CLASSIC BITS

Works on wood from the archives spanning from 2003-2013. Race, the ever-evolving social construct has been a central theme throughout my oeuvre and during this period I explore various manifestations of Blackness as it relates to being. This work also remarks on the sexism and misogynoir deeply ingrained into the USian mainstream as well as that which exists within various foundational subcultures of the Black community. Thus, my work considers the power dynamic between dominant gender identities juxtaposed against the endless spectrum of those who unabashedly and openly embrace their queerness, all while being ostracized and shunned.

During this span of time, I observed notable strides within Black, queer, woman-led spaces. I was cautiously hopeful all while expecting and commenting on the gradual backlash that has virulently ensued. I believe that the fear/ignorance that fuels transphobic/homophobic perspectives within the Black community, (often leading to the brutal deaths of our trans and gender nonconforming kin), is a direct product of anti-Blackness and the insecurity and fear that drives white male posturing and by proxy sanctioned police violence. This in turn espouses internalized hatred and death, hacking beautiful branches off the otherwise firmly rooted tree that is Blackness. 

My work is as much a firsthand documentation of this, (embodying that which I once believed amplified by that which I now know), and is a commentary on the continued fight for justice against the tiki torches of inequality that are institutionalized in Western society and how this filters into the respectability politics that some Black folks have aligned with and embodied. In turn this internalized anti-Blackness, which we all continue to struggle against, spurns those who have been multiply marginalized and therefore othered through the white supremacist's lens.