In what neighborhood do you live?
Kensington, Brooklyn
How did you first become connected to The LP, or hear about The LP?
I was first introduced really informally. While at Pratt, we would receive biweekly newsletters with writing, job and community opportunities. The LP was in one of the first newsletters we received, but I was still getting acclimated to Brooklyn and school, so I didn’t pay it much attention. But Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts explicitly sent me an email. She was my mentor/professor/thesis advisor while at Pratt, and when you all were searching for a Community Engagement Manager and Senior Manager of Arts & Learning, she thought the position and organization would have resonance. By the time I reviewed the email and application, I had missed the deadline. I even tried to submit my application but the form was closed lol. She didn’t let up with the reminders.
So, what attracted you to The LP? How does working here relate to your professional goals?
Sharifa’s continued encouragement attracted me and how every time I came back to the website, I saw someone who I knew was doing amazing work in the community being supported by the organization kept me invested. I see art organizations as spaces that could and should encourage the blending of personal, professional and political considerations and interests (word to Nina Simone and Audre Lorde). A new goal of mine is to expand the idea of artist residency and use them as community builders, centering the most ignored parts of the Black diaspora.
Do you have your own creative practice? If so, tell us more!
Yes. It includes writing, dance & movement, collage, music making (primarily with instruments), textile work, and figuring out my nephew’s favorite anime.
Can you tell us about an artist or project that has inspired you?
Wangechi Mutu’s exhibit at the New Museum was the first art exhibit that I could see my mom in.
What is your favorite… film? …album? …food?
I don’t like favorites, and these answers will change. Top 6 Films: Selena, Eve’s Bayou, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Their Eyes Were Watching God, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, The Photograph Top 6 Albums: What Now | Brittany Howard; Ibeyi | Ibeyi; The Secret Life of Plants | Stevie Wonder; Stripped | Christina Aguilera; Full Moon | Brandy; Luxury | Alex Isley Top 6 Foods: cassava leaves, mangosteen, popcorn, bacon, hibiscus mint popsicles, chocolate turtles.
Where do you do your laundry?
Growing up, in the basement of my parent’s homes. For most of my childhood, at my mom’s we line dried clothes. Now, in the kitchen 🙂
In your opinion, why does art matter?*
Because it requires the same thing as revolution to be successful, creativity and criticality.
What LP value do you most related to and why?*
“We Write Our Own Histories” is the one I’ll choose because I’m cheating and think it encompasses all the others. As a person who likes to challenge the ethnographic, anthropological, and sociological studies of people from those outside of community, being able to write both your and your people’s history is incredibly illuminating, powerful and an act of propelling yourself forward. Through that writing, you’re able to look forward and create the change you want to see. In any project of archiving (which I would argue this value is), there is an encouragement of the use of various mediums, which probably would encourage learning something new, which is part and parcel to nurturing creativity. In committing to writing your own history, you’re writing the history of people and places you love and value. Because of my foundation, and the people I would be honoring in writing my history, it’s inherently an encouragement of a POC (specifically Black) centered understanding of history. And through an understanding, assessment, demystification of what your people experienced, you can see all the spaces for expansion and abundance that existed, exist, and will continue to exist.