FEAST On Our FAMINE:

MFA THESIS

FEAST On Our FAMINE: MFA THESIS

PRATT Institute

MFA in Writing (Thesis on Design)

Graphic Designer | Visual Art Installation

My Poetry is transformed into a dinner setting designed around the beautification + elitism of colonial capitalism + the effect it has had + continues to have on African-Americans through the viewpoint of a West Indian American, living in the U.S. for over twenty years.

PRINT POSTERS

This artwork imagines a historically imperial FEAST on the FAMINE of Africanism, the blk ingenuity of survival. It uses a cross-section of the Harlem Renaissance (Langston Hughes quotes) + Trinidadian-West Indian dialect with modern-day texting linguistics to highlight the author’s intersectionality within current times as a form of self-preservation. I designed this place setting to further ask the questions: Who has a seat at the table? Why do generations of blk folk know how to set this table but may never have a seat at it? How many people suffer at this Feast On Our Famine? What are the economic, social + emotional cost of blk death for all in America?

OVERVIEW

Problem-solving as an access point to mobilizing myself, various people, movements, + creative situations are the catalysts for my inventions. I treat writing + the table “Feast On Our Famine,” which in itself is a poem, as a picture frame wherein people can digest a penned narrative developed to help picture emotionally charged artwork.

FINAL PLACE SETTINGS

The concept started with a three-poster document, designed in Illustrator using Photoshop + finalized in InDesign in the spring of 2017. Then a critique discussion was had with M.F.A. cohorts + professors as to the implications + implementation of the design as an installation. Converting the poster into an actual life-size place setting was the outcome.

PUBLIC EXHIBIT | LECTURES

EDUCATIONAL ENGAGEMENTS

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