Sephora Juneteenth 2022
I was invited by the team at Sephora to create artwork commemorating Juneteenth. While celebrated in black communities for decades, it became a national holiday in 2021 on the heels of great civil unrest and discourse following the murder of George Floyd.
Since 2020, we’ve seen a retraction of fervor as it relates to racial justice as well as a historically unsurprising swing in the opposite direction in some jurisdictions, including the banning of literature and curricula that does so much as even gesture at the irrefutable existence and impact of slavery in this nation's past and present. I’m glad that Juneteenth at least has to be spoken of by Americans, but I hope that eventually an understanding of the horrors of slavery will be held by all. Without facing those horrors, we can’t completely know the jubilation, uncertainty, and determination that the long-awaited message of freedom meant in Galveston in 1865.
For me, Juneteenth celebrates not only the breaking of chains but a long-lasting commitment to building a more equitable world.
In struggle we continue to tend this garden of liberation so that it can be enjoyed by all people, with each generation giving freedom a new and more meaningful form. I wanted to communicate a sense of joy, inspired by the idea of marching as in a parade.
The artwork was featured in WWD.
