VIBRATIONS
Wake Work is a series of durational rituals of resistance grounded in Pan-African memory, where grief is held, survival is honored, and remembrance is insisted upon.
The Wake: 4th Iteration
Wake Work: Iterations
Wake Work: Iterations is an ongoing series of durational performances grounded in ritual, remembrance, and embodied mark-making. Each iteration unfolds as live art—shaped by time, presence, and the conditions in which it is performed—allowing meaning to emerge through sustained attention and collective witnessing.
The series takes its name from the practice of the wake: a communal act of sitting with grief, honoring the dead, and affirming life through memory, care, and gathering. Drawing from Christina Sharpe’s In the Wake: On Blackness and Being, these works operate in the afterlives of history, where the past is not behind us but actively shaping the present.
Wake Work: Iterations responds to ongoing efforts to erase, minimize, or fragment Black histories and the sacrifices made through labor, service, creativity, and cultural production. Against this erasure, the work insists on remembrance as an ethical and embodied practice.
The series is rooted in the historical reality of the transatlantic slave trade, informed by foundational research from the National Endowment for the Humanities–supported Voyages Database, which documents the forced displacement of approximately 12.5 million African people across more than 43,600 voyages. These numbers mark scale, but the work centers lived, unlived, and interrupted lives—those who came before, those who are here now, and those yet to come.
Grounded in a Pan-African cosmology, the series moves beyond national borders to acknowledge shared origins, dispersed geographies, and enduring diasporic connections across water, land, time, and spirit. Each iteration functions as a meditation, a memorial, and an act of transmutation—transforming grief into vibration, loss into presence, and survival into collective care.
Through durational drawing and embodied action, Wake Work makes visible the movement of lives often rendered unseen or unrecorded. Every breath, every mark, becomes evidence: we are still here.
Future iterations may incorporate collaboration with musicians, performers, and other artists, expanding the work’s temporal, sonic, and communal dimensions while remaining rooted in ritual, witnessing, and healing.
Wake Work: Iterations is an ongoing series of durational performances grounded in ritual, remembrance, and embodied mark-making. Each iteration unfolds as live art—shaped by time, presence, and the conditions in which it is performed—allowing meaning to emerge through sustained attention and collective witnessing.
The series takes its name from the practice of the wake: a communal act of sitting with grief, honoring the dead, and affirming life through memory, care, and gathering. Drawing from Christina Sharpe’s In the Wake: On Blackness and Being, these works operate in the afterlives of history, where the past is not behind us but actively shaping the present.
Wake Work: Iterations responds to ongoing efforts to erase, minimize, or fragment Black histories and the sacrifices made through labor, service, creativity, and cultural production. Against this erasure, the work insists on remembrance as an ethical and embodied practice.
The series is rooted in the historical reality of the transatlantic slave trade, informed by foundational research from the National Endowment for the Humanities–supported Voyages Database, which documents the forced displacement of approximately 12.5 million African people across more than 43,600 voyages. These numbers mark scale, but the work centers lived, unlived, and interrupted lives—those who came before, those who are here now, and those yet to come.
Grounded in a Pan-African cosmology, the series moves beyond national borders to acknowledge shared origins, dispersed geographies, and enduring diasporic connections across water, land, time, and spirit. Each iteration functions as a meditation, a memorial, and an act of transmutation—transforming grief into vibration, loss into presence, and survival into collective care.
Through durational drawing and embodied action, Wake Work makes visible the movement of lives often rendered unseen or unrecorded. Every breath, every mark, becomes evidence: we are still here.
Future iterations may incorporate collaboration with musicians, performers, and other artists, expanding the work’s temporal, sonic, and communal dimensions while remaining rooted in ritual, witnessing, and healing.
Vibration Drawings
Also known as Slow Drawings, these works are visual manifestations of energy centers at a quantum level, offering a glimpse into the unseen dynamics of human interaction. These intricate pieces reflect the subtle ways our souls connect, meld, and occasionally clash, capturing the micro-level exchanges that shape our shared existence. Each mark represents the flow of energy between individuals, translating the invisible into tangible forms.
Evolving over days, months, or even years, these drawings unfold organically, mirroring the deliberate process of deep connection and interaction. Rooted in personal experience yet resonating universally, the works chronicle the profound, often unnoticed energy fields that bind us as humans.
Through this ongoing process, the Vibration Drawings transform the unseen into the visible, inviting viewers to reflect on the intricate web of relationships and the collective energy that defines our shared humanity.
Also known as Slow Drawings, these works are visual manifestations of energy centers at a quantum level, offering a glimpse into the unseen dynamics of human interaction. These intricate pieces reflect the subtle ways our souls connect, meld, and occasionally clash, capturing the micro-level exchanges that shape our shared existence. Each mark represents the flow of energy between individuals, translating the invisible into tangible forms.
Evolving over days, months, or even years, these drawings unfold organically, mirroring the deliberate process of deep connection and interaction. Rooted in personal experience yet resonating universally, the works chronicle the profound, often unnoticed energy fields that bind us as humans.
Through this ongoing process, the Vibration Drawings transform the unseen into the visible, inviting viewers to reflect on the intricate web of relationships and the collective energy that defines our shared humanity.
