My artistic practice is rooted in “Truth, By Any Means Necessary,” a visual beacon light that deploys several approaches to arrive at verities. It is a constant striving to amplify fundamental inequities and injustices of Black people, as well as illuminating the Black pool of genius from the same disenfranchised community. The crux of my approach as a visual communicator was developed in print journalism, fact-driven, and the quest for truth remains paramount to all facets of my storytelling. However, art has allowed me the freedom to explore, examine, and recreate factual events or issues that are not permissible in the news.

That strategy is best reflected in my constructed realities, where I examine social justice issues in the African-American community. They are a means for visual and psychological studies to examine racial disparities and the imbalance that pervades class, education, and neighborhoods. From Reconstruction to now, a social climate persists, where the ascension of blacks into the upper rungs of leadership is as common as the assassination of blacks on the street, disguised as law enforcement. I strive to uncover the warring ideals of progress and sameness using “man against man,” and “man against self” and “man against society.”

And in New Orleans, and beyond, with the foreboding presence of gentrification, there’s also “man against culture.” The Black Bar in New Orleans is the epicenter of Black culture in New Orleans, which is the driving force of New Orleans culture. Black bars and lounges are the homes to social aid & pleasure clubs, Black Masking Indians, and the community. Historically it was and remains a respite from the rest of the world and the unfair treatment folk faced in areas outside of their neighborhoods. There are records of Black gathering spaces in New Orleans that date back to the late 1800s, with music, dancing, and drinking. This series is titled, Vanishing Black Bars & Lounges (2018-present).

These bars became a safe space, where patrons could buy affordable drinks, eat, listen to music and fraternize. If they were in the Mississippi Delta, we’d call it a Jook Joint and in South Africa, it’s a shebeen, regardless of what it’s called and where it is, their importance to the culture and community is too often overlooked.

I am telling the story of the present. Yet, in some images, now, the past, and future are visible at once. In some of these Black bars, the furnishings have remained unchanged for decades, while having modern amenities such as flat screen televisions, video poker machines, and Apple Pay. In other instances, it’s the clientele that denotes the passage of time. But most importantly, my work is about making physical documents, for generations to come, that say we were here.