Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King remain central figures in our nation’s ongoing dialogue on race and equality and although we are not able to gather in person this year to celebrate their legacy, honoring their work is needed more than ever in the current moment. Community is rooted beautifully through art, as it provides a bridge to see resolve differences by understanding the artist’s perspective.
We compiled a collection of artists who have created artwork dedicated to their movement.
Makeba “Keebs” Rainey
Building community through art; that’s Harlem based artist Makeba’s key focus. Her bright and inspired work explores social justice elements of Black Liberation movements, merging the old with the new by re-envisioning ancestors through new media. In a unique process of cutting, layering and building new forms from original photographs, Makeba asks us to look at contemporary and historical icons from a different angle; to recognize their inherent potential and contribution to Black culture. As she re-imagines President Obama and Malcolm X in African wax prints, she reconnects them to the continent.
Harlem is not only home for Makeba, but the foundation of her creative process. She works to honor the rich history of her home, where she regularly exhibits her art in its authentic context.
Lizz Farhat Chester
Lizz is a professional graphic designer with a creative services business on the side. She creates everything from wall murals to calligraphy to illustration to painting to hand-lettering.
Janet Hamlin
Janet Hamlin’s clients include Time Warner, Universal Studios, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, IBM, HarperCollins, Associated Press.Courtroom sketch artist the tribunals in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from 2006 to present. Works in both traditional and digital media.
Alicia VaNoy
Alicia VanNoy Call has been working on DawgArt since 2001. Back then she was a self-taught artist living in Gilbert, Arizona. Since then, she has gained a decade of painting experience and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Utah Valley University, where she graduated with honors. Alicia takes the colorful inspiration for her paintings from the Desert Southwest, where she lives in Arizona with her family and their rescued dog, Toby. She works with various rescue and shelter groups by donating artwork to fundraising auctions to promote awareness and direct care for animals in need.
Simone Agoussoye
Washington, DC born artist, Simone Agoussoye, has been honing her skills in portrait artistry for the past several years. Known for her creative depictions of people – most often icons in music, pop culture, history and the arts – Simone blends her traditional skill in portraiture with fresh, unique and unconventional techniques transforming her from a realistic fine artist to more of a contemporary artist.
Aria Del Sole
Nadia is an artist and mother to a very active little girl. She has been drawing since she can remember, and recently decided to share her art with the world.
Ashley Uananiau Lukashevsky
Ashley is an illustrator + visual artist born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii.
“I use illustration and visual art as a tool to strengthen social movements for racial justice, immigrant justice, climate justice, mental health and LGBTQIA+ liberation. I think that in order to tear down harmful systems, we need to be able to envision a world without them. I’m trying to draw what that world looks like.”
Rita Ann Reyes
“My given name is Rita Ann Reyes, I am a native Houstonian and self-taught artist. I started my collection in fall of 2012. I consider myself a mixed medium artist using mod podge, paper, acrylic paints, and markers as my tools. Currently I am focused on women in the arts, music, politics, activist and those who have paved the way for us as women.”
Lydia Makepeace
Lydia’s artwork seeks to share and highlight the work of Black women and their words. They are poets, writers, feminists, activists, sex workers, chefs, actors, politicians, and artists. They are extraordinary and the world must know it.
10% of sales are donated to Women With a Vision, a New Orleans social justice non-profit created by and for women of color. wwav-no.org
Learn more about the Affirm Black Women Portrait series here – www.lydiamakepeace.com/affirm-black-women-portrait-series
All work is courtesy of the artists. Raw Femme does not own the copyright of these works.