SKIN COLOR
2023 - PRESENT
"It was a pleasure and a gift to have been there, thank you for bringing this project to life. I'am amazed that you could take an experience like finding that jar of "skin color", and live and breathe through everything it made you feel, then turn it into a springboard for meaningful exchanges like I experienced yesterday. You took something that could have closed doors and turned it into a living work of art that opens them."
-Florence M., Dallas,TX
Skin Color is a community driven interactive art performance that highlights the beautiful spectrum of skin tones beyond the concepts of race and class. Through lighthearted conversations and interactions, I hope to encourage others to see more in their skin color.
During my Skin Color sessions, I invite participants to engage in lively and enriching conversations about life, connections and identity while matching participants specific skin color with acrylic paint. The goal of the project is to encourage self-love and knowledge while building community. My goal is to color match at least 1000 people in and around Akron, Ohio area over the life of the project.
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Skin Color was conceptualized in early 2023 after I encountered a container of peachy ink labeled “skin color.” This label caused Me to pause. I began to question her personal relationship with her own identity and skin color alongside mainstream marketing and societal implicit bias. Skin Color seeks to explore the ability to celebrate skin tone differences while healing an instance of implicit bias in a unique and positive way.
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SKIN COLOR COUNTER
DELEVAN ST. MURAL
2021
“The Bigger Picture” is the title of the community mural commissioned by firefighter and local business man Hakeem Hicks in 2021. Hicks, a long time member of the community, desired to acknowledge the changing face of the community and encourage unity through a unique and engaging piece.
I was honored to be chosen as the artist for this project in Buffalo, NY and to lead the community in the creation of this mural that everyone had a hand in. Over the course of a week the mural came to life culminating with a community festival where citizens were invited to add their handprints to the mural and enjoy the fun and food provided by Hicks and other local business owners.
THE BLACK HOUSE GALLERY
2016 - 2019
The idea for The Black House Gallery came to me as a fever dream in 2016. I desired to create a safe space for graffiti and underground artists to be free to create without fear of retribution. Through hard work and tenacity a group of local artists and I transformed an abandoned house in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood of Cleveland, OH into a thriving arts hub.
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Our “Gallery” became a safe space for those seeking refuge during a major opioid epidemic in Ohio. Inside those walls everyone was welcomed and no questions were asked. During its short existence, The Black House Gallery was home to various art shows, poetry readings, graffiti “classes” and other artistic experiences.
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In 2020 the abandoned house that had become our arts hub was torn down by the City of Cleveland after a long and expensive battle. Today, a local bee apiary stands in the place of The Black House Gallery. Hood Honey is a community based bee apiary and farm that was started by one of the supporters of The Black House Gallery in an act of legacy and defiance. Its founder, Ronnie Trey Williams was not willing to let the my vision of community and togetherness be forgotten and has creates a space that continues to honor and uplifted the community in remembrance of The Black House Gallery and his grandmother who once lived on the street.
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