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cheryl

My Known World

About Me

This is my mantra: "There is nothing in the world more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. You have a moral responsibility to be intelligent." -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.I love making art, and writing. I am a multimedia artist, mainly a painter and printmaker. I also combine my visual work with short stories to create mini graphic novels. I am inspired by Mexican printmakers of the early 20th century, Harlem Renaissance artists Augusta Savage and Aaron Douglas, and contemporary artists Chris Ofili and Julie Mehretu.I am a voracious reader - I read everything, from sci fi/fantasy (a lot of Afrofuturist stuff)and Neil Gaiman, to Edward P. Jones, Toni Morrison, and Virginia Wolfe. I am a political junkie. I love visiting political blogs, and try to expand my knowledge of life outside of the United States by keeping up with news from around the world.But I am silly, a bit neurotic at times, slightly on the corny side and I love to laugh. I collect beautiful boxes and turtles (replicas, not real ones). I love living and learning.

My Interests

Books, film and art. Visual art: I think Basquiat was both brilliant and overrated. Other artists include Fatimah Tuggar, Allison Saar, Romare Bearden, Hans Hoffmann, Carvaggio and Mark Rothko. I love theory based anything and establishing a flourishing and continued discourse on aesthetics and theory specifically related to African American culture is a dream of mine. I am intrigued by Afrofuturism. I also love watching old movies on TCM.

I'd like to meet:

The people who I'd really like to meet (my ancestors living in Africa before the slave trade, James Baldwin, Ida B Wells in particular) are all dead. But I am still excited to meet living creative, and intelligent people.

Music:

Still on a jazz kick. Nancy Wilson, Ella Fitzgerald, Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Alice Coltrane, Donald Byrd, Roy Ayers, Terrence Blanchard, Cassandra Wilson. I adore Lamb, Stevie Nicks, Stevie Wonder, Ben Harper, N'Dambi, Chaka Khan and Seal. I am no expert or music junkie, but I love music history - I like to see if I can pick up influences in music i.e., Joy Division influenced U2 type of thing. I am pretty ecletic - classic rock, punk, electronica - pretty much anyone who makes good music that speaks to similar life experiences I encounter are alright with me.

Movies:

Bette Davis in All about Eve, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Katherine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter (the dialogue was off the chain!, Anthony Hopkins' first movie), Eve's Bayou, Angels in America, Undercover Brother, The Spook Who Sat By The Door, Badass!, The Color Purple, DeLovely, James Baldwin's Documentary, The Price of the Ticket, Spike Lee's Four Little Girls and When the Levees Broke, Amelie, When Harry Met Sally.

Television:

Battle Star Galactica!! Still have a guilty pleasure for Sex and the City, a very very strong can't turn away from it when its on even though the show digusts me Real Housewives of Orange County affliction. Project Runway is cool, but I also love the History and Discovery channels because I love history documentaries.

Books:

Books of all genres, but especially Science Fiction/Fantasy, Octavia Butler, George RR Martin, Samuel R. Delaney, Nalo Hopkinson. The incomprable James Baldwin (favorite novel is Another Country, favorite non-fiction book is The Fire Next Time) Toni Morrision (Song of Solomon) and Ayi Kwei Armah (The Healers). If magazine/journals count, I like Black Book and Frieze a lot.

Heroes:

Anthropologist and dancer Katherine Dunham is my inspiration, James Baldwin, Albert Einstein and my mom and dad.