The Laundromat Project commissions awesome New York City artists to make special edition prints and design merchandise. The sale of these items helps The LP bring fun, accessible, community-responsive arts programming to laundromats and other public spaces across the city. To purchase a print or tote bag, please click here.
Tell us about your LP commissioned print.
Post White is a screen print. It is a text based work that simply has the words “Post White” printed in a clear gloss on white paper. If you don’t look closely, it might seem like just a blank piece of paper. I hope that people frame it and that some casual viewers think that the owner has bought the emperor’s new clothes. But on second look it is a work that references the concept of “Post Black” by looking at a mirror of that: “Post White.” It’s literal and a conceptual pun. What would Post White be?
The world is a horror and it doesn’t have to be like this. As part of this, the conditions that Black people face in the US are a real concentration of much of that horror—first slavery, then Jim Crow segregation and now mass incarceration; police brutality and murder; staggering unemployment; houses and wealth stolen in sub-prime lending, etc. How people, including many in the arts, think about the conditions of Black people has a great deal to do with whether we can bring about a better world. I think that the concept of Post Black tends to minimize the ongoing oppression the majority of Black people face. And the flip side of that ironically is that it doesn’t escape the logic of Black and white in america and implies that for artists who choose not to address this in their art, somehow they have to pretend (or come to believe) that we don’t live in a racist and racialized society.
What inspired you to support The Laundromat Project?
The LP rocks and you asked for support.
What’s your neighborhood?
Ft. Greene.
What’s your favorite thing about your neighborhood?
A great park.
What are you reading now?
I’m re-reading Basics: From the Talks and Writings of Bob Avakian. I’m also reading Pornified: How Pornography is Damaging Our Lives, our Relationships, and Our Families.
Your dream last meal?
My Pi cheese and sausage pan pizza from Chicago. I hope LP isn’t planning an execution.
What song gets you going when work is hard?
It changes over time, but right now, Jimmy Cliff’s new song “One More.”
What’s your favorite word?
Fuck. So many meanings, one little word.
What most inspires your work?
Knowledge that the world can be radically different and far better and that I can contribute to that process.
What are you working on now?
Trying to become visible.
Any current or upcoming show/performance you want to recommend?
I’m looking forward to Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art at the Contemporary Art Museum Houston. This show is long overdue and I’m happy I’m in it.