"Mask" by Adebisi Adeloye

This art piece represents mental health and how many people often feel they have to hide their struggles just to feel “normal.” The mask represents hiding your emotions to fit into society's current standards. While there has been a rise in taking mental health seriously, a lot of people still feel unable to truly show their emotions. Wearing a poker face is often tiring, but it is seen as the norm in many communities where mental health isn't taken seriously. We often fall into the habit of dismissing our own mental health, which stems from generations of people telling us, “You’re just faking it,” or “You’ll be fine, stop overreacting.”

This art connects to this issue because many of us are often forced to wear a mask to suppress our true emotions and thoughts just to fit into our communities. Our struggles are frequently dismissed or treated as a joke. This issue is deeply important to me because, in many African and Black communities, mental health is rarely taken seriously. This stems from a survival mindset that many of us are taught from a young age: enduring our hardships in silence, as showing vulnerability is often seen as a sign of weakness. Furthermore, medical mistrust has put a damper on seeking help, as we are historically not treated the same as our white counterparts.