Whether it is physical or digital material I’m manipulating, my work survives with the use of re-appropriation. I string together different mediums in an attempt to disrupt institutional semiotics, architectures, and languages by flirting with the colonial tongue in order to ultimately destabilize it. Furthermore, my work is structured on the belief of the street as being something which is constantly fluid, unconforming, and fluctuating in its element and singular authenticity. I am highly concerned with the history and the presence of queer black radical tradition as a manifestation of opposition and sincerity. I am drawn to any cultural or political ephemera, which in some way indicates institutional symbolism or street-based ethnographies.

Mentor: Lyle Ashton Harris, Artist

Prior to being selected for this show, I had discovered one of Lyle’s self-portraits, “Saint Michael Stewart,” in the October 2019 edition of Gayletter Magazine and have been intensely drawn to his work since then. To talk with him and have the opportunity to present my body of work was truly a catalyst of power.