Evoking the Mulatto
Evoking the Mulatto is a multiplatform narrative and visual art project examining black mixed identity in the 21st century, through the lens of the history of racial classification in the United States.
Featuring filmed interviews with young artists and activists, photography, animation, and historical mappings, this interactive video art project seeks to address a relevant contemporary issue by glimpsing at its chronicle. In an alleged post-race society, under governance of the first black (and mixed) president, the United States still criminalizes and demarcates black bodies. This has been made glaringly evident in the public realm by deaths and lack of justice for Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner — to name a few — and the extreme racial disproportionality in the criminal justice system (black men are over six times more likely to be incarcerated than white men). Even our current struggle over marriage equality is far too reminiscent of the fight to eradicate all anti-miscegenation laws, which up until 1967, banned interracial marriage.
We are constantly fighting for the right to determine our own bodies and space. In this context, identity is two-fold – how we view ourselves and how others view us, both of which are informed by the racialized and sexualized violence of our past. Evoking the Mulatto begins with a delicate and poignant portrait of the young biracial body in contemporary society in respect to these legacies, navigating identity within and beyond a black/white binary in the hope of blossoming into a broader discussion on our humanity, the right to our own bodies and our own identities.
Explore the full project: www.evokingthemulatto.com
Selected Press
Trusting the Camera: Black Queer Brooklyn on Film | Art in America | 2017
Mulatto: It’s Not a Cool Word | The Atlantic | 2016
‘Evoking the Mulatto’ series talks black mixed identity in the 21st century | Blavity | 2016
‘Evoking the Mulatto’ in Mixed Race America | WBUR On Point with Tom Ashbrook | 2015