Marea Stamper, formerly known as The Black Madonna has changed her name to The Blessed Madonna. This comes after a campaign over the weekend to get her to change her name gathered some momentum.
The petition launched by Detroit artist Monty Luke called the name “problematic, offensive” and accused it of “cultural appropriation.”
The Blessed Madonna, in her statement on the name change, wrote about why she originally chose the name in connection to her Catholic faith and why she is changing it now after listening to others.
“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. 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.”
She continues, “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.”
See her full statement below.
https://twitter.com/blessed_madonna/status/1285155184205864960
