Birthday Print, 2017
three color screen print on cougar paper, 32” X 26”, Edition of 4, Portfolio of 13

I printed the “Birthday Print” series to celebrate my 50th birthday. At the time, I was thinking about my connection to history and how we think of historical figures and the past. Everyone in the series with the exception of Malcolm had been alive during my lifetime. It took me sometime to wrap my mind around that. They are some of the people who have help shape me over the years as an activist, organizer, and artist. I wanted to honor them through my art as I celebrated my birthday. I printed extra copies of the Huey, Fannie and Malcolm prints and gifted them to my party guests. The color palette was inspired by an archived document produced by “Where We At” Black Women Artists, which was part of the “We Wanted A Revolution: Black Radical Women 1965-85” exhibition.

Photography Attribution: George Jackson photo by Ruth-Marion Baruch, Yuri Kochiyama speaking at an anti-war demonstration in Central Park, 1968, Nina Simone photo by Jack Robinson, Ella Baker photo by George Ballis, Sylvia Rivera photo by Leonard Fink, Huey P. Newton photo by Blair Stapp, Fanny Lou Hamer photo by Ken Thompson, Malcolm X photo by Eve Arnold, Fred Hampton photo by the Chicago Tribune, James Baldwin photo by George E. Joseph, Marsha P. Johnson photo by Diana Davis, 1971.