Tell us about yourself:
As an art and design activist and educator using art to address systemic oppression is key! Revolutionary black women, past and present hold the power to shift the narrative and make history. Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm was the first African American woman in Congress (1968) and the first woman and African American to seek the nomination for president of the United States from one of the two major political parties (1972). Her motto and title of her autobiography—Unbought and Unbossed—illustrates her outspoken advocacy for women and minorities during her seven terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. My favorite part of any presidential election campaign is always the swag that comes with amplifying why it’s so important to vote and advocate for your candidate! I wanted to highlight all the bold and vibrant typographic messages that brought Shirley’s presidential campaign to life!
What is the inspiration behind your poster design?
As an art and design activist and educator using art to address systemic oppression is key! Revolutionary black women, past and present hold the power to shift the narrative and make history. Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm was the first African American woman in Congress (1968) and the first woman and African American to seek the nomination for president of the United States from one of the two major political parties (1972). Her motto and title of her autobiography—Unbought and Unbossed—illustrates her outspoken advocacy for women and minorities during her seven terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. My favorite part of any presidential election campaign is always the swag that comes with amplifying why it’s so important to vote and advocate for your candidate! I wanted to highlight all the bold and vibrant typographic messages that brought Shirley’s presidential campaign to life!
Why do you love being creative?
My creative practice continues to draw inspiration from my own Autistic son’s creativity and playfulness. This paved the way for me to create my first photo zine which served as a love letter to Black Autistic and Neurodivergent families like my own. I felt showcasing my own family’s journey and perspective of my son’s diagnosis could serve as a catalyst for change.
I continue to see so much of myself in him which has allowed me to understand my disability even more. Reclaiming visual narratives and breaking the stigma of my son’s Autistic Joy using photography and design has allowed me to highlight what I often don’t see depicted in the media. The importance of showing his joy increases visibility in the lives of Black Autistic kids. Moments that show the world that being Autistic isn’t something to be ashamed of, it is beautiful, luminous and shows that being your true authentic self is a form of resistance. This design process has allowed me to continue creating dialogue between myself and other Neurodivergent families by highlighting my son’s ability to experience Disability Joy. Creating art to combat ableism and racism is my family’s ultimate liberatory practice.
Tell us about your experiences in the design world…
Inspired by revolutionary mothering and activists of color, such as Fannie Lou Hamer, and radical feminists – my work reexamines the role of socially engaged practitioners, educators, and art agitators, highlighting our care and community work through the lens of Neurodivergent parenting and anti-ableist creative resistance. My son was diagnosed as Autistic at the age of 3, and I felt it essential to begin redefining our role as disabled parents and raising a disabled child by exploring how our art and design practice could inform a framework for community engagement advocating for Autistic communities. This includes breaking the visual cycle of unjust stigmas within social and clinical practices in the process. This led me to release an advocacy photo zine entitled “KnoxRoxs” dedicated to my Autistic son, as a way to give visibility to children of color in Neurodiverse communities. Our definition of Parenting as an act of Resistance aims to empower and activate change – encouraging families and communities to engage in conversations about acceptance, starting with how Neurodivergent children and adults are treated, valued, and seen.
The framework further amplifies what happens when one centers disabled parenting identifying social inaccuracies that should be dismantled. The zine has prompted the creation and facilitation of various disability justice-infused workshops among art and design education spaces such as The Baltimore Museum of Art, Wassaic Project, California College of the Arts, and the School of Visual Arts among other institutions. My work is also rooted in sharing the impact of accessible neurodivergent student-led workshops where students are encouraged to begin telling their own authentic stories, using zines and manifestos as alternative methods of self-expression and protest being given the autonomy to identify qualities unique to them that are rarely seen in the media. And lastly the conversation around re-designing and hacking the IEP (Individualized Education Plan) which includes breaking the visual cycle of unjust stigmas and ableism within social and clinical practices.
How can we create a more inclusive design world and ensure that Black people are represented?
Follow the work and wisdom of Black disabled creators, scholars, and ancestors.
Following the work of the most impacted and those who share their lived experience stories are the best folks to learn from. Honoring our radical Black and disabled revolutionary ancestors like Harriet Tubman, Fannie Lou Hamer, Audre Lorde, and Brad Lomax can inform you how our past continues to inform our present and future.
Share information. Share your vision for what kind of design future you want to see and help facilitate it if you can. Info dump, share resources, your ideas don’t have to exist in a vacuum.
When feeling excluded, Aim to create and co-create your own spaces of creative resistance.
The charity model of disability isn’t always the best place to find a community that will uplift you. Pay attention to the spaces non-disabled communities promote, and who they fund; this will reveal if they are true accomplices.
In general… How can we make more equity or equality for us?
Look for Disability Solidarity Statements from so-called allied spaces.
In the words of Disability Justice consultant: “If your statement isn’t backed with a Black-led and designed plan, strategy, or history of acting and doing the anti-racist systems work – starting in the organization itself – it is a barrier to inclusion and progress and an even larger part of the problem.” How is disability talked about in your organization or community?
Make sure your organization does an Internal Audit to uplift disability communities that work in your space. How many disabled people are working in your organization? How do you know this? How many of those folks are in leadership? Do you know how they feel about the ways they are supported in their disabled and access needs? Is there a method for checking in about this regularly? How many of the disabled, Deaf, and neurodivergent people in your organization (including you) are involved in disability organizing, culture, community, etc?
To be pro-neurodiversity is to be anti-racist.
How are folks in your organization impacted by ableism and anti-blackness? Anti-Abelist practices in our communities and in the workplace must be dismantled. The barriers and structures of ableist oppression will do nothing but hold us back from survival and progress. Black disabled folks must be put in leadership and paid high enough to close the wealth gap.
