For years, the DJ and producer Marea Stamper, who is White, has been performing and recording under the name the Black Madonna. The name is a reference to historic depictions of Mary and Jesus that have rendered both of them as Black, or as dark-skinned. Today, Stamper has announced that she’s changed her stage name; she’ll now be known as the Blessed Madonna.

In her announcement, Stamper writes, “In retrospect, I should have listened harder to other perspectives… 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.”

Recently, as Pitchfork reports, Black Catalogue label founder Monty Luke started a Change.org petition to get Stamper to change her name. Luke claims that he started the petition only after emailing Stamper and getting no response. In the petition, which has received over 1,200 signatures, Luke wrote:

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. 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.

On Instagram this morning, Stamper wrote:

I have changed my name to The Blessed Madonna.

I have 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. 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. 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.

Thank you for listening. Stay blessed.

-Love Marea

PS: If you read this far, arrest the cops that murdered Breonna Taylor in my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky: Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, Myles Cosgrove.

After Stamper announced the name change, Monty Luke wrote this in a statement to Pitchfork:

I commend Marea Stamper for finally making the decision to cease the use of the name, ‘The Black Madonna.’ The issue of cultural appropriation is pervasive, nuanced and complex. I hope that the dialogue this has sparked continues so that we may gain a deeper understanding and insight from all corners of the dance music community in an effort to move forward together.

Marea Stamper last appeared on this site last year, when she pulled out of the Amazon-sponsored Intersect Festival after learning of Amazon’s involvement in it.