Growing up as Black male in the American South, I occupied a heavily scrutinized demographic. Introduced to prejudice at an early age, my existence felt used and discarded — the lack of visible representation made it difficult to see myself within the sphere of art-making. The ‘need’ to provide constantly outweighed the ‘want’ to express. I purposefully use mediums and techniques that have previously empowered the disenfranchised to juxtapose this. I create work that encapsulates the surrealism of the Black existence; Representation in this form opens the door for more in-depth conversations about race and class. My aim is to convey the gravity and importance of these interactions. My practice is a reclamation of time and space that was oftentimes ripped from us throughout history. I combine elements of illustration, printmaking, and collage to discuss intersectional themes of class, race, and gender. I work primarily in illustration— utilizing everything from acrylic markers, oil pastels, and color pencils; I use screen printing and risographs to elicit a sense of urgency through use of texture and multiplicity. Printmaking has been a vehicle of expression for various protest movements; printed media also played an integral role in the advancement of African-Americans socially and politically. I employ these techniques as a way to connect to those previous protest movements and community builders. Collage allows me to bring these disparate elements and inspirations into my work— creating new textures, helping to illustrate a visual metaphor of displacement/forced migration; similar of Diasporic cultures prevalent throughout history.