As a person you have the birthright to be both seen and heard. It's a basic Human Right! Therefore, in correspondence with the BLM movement I created this series entitled, "Being a Black Person Means.." to highlight essentially some values of what being black means to me as a black person myself and to further provide comfort and support to Black communities and educate others in the process. Overall through showcasing this series in an effort to amplify the voices of the BLM movement I hope to also diminish the negative stigma developed by the media and society about black people.

As a person you have the birthright to be both seen and heard. It's a basic Human Right! Therefore, in correspondence with the BLM movement I created this series entitled, "Being a Black Person Means.." to highlight essentially some values of what being black means to me as a black person myself and to further provide comfort and support to Black communities and educate others in the process. Overall through showcasing this series in an effort to amplify the voices of the BLM movement I hope to also diminish the negative stigma developed by the media and society about black people.

As a person you have the birthright to be both seen and heard. It's a basic Human Right! Therefore, in correspondence with the BLM movement I created this series entitled, "Being a Black Person Means.." to highlight essentially some values of what being black means to me as a black person myself and to further provide comfort and support to Black communities and educate others in the process. Overall through showcasing this series in an effort to amplify the voices of the BLM movement I hope to also diminish the negative stigma developed by the media and society about black people.

As a person you have the birthright to be both seen and heard. It's a basic Human Right! Therefore, in correspondence with the BLM movement I created this series entitled, "Being a Black Person Means.." to highlight essentially some values of what being black means to me as a black person myself and to further provide comfort and support to Black communities and educate others in the process. Overall through showcasing this series in an effort to amplify the voices of the BLM movement I hope to also diminish the negative stigma developed by the media and society about black people.

As a person you have the birthright to be both seen and heard. It's a basic Human Right! Therefore, in correspondence with the BLM movement I created this series entitled, "Being a Black Person Means.." to highlight essentially some values of what being black means to me as a black person myself and to further provide comfort and support to Black communities and educate others in the process. Overall through showcasing this series in an effort to amplify the voices of the BLM movement I hope to also diminish the negative stigma developed by the media and society about black people.

This piece is in remembrance of the late rapper, Pop Smoke. His death was very sad and alarming to me as he quickly rose to fame and became one of my favorite artists during latter half of 2019. I felt with creating this animated illustration/short, I could shed some light on what a black man did for the rap industry and pop culture of our generation, even in death.

Looking at this piece... what do you see? Do you just see a mere face, the choked eyes, or the hypnotic hands? Do you wonder... why the zipper and denim stitches on the face? Maybe it's alot deeper than what you see... Different experiences in life can be vexatious or rosy. Life they say is not a bed of roses. When the hard part hits you, it feels like the entire universe is against you, everything seems like a gigantic burden choking and pulling you down from every angle, depression kicks in, you try to zip it all up, it seems unachievable. You feel Like giving up already. But most importantly, how you handle such tragedy matters a great deal, do you let it own you or you fight hard to conquer it. 'Life in general is 10% what happens to you, the other 90% is how you handle it'.

I'm a Black, disabled, mental health advocate who deals with invisible illness (GAD, PTSD, agoraphobia due to racial trauma). My recent work focuses on disparities Black people face in mental healthcare treatment and misogynoir. My educational activism series "Surviving in Isolation: The Black Mental Health Experience" highlights how Black people don't see themselves represented when seeking a therapist or psychologist. It also illustrates my own experiences with racism while seeking treatment. When POC seek mental healthcare, they're more likely to get lower quality treatment and more likely to end treatment (article, "Talking About Race in Trauma Psychotherapy" via societyforpsychotherapy.org). A 2014 study by AIU showed that out of 35 African-Americans and 15 Hispanics, 82% reported communication issues related to race with a non-ethnic/Caucasian therapist. APA.org stated as of 2015, only 4% of psychologists are Black/African-American.

"Celebrating Shades of Black Beauty "is a new series I started with my Mom. We've wanted to collab for years by doing something around celebrating Black women. We created this series to represent fem Black bodies of all shapes, focusing on plus-sized bodies. We also wanted to illustrate the beauty of 4c hair because it's still seen negatively in society and within our communities. These ideas stem from my Mom not feeling represented as a plus-sized/curvy Black woman and my experiences with self-hate regarding my hair and what I perceived as body flaws. Additionally, we don't like how dark-skinned Black women are treated negatively in media, so most of the art in this series will show the beauty of dark skin. The background and hair colors are taken from her ClarityIsJustSoHip designs, while I drew the bodies.

"Conflicted" is a redraw of an older drawing with the same name that I drew at age 11. The original was drawn when racism and bullying were beginning to worsen for my family and me in my majority white community. It's about my conflict being a Black girl in a country I love but doesn't love me back. The redraw was made to reflect how the pain I feel has grown and not changed primarily because of how America treats Black women and our voices, especially regarding police brutality, racial and non-racial violence (physical and psychological.) Unfortunately, I've dealt with patriarchal mindsets in my own Black family, where I've experienced constant silencing and censorship around Black women's suffering. As a result, I thought these issues didn't occur to Black women. When bullying based in misogynoir occurred at school, I felt that I should censor myself because my mindset was 'what happens to Black girls isn't as bad.' It wasn't until around age 11 that my Mom and I slowly became aware, which led to her encouraging me to make the first "Conflicted." Now with the recent BLM movement, I've become hyper-aware of painful, disheartening statistics around hyper-sexualization of Black girls, high suspension rates/criminalization of Black girls and women, and domestic violence.

Mainstream media portrays police profiling as a male experience, which results in people not recognizing this occurs to Black women at the same rate (via African American Policy Forum.) Additionally, Black girls and women who are murdered by police are usually not investigated or counted. Andrea Ritchie, one of the authors of the #sayhername report, stated, "Women's experiences of policing and criminalization and resistance become unworthy of historical study or mention, particularly when those writing our histories are also men." (article, " #SayHerName-Police Violence Against Black Women and Girls: An Interview with Andrea J. Ritchie," via aaihs.org). Statistics and research like this led me to recreate "Conflicted" nine years later.

I'm a Black, disabled, mental health advocate who deals with invisible illness (GAD, PTSD, agoraphobia due to racial trauma). My recent work focuses on disparities Black people face in mental healthcare treatment and misogynoir. My educational activism series "Surviving in Isolation: The Black Mental Health Experience" highlights how Black people don't see themselves represented when seeking a therapist or psychologist. It also illustrates my own experiences with racism while seeking treatment. When POC seek mental healthcare, they're more likely to get lower quality treatment and more likely to end treatment (article, "Talking About Race in Trauma Psychotherapy" via societyforpsychotherapy.org). A 2014 study by AIU showed that out of 35 African-Americans and 15 Hispanics, 82% reported communication issues related to race with a non-ethnic/Caucasian therapist. APA.org stated as of 2015, only 4% of psychologists are Black/African-American.

The image of my artwork shows two hands of different tones grasping each other in a firm handshake beneath a statement “We stand with you”. Below where the hands of different tones meet with the handshake reveals “black lives matter”. The arms individually represent their differences just by their tones and the grab of the handshake implies unity, diplomatic agreement, and a shared strength of power and support. The statement above the image gives a further implication of the desire of support and strength for the BIPOC community that requires it the most in this moment.

We support the BLM movement through cultural action, reflecting on subtle moments of isolation caused because of the political current scenario in the US. The result is a poetic collection of art postcards supporting the BLM. Just like we tend to share relevant news for the community, this postcards could be printed and shared amid black people as a peace-oriented sign of empowement for all.

We support the BLM movement through cultural action, reflecting on subtle moments of isolation caused because of the political current scenario in the US. The result is a poetic collection of art postcards supporting the BLM. Just like we tend to share relevant news for the community, this postcards could be printed and shared amid black people as a peace-oriented sign of empowement for all.

We support the BLM movement through cultural action, reflecting on subtle moments of isolation caused because of the political current scenario in the US. The result is a poetic collection of art postcards supporting the BLM. Just like we tend to share relevant news for the community, this postcards could be printed and shared amid black people as a peace-oriented sign of empowement for all.

All of my work is about the expression of people of color. I am proud to be a Guyanese woman and happy to celebrate the dynamic emotions of the black community.

Neutrality utilizes an image from the 2017 Women's March and a quote by South African human rights activist Desmond Tutu as tools for creative intervention. As the image utilizes text, it is able to speak for itself. But to provide further context, this phrase is a call to action and is especially important in today's current socio-political climate. I chose to use an image from the 2017 Women's March as this event brought together a variety of different people to protest a wide variety of social and political issues. While the main theme was feminism, a range of protest signs are visible, including anti-racism, equality, resistance, climate change advocacy, queer liberation, and more. This quote is able to capture the resistance necessary in regards to the wide variety of issues marginalized groups face and for those who stand in solidarity.