with the Mayor’s Office and Senior Advisor for Arts & Culture, and the Neighborhood Design Center. Read more about the award here.
For any questions, please email Catherine Borg at cborg@centralbaltimore.com
Get updates at invitinglight.org and Instagram @invitinglightbaltimore