Her words do not fall on the ground

Her words do not fall on the ground is a devotional altar installation created by Courtney Desiree Morris in homage to Yemaya, the Yoruba orisha of the sea, motherhood, and creation. Steeped in diasporic memory and ancestral veneration, the installation brings together an intricate array of materials considered sacred to Yemaya, evoking the spiritual and ecological realms she governs. Central to the altar are hundreds of seashells—abalone, conch, and crab shells—painstakingly collected by the artist over a decade from the shores of the U.S. Gulf Coast, Pacific Coast, Latin America, and the Caribbean. These are presented alongside ocean stones, driftwood, antique ceramics, blue glass bottles, and other symbolic found objects that speak to Yemaya’s dominion over the sea and her deep cultural resonance across the Black Atlantic.

At the heart of the installation is a small shrine housed within an antique kitchen drawer, containing a cast-iron Mammy figurine—a racially charged artifact repurposed here as a site of transformation and reclamation. The juxtaposition of oppressive historical objects with offerings of beauty and reverence reframes inherited trauma as spiritual resistance and restoration.

Morris’s altar is not static, but intended as a living space of ritual care. When exhibited, it should be encircled by as many living plants as possible (ideally in multiples of seven, a sacred number in Yemaya's cosmology), a vase of white roses, and a border of seven blue-and-white ceramic plates—together forming a ceremonial environment that honors both the divine feminine and the marine ecologies under threat.