The Black Madonna Has Changed Her Name Following Public Pressure
"My artist name has been a point of controversy, confusion, pain and frustration that distracts from things that are a thousand times more important than any single word in that name."
The Black Madonna has changed her name to The Blessed Madonna, citing the “confusion pain and frustration” it has caused over the years, saying “in retrospect, I should have listened harder”.
Marea Stamper has DJ’d as The Black Madonna for decades, and is one of the most successful women in electronic music. In a note across social media, Stamper announced her stage name would change, as her own religious reasonings behind the name aren’t reason enough to keep it as a white woman.
“I’ve always been transparent about my faith because I felt a responsibility to be clear about who I was and who I was not,” she wrote. “The name was a reflection of my family’s lifelong and profound Catholic devotion to a specific kind of European icon of the Virgin Mary which is dark in hue. People who shared that devotion loved the name, but in retrospect, I should have listened harder to other perspectives. But now I hear loud and clear.”
“My artist name has been a point of controversy, confusion, pain and frustration that distracts from things that are a thousand times more important than any single word in that name.”
Stamper ends her note with an acknowledgement that her name change is “a very small part of a bigger conversation”, but an important one all the same.
“We’re living in extraordinary times and this is a very small part of a much bigger conversation, but we all have a responsibility to try and affect positive change in any way we can. I want you to be able to feel confident in the person I am and what I stand for.”
It’s likely Stamper changed the name due to heightened public pressure around her name. Last month, Black Catalogue founder Luke Monty started a petition last month asking Stamper to change her name, saying he was doing so after he received no response from reaching out privately.
“This name, ‘The Black Madonna,’ holds significance for catholics around the world, but especially so for black catholics in the US, Caribbean and Latin America,” the petition reads. “In addition, Detroit’s Shrine of the Black Madonna has been an important cultural figure to many interested in the idea of Black feminism and self-determination for the past 50 years.”
“Religious connotations aside though, it should be abundantly clear that in 2020, a white woman calling herself ‘black’ is highly problematic.”
Read Stamper’s full statement below.
Photo Credit: The Blessed Madonna Facebook