ID   NTiTY FABRiC

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iD   NTiTY FABRiC

a bruk out experience to create an understanding of how all of us bearing the caribbean identity are interconnected through resilience, resourcefulness, and an unwavering desire to thrive.


identity fabric is currently on exhibit at king manor museum from july-september.


a bruk out experience to create an understanding of how all of us bearing the caribbean identity are interconnected through resilience, resourcefulness, and an unwavering desire to thrive.


identity fabric is currently on exhibit at king manor museum from july-september.



scroll down to learn more.


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meet the curator

meet the artists

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meet the curator

Sharifa (she/her)

Sharifa Khan is a seasoned creative based in Jamaica. Queens and is the founder of Bruk Out; a self-proclaimed unruly and rebellious Creative Agency empowering the Caribbean diaspora to tap into modes of radical expression through shamelessly disrupting generational stigmas of what is considered "culturally correct".

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MEET THE ARTISTS:

SUCHITRA MATTAI


SHERESE FRANCIS


CYDNE COLEBY


SHIVANE CHANDOOL


AKILAH WATTS



AHMRII JOHNSON


ALANIS FORDE


NADIA SHARIFA


SUELYN CHOO


ANA PAULA TEIXEIRA



ANFERNEE SMART


SARAH DREPAUL


SHARIFA KHAN


MORELYS URBANO

via chucha studios


scroll down TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE artist, THEIR PIECE, AND HOW TO CONTACT THEM:

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Flag of Guyana Illustration

indo-caribbean based in l.a

meet the artist

suchitra mattai

Suchitra Mattai (b.1973 Georgetown, Guyana) is a multi-disciplinary artist of Indo-Caribbean descent. Her work explores how collective and individual memory and the space of myth and folklore allow us to unravel and re-imagine colonial histories and narratives. Using both her own family’s history and her research of colonial indentured labor during the 19th century, Mattai seeks to expand our sense of “history.” Suchitra received an MFA in painting and drawing and an MA in South Asian art from the University of Pennsylvania.


Her recent projects include a commission for the Sharjah Biennial 14, “State of the Art 2020” at Crystal Bridges Museum, group exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the San Antonio Museum of Art, the Sarasota Museum of Art, the Utah MOCA, and a solo exhibition at the Boise Art Museum. Upcoming projects include a solo exhibition at Kavi Gupta Gallery and group exhibitions at the MCA Chicago and the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Her works are represented in collections which include Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum, and the Tampa Museum of Art. She is represented by Kavi Gupta Gallery (Chicago) and K Contemporary Art (Denver).


about the piece

“A poem for D and D” narrates a history of colonization through the eyes of a young Guyanese girl. The backdrop for this work is made of 19th C prints. The patterned pages are from the British book “A Grammar of Ornament,” which is a beautiful and problematic colonial book that acts as a compendium of ornament from around the world. It essentializes and simplifies civilizations and cultures. The black and white image is from a colonial book describing various European colonizers’ exploits in “foreign” lands. The girl is an image from a Saturday Evening Post that I have repainted and reclaimed. Collectively, the collage reveals a story of my family’s past of indentured labor for my own children, D and D.


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Afro-Caribbean American

based in NYC

meet the artist

SHERESE FRANCIS

Sherese Francis is an Alkymist of the I-Magination and expresses her(e)self through poetry, interdisciplinary arts, workshop facilitation, editing, and literary curation. Her(e) work takes inspiration from her(e) Afro-Caribbean heritage (Barbados and Dominica), and studies in Afrofuturism and Black Speculative Arts, mythology and etymology. Some of her(e) work has been published in Furious Flower, Obsidian Lit, Rootwork Journal, Spoken Black Girl, The Operating System, Cosmonauts Avenue, No Dear, Apex Magazine, Bone Bouquet, African Voices, Newtown Literary, and Free Verse. Additionally, Sherese has published three chapbooks, Lucy’s Bone Scrolls (Three Legged Elephant), Variations on Sett/ling Seed/ling (Harlequin Creature), and Recycling a Why That Rules Over My Sacred Sight (DoubleCross Press).

about the piece


These pieces were created recently during the Artist Open Call cohort and exhibition about hair and plays on the concepts of cosmetology and hairstyling as a way of ordering and reordering oneself.


Samson/SameSun/SamSung/SameSong (KwasMeTology Series) is an art book and rice paper scroll inspired by the cutting of my own dreadlocks/locs, the story of Samson and Delilah, and the story of enslaved African women putting rice in their hair for the journey across the Atlantic. The piece uses cut pieces of my hair to reconstruct a kind of universe/sacred body/sacred ground and the rice in between the weaving of the hair on the cover act as both seeds and stars. Inside the cover, is the poem on the scroll, which represents the rice's own reconstruction into a scroll, is written in calligraphy mimicking the action of hairstyling. The entire piece reflects on how we reconstruct ourselves after trauma and loss.


Ntutu Isi Nkemdiche (KwasMeTology Series) is a mixed media piece also made with pieces of my loc'd hair to construct a constellation on a veil, and is inspired by divination work with the questions about hair becoming a dressing of oneself


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Bahamian based in

nassau, bahamas

meet the artist

Cydne Jasmin Coleby

A dual self-portrait, Can We Meet Halfway? illustrates an internal dialogue of my efforts to make peace with my "demons." On the right panel, you see a flatly painted depiction of myself, representing the polished "front-facing" version of my identity. In contrast, the portrait on the left panel depicts the manifestations of my trauma. Comprised of images of myself from different periods, as well as native Bahamian flora, fauna, and geology, the college represents an amalgamation of experiences that have resulted in the person I am today. As a post-colonial society, generational trauma is inescapable in our collective and personal histories as Bahamians and Caribbean people. My use of native ecological images acknowledges that my environment acts as an incubator, providing ideal conditions for emotional wounds to fester and grow - even if it doesn't appear so on the surface. Somewhat grotesque yet arrestingly beautiful, the collage reflects my understanding that life is complicated and messy, but despite these things, it can come together in profoundly magnificent ways.

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Flag of Guyana Illustration

indo-caribbean based in nyc

meet the artist

SHIVANE CHANDOOL

The ancestry black and white project is a collection of photos that contain individual pieces of jewelry or clothing that are directly from their indo-Caribbean ancestry. With the models captured in this picture under the stole that they share encompasses the sisterhood bond that they share. The models Seema and Aneela are both of Indo-Caribbean descent. This project was in collaboration with Reshma Persaud for her ancestry journal book. Capturing this composition in portrait and edited in Black and White.



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afro-caribbean based in barbados

meet the artist

meet the artist

AKILAH WATTS