This is not a vacation. I recently left the United States to focus on new bodies of work centered on the ideas of erasure, colonization, and colonialism. These explorations have taken shape in two distinct projects: Echoes of the People and The Last Black Starfighter.
Echoes of the People is a visual continuation of my work with the Black Carolinas Cohort, expanding on themes of cultural memory, expression and survival. The Last Black Starfighter builds on the foundation of Intergalactic Soul, our nationally touring Afro-futurist exhibition. Though these projects stand apart in form and focus, they share a common thread—the persistent and often unspoken presence of colonization in shaping how cultures are seen, remembered, or forgotten.
Choosing to Create in Argentina
In a time when the United States is facing renewed tension and division—where people continue to be detained and profiled because of their skin color or identity—I made the decision to work abroad. I chose Argentina, a country with its own complex history of erasure.
Once home to thriving Indigenous and Afro-Argentine populations, less than two percent of those communities remain today. These are the same people whose cultures helped build and even liberate the nation. Yet, their presence is rarely acknowledged in modern Argentina. That absence—that silence—is its own kind of story. What strikes me, though, is how differently that story is told here. There’s an openness, a willingness to acknowledge the wrongs of the past and to speak about the systems that led to cultural “disappearance.” It’s not perfect, but there’s an honesty in the conversation that feels different from back home.
A Global Lens
Before arriving in Argentina, I spent time in Thailand, a country that never experienced colonization. Being there—then coming here—revealed a sharp contrast in how history and identity are formed. Both places have treated me with warmth and respect, especially once people learn I’m a visual artist, but their cultural landscapes tell vastly different stories about survival, power, and preservation.
Working abroad as a Black American artist and designer has expanded the way I see and create. It’s been part field study, part spiritual practice—an ongoing lesson in how art, history, and identity intersect beyond borders.
This journey is not just about producing new work. It’s about listening, absorbing and observing the dopeness of cultural identities and the people who still exist within them.
