HOMEplxce ATTIRE

HOMEplxce™, which translates to iKhaya in isiXhosa, calls us forth to our ancestral homesteads. Our gardens. The spaces we cultivate and craft into our own with rituals, experiences, and dreaming. The places that hold our vulnerability. Our joy. What does it mean to come home to you? Drawing from bell hooks' articulation of "homeplace" as "a site of resistance," a place "where we can recover ourselves." Our use of the "x" instead of "a" in HOMEplxce, illuminates the various ways Black queer peoples have cultivated HOMEplxces that "subvert" the structural world that seeks their undoing. We know that HOME is not always a building, or made up of biological family members. We know that coming HOME to oneself is the work of continual unconditional love.
Welcome HOME, Sib!

Hummin’Bird™ — In a world that can incentivize us to close ourselves off in self-protection, I know my heart to open, full, and eager to KINnect. Hummingbirds have huge hearts that beat over 1000 times per minute. Their chests precede them with wings suspended, as though they're in a perpetual swan dive to freedom. Hummingbirds remind me to leap in faith, in actionable belief towards just and joyous tomorrows. Hummingbirds are also efficient in flight, never wasting energy in pursuit of the life's nectar. They remind us to enjoy the sweetness of life, drink from Mama Nature's aliveness. 

The Hummingbird has three elements to it in regard to color palette:

The left side of the Hummingbird features the three colors of the GenderQueer Flag (in order from top to bottom: lavender, white, green) 

The right side of the Hummingbird features the three colors of the PanAfrican Flag (in order from top to bottom: crimson, Blxck, green) 

The Hummingbird's backwards snapback hat features the eight colors of the Philly Pride Flag (in order from top to bottom: Blxck, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple). 

Like the Hummingbird, we "move at the speed of our hearts" (@waterhealing), shapeshifting in the process. We honor process as the product, and vice versa.

AfricaGlobe™ — This piece honors the Black-queer Sibz across the African continent and throughout the world. Drawing on the colors of the Philly-queer flag and tracing the longitude and latitude lines of the globe, the AfricaGlobe is an anthem call for Black-queer belonging wherever we go. It recognizes that while the world may remain hostile, we can rely on the network of fellow Sibz to be a landing place for every Black-queer wanderer.

Meditative Float™ — This artwork presented itself during a drive along the Indian ocean coast of South Africa, en route to Kenton-on-Sea along the famous garden route. Enraptured in the scenic beauty of the landscape, the faint sounds of people in the distance, and the tangible moments of deep silence, I yielded to the creative intuition to play. Out of this play, emerged the meditative float in its variations. We offer it as an artist call, an inner self reminder, an inspiring portrait to drop into the creative play that calls to you.