Spring 2020 Senior Capstone
My blackness is my most significant characteristic and It encompasses more than just skin color or hair texture. It holds a shared lost history with millions of stolen Africans in America like me; It holds generations of obstacles, excitement, growth, loss, and persistence. My blackness is my first identity; Black Woman. Black American. Black Artist. The love I have for this marker of my culture is unbounded and plentiful, but like many other Black people of the diaspora, I have a need to know where my ancestors came from. The Transatlantic Slave Trade ripped families apart, and I am slowly recounting the steps that lead my family back to Africa.
This body of work is a visual record of the research into my family’s African tribal heritage and genealogy. My works are most influenced by the Fulani (Fulɓe, Peul, Hilani, Fula, Pël, Fulaw), and Yoruba (Ìran Yorùbá) tribes because these are the groups my family is made up of the most. My choice in media contributes to the body of work by highlighting my status as an outsider to these communities. I pair this research and knowledge with my admiration for the beautiful cultures in Africa for which I have no connection to, my relationship to Africa as an American, and with speculation into what my family and ancestors could have been had, they never encountered the zeitgeist of European and American colonialism.
Beauty of the Fulani Tribe, Digital Media 2020
The Hidden Traditions of the Church of Santeria, Digital Media 2020
Worth of a Black Body, Digital Media 2020
Moremi's Sacrifice, Digital Media 2020
Celebration of 4c, Digital Media 2020
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