Hood Flowers and Among Ocean Fields

Mapmaker breaks down the
Atlas, with weight of the city on his back
Lifted, hands guiding their dreams loc'd in
For her crown…
She breathes in the city lights
Of the hip hop vibrations ‘til they exhale neon

Consume me in the echoes of the rhythms
Where the pink flowers storms gather
Between the aisle of project buildings
The high grass never cut or manicured
Swaying, rocking,
As if they were the ocean waves crashing
Upon the sidewalk…

My artistic practice is influenced by Hip Hop music and personal experiences growing up in Columbus, Ohio, LA and Camden, NJ. I consider my process as a type of remixing, similar to how a sound engineer or producer would sample hooks, beats or choruses to create new music. I collage materials such as Backwoods, Swishers Sweets, magazines, historical archives, and personal memorabilia in conjunction with symbols, colors, and patterns to framework my art.

By navigating through personal experience and memory, the importance of intimacy within my community and my blackness helps establish my narrative and modes of accessibility. My work uses everyday interaction such playing cards in gallery spaces, riding bikes through the hood, and embracing friends I ain’t seen in a minute. These moments are juxtaposed between hidden symbolism of music, fashion, and black history. By shifting the narratives to one of embrace and empowerment without a reliance on trauma. Whether its exposure of color seen in contemporary popular fashion, or aesthetics of graffiti and street art, they become layers of texture and imagery for the environment and the people depicted carry out their lives and share experience in each work.

Noting on these ideas, they become intertwined with resistance and the black presence through everyday life in my work.