Artist statement.

To survive being Black, femme, and of conscience in this world requires an inherent, wild creativity; we become artists, of sorts. My work is deeply intertwined with the community for and with whom it is made: Black femmes and themmes, be they Artists™ or not. This community contributes not only to what I make but why I make it. My creative process serves as a medium for our collective subconscious, inviting my people to project their desires, mythologies, archives, complications, and imaginings onto the concepts I explore. At this moment in time, our shared priority is liberation.

No matter the medium, my work extends from the “Revolutionary Dreams” Nikki Giovanni inspires me to ponder—a therapeutic resistance in the spirit of Toni Cade Bambara’s call to “make revolution irresistible.” While our antagonistic societal circumstances often inform the backdrop of my work, they are not solely the point. I aim to complicate and reframe our narratives to reflect our modernities honestly. Through this process, we glimpse liberated futures and liberated versions of ourselves. As a multidisciplinary artist, I honor the versatility of the Black femme existence by letting the work dance, sing, play, etch, dress, and write itself into the intersections of genre.

I tend to quilt collective projections of liberation with a steady hand for coding. My ancestors didn’t hide information in their braids, words, and roots just to make sacred secrets illegible in the colonial world; they were futurists who understood what it meant and what it took to preserve and sustain. In their tradition—and as a well-studied scholar who celebrates a diaspora that talk like the block they from like I do—I weave layers of meaning into my work, inviting interpretations across fragmented Black colloquialisms, vernaculars, global perspectives, and timelines. This coding informs both the intuitive and deliberate style of my storytelling.

Although my approach is technically precise and conceptually intentional, the ultimate aim is to evoke a Feelin’—something deeply familiar yet elusive, resonating within us beyond conscious understanding. That Feelin’ carries information.

My work does not teach because the community with and for whom I create already know. It does not explain because our experiences often defy explanation. It does not sensationalize or reduce Black-femme-weirdness to mere aesthetics. Instead, I reflect our unique existence back to us with an unburdened, liberated imagination.

THE PPL FLY! is one part of a larger body of work dedicated to conjuring liberatory realities for Black femmes through performance, poetics, and collective dreaming. I am seeking aligned collaborators, producers, and co-dreamers who understand that art is not just a product, but a portal for liberation that our people need now more than ever.