Handle My Lightweight, 2022

I have this incessant need to tell the world the Truth about Africans and the diaspora.
As a West-African woman born and raised in America, I experienced an identity crisis early on in life: I was torn between being both Black American and Nigerian. These groups, vastly different in culture in many ways and so misunderstood of each other, tugged at me on both ends. Worn out from this push and pull, I went searching, and in the most beautiful, eye-opening ways, I found the history everybody had missed out on. I found out there wasn't much separation between my bloodline and my birthplace.

My work is rooted in the visual depictions of Ancient African spirituality before colonialism and Christianity. Using 24 karat Gold, age-old African practices with glass beading, and communication through fabric and clothing, I consecrate the symbols of our spirituality that modern religion used to turn Black people against ourselves. It's important to me that Africa and its closest descendants are finally credited for their immense impact on the global unconscious mind and spirit. After all, she birthed humanity.