Gold on Gold
Yasmin Bakhit Yasmin Bakhit

Gold on Gold

From chunky gold rings to sparkling bangles to french tip acrylics, Black culture has influenced many aspects of today’s beauty culture.

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Black Hole
Aleyna Loughran-Pierce Aleyna Loughran-Pierce

Black Hole

As someone with darker hair and eyes, I’ve always felt that my features were boring in comparison to the blues and greens of my peers’ eyes that are often romanticized. I wanted to highlight those features, along with darker skin, in a way that emphasizes the focus and the beauty of dark features.

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Thick with Birds
Seble Alemu Seble Alemu

Thick with Birds

As Black women, we often bear and grin as we fulfill the familial needs and toil the emotional labor set by those around us. All the while, we struggle to articulate our needs and come to terms with our emotions.

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Sunshower
Seble Alemu Seble Alemu

Sunshower

The subject finds reprieve in a rain storm by instead using water to wash their hair. I wanted this piece to both honor Black hair as an expression of autonomy, as well as to use water as a transformative symbol: both the challenging storm, and as something that cleanses, strengthens, refreshes.

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A  Light
Seble Alemu Seble Alemu

A Light

A piece about breaking out. Anger is often characterized as destructive, but this can serve to silence Black communities from expressing their truth and pointing out injustice. This piece explores anger as something freeing and beautiful, reflected in the the shining fire taking the center of the piece, and chains being torn apart from an anonymous Black individual's fists.

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Abeba
Seble Alemu Seble Alemu

Abeba

Black hair care knowledge has persisted and evolved through wave after wave of attempts at erasing black communities. In honor of this history, this piece explores Black hair as a symbol of heritage and autonomy.

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Amanda
Shamir Ibar Shamir Ibar

Amanda

This multimedia project is a whimsical recreation of one’s image, where a Black UVa student is allowed to exercise some light-hearted control over how they are perceived. This is aimed to empathize agency and self determination. A portrait was created in their likeness, incorporating artistic liberties only bound by their imagination.

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Black   Youth
Seble Alemu Seble Alemu

Black Youth

Black youth are essential to their community and society as a whole. Rather than be written off as a loss depending on the privileges they have access to, black youth need to be nurtured in order to grow into their potential, like seeds into flowers.

The children look up into the sky, visualizing limitless growth and potential, in a field of adey abeba flowers, which symbolize hope. They don traditional clothes and jewelry from Ethiopia. The jewelry designs allude to the Tigray region, which is currently at the epicenter of war and targeted ethnic violence in Ethiopia. By proudly wearing symbols of their culture, they reject the narrative that black communities are destined for destruction and grief.

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Women of Tsonga
Dream Mattison Dream Mattison

Women of Tsonga

In Western societies, there is often language of “First World” and “Third World” that inherently promotes othering. Furthermore, countries with predominantly people of color are labeled in a lens of solely destruction and hysteria. There is no recognition of the joy and rich cultures in other parts of the world.

I created a series “Women’s Joy and Unity” to highlight women of color, on a global scale, as a counter to harmful narratives. The composition above shows women in the Tsonga tribe that currently resides in the southern region of Africa. The women are shown here in traditional regalia.

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Amongst The Flowers
Dream Mattison Dream Mattison

Amongst The Flowers

The decision to center an incarcerated Black woman references the criminalization of African American women in legal systems. With a focal point of the pregnant stomach, there is an allude to the forced sterilization of Black women in prison. “Black women deserve their flowers” is a signifier that all of us are entitled to compassion and humanity, not solely those deemed palpable or in more privileged circumstances.

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Fabricated Pacification Will Bleed
Dream Mattison Dream Mattison

Fabricated Pacification Will Bleed

In light of collective consciousness on Black Lives Matter, many naysayers have tried to make vile defenses for the police. Conversely, America built police departments on demonizing Black people. The image shows a police officer holding spray paint to create a peace sign. However, the oozing red is to signify the blood on their hands, as well as the entire institution’s crimes toward Black folks.

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