2025 Artists

I did not grow up as an artist. Growing up on the south side of Atlanta, the tools to communicate my life were not given to me. I did not realize there was an opportunity to do so until I came to Philadelphia and began attending local DIY music and art shows. Simply put, I was hooked. My first art class then gave me instruments to start to present myself. Now, as a musician and multimedia visual artist, DIY aesthetics encompass my visual and audio representations. I create works that focus on crafting disruptions in conversations about systems of power in our everyday lives, particularly the cis-heteropatriarchy. My work explores the relationship between emerging sexualities and identities, and the unwanted gifts that they bring. Being a trans woman and a lesbian directly informs my work, as the experiences I write about, sing about, portray visually, etc. came as a result of living in those identities. Existing within my local community of queer recusants has given me the tools to showcase these (oftentimes negative) experiences, and turn them into something much more powerful.