Atlas

Atlas is a 16 page black and white submission to a larger collaborative publication with the RISD Graphic Design MFA class of 2020. The publication attempts to locate each of our practices through the performance of a series of “labors” located throughout the city of Providence over the course of a week. There are two texts threads that wander through each spread, one written by myself, and the other by the black poet, musician, and activist Gil Scott-Heron whose work had a strong hold over me throughout the making of the project. In the background of each spread are photos I took on my phone from the window of the RIPTA bus I rode across I-95 deep into West Providence—where most of the Black and Latino communities reside. Some photos were also taken on foot during separate excursions into those areas. In the foreground are images from the book Africa Adorned, as well as images of myself learning modern West African dance choreography from youtube. The compositions are cacophonous, with type and image running into, on top of, and through each other. The black and white inkjet prints on cheap paper help flatten and blend the compositions. The work is about the struggle to locate oneself as a black male in new territory and through that struggle expand as a creative and as a person.