Inspired by the novel Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom by Catherine Clinton, these works  are mythical images narrating pivotal moments in Tubman’s life.

My story quilts narrate the life of Nat Turner and his 1831 rebellion.

Sunken is a series of portraits on paper inspired by my research about the Zong massacre of 1781 in which 133 slaves were killed by their British slave ship crew. These works are a testament to the resilience of the Africans who survived the Middle Passage.

In The Gift of Lineage, I’ve incorporated fabric collected in the US and Ghana. This series examines the power of uncovering the past in order to create a prosperous and more certain future.

An Offering draws inspiration from Marcus Rediker’s 2007 book The Slave Ship: A Human History. The eight works pay homage to the many West African people who were uprooted from their families and forced to endure the brutality of the Middle Passage. The shape of each work mimics the diagram of the 18th century British slave ship the Brookes. The figures and shadows in each work represent the multitude of unknown Africans who were captured and forced to live an uncertain future shaped by their captors. The hands holding candles in each work are an offering to these ancestors in a gesture of gratitude and solace. 

Find Me A Constellation delves into to lives of children who experienced American slavery. Models for the portraits were sourced from archived images of enslaved children. Because the harsh realities of slavery may be inescapable, the only way to find internal peace was through daydreaming and the stars.

Black Magic examines the role religion has played throughout American history. The figures represent the Nat and Cherry Turner and how they use religion to escape the bonds of slavery, both real and imagined.

Joy Cometh in the Morning is a series of works paying homage to the enslaved blacks whose lives were lost as a result of Nat Turner's rebellion.

This series of works were inspired by James Weldon Johnson's poem "Lift Every Voice and Sing" which is often referred to as the "Negro National Anthem."

co|patriot is a collection of work inspired by Stephen Towns' readings of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, Solomon Northrup’s “Twelve Years a Slave”, and Harriet Ann Jacob’s “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”. These classic works have helped to inform and broaden Towns’ view of the systemic oppression that has affected contemporary Black Americans. Each work of art examines the relationship Black Americans have had with their country and history, both known and lost.