Black and Brown women are often told that we are too extra. To quote Red Lip Theology, Melissa Harris-Perry writes, “Shamed for being fast, womanly, or too damn grown, Black girls are encouraged to stop doing so much or being extra.” But what if the gallery space became a proxy for a safe space to be ourselves, embrace all of our strengths, weaknesses, and quirks, and transcend white supremacist capitalist patriarchy/machismo? Wavy Wednesday even says to a WESA reporter, “Being a Black woman is feeling like you’re automatically placed on the outside.” If we were no longer entangled in these enclosures, we could have a space to just BE, unapologetically. It cultivates what being at the center really feels like.

The illustrative style and street art background of Rixy (graffiti illustrative style) and Wavy Wednesday (pop-art satirical style) will ignite a beautiful visual language, along with the sculptural work of Ja’Hari Ortega. All of these women embrace authentic self-expression and adornment.