Recently, the National Museum of Women in the Arts' (NMWA) campaign #5WomenArtists posed a very interesting question: Can you name five women artists?
According to NMWA, that question was difficult for many to answer because women artists are often erased, overlooked, and invisibilized in a field that is historically and contemporarily dominated by white men. However, I would love to pose another question: Can you name five Black women artists? While women in general are oft-neglected in the art world, Black women artists are even further marginalized due to racialized-gendered oppressions and mechanisms that seek to overlook their artistic prowess. Moreover, data shows the arts –– just like many other fields –– is also pervasively and predominantly occupied by white women.
Because of the historically and even contemporarily racist, sexist, and classist environment of the arts, there are countless established and up-and coming Black women artists who are not recognized by the mainstream art-world. For example, statistics also shows that when "surveying the top 100 U.S. artists by volume from the last 30 years, and specifically looking at black artists, there are only three women: Kara Walker, Ellen Gallagher, and Mickalene Thomas."
With this chronic lack of centering the brilliance of Black women in the arts, get to know five brilliant Black women artists –– Sha Rich, Dawn Okoro, Adele "Supreme Williams, Giselle Buchanan, and Adee Roberson –– and how through their creative, diverse, and innovative artistic mediums are revolutionizing their respective communities.
Sha Rich | @richmethods
Photo: Sha Rich
Hailing from Tappahannock, Virginia, Sha Rich is an artistic force to be reckoned with. Drawing inspiration from the likes of Jamel Shabazz, Anita Baker, Carrie Mae Weems, Donald Glover/Childish Gambino, and Gordon Parks, Rich is a self-taught artist and photographer who draws portraits of prominent figures and everyday people. With a BFA in Graphic Design and a BS in Creative Advertising, her artistic mission and vision is to create and craft images of the Black community as sites of resistance and explore ideas of pain, pride, and dignity –– which are images she says "she wishes were more mainstream."
Photo Credits: Sha Rich | Images posted with the permission of Sha Rich
With her dream job of having solo shows worldwide, the creative and even political impetus behind Rich's work is to ensure the Black community and the diverse people who comprise it are properly represented and presented. Her profound, visionary, and anti-essentialist artwork dismantles stereotypical mainstream imagery that seeks to promote a very one-sided perspective and single-story narrative of the Black community.
To view Sha's work, visit her website: https://richmethods.work.
Dawn Okoro | @dawnokoro
Photo: Dawn Okoro
A Nigerian-American artist extraordinaire Dawn Okoro and her innovative artwork ushers in a limitless Black radical imagination and future that defies ontological and restrictive Black identity and gender politics. Based in Austin, Texas, Okoro received her bachelor's degree from the University of Texas and her law degree from Texas Southern University. Inspired by fashion, illustration, photography, and design, her work has been featured in Oxford American and Drawing Magazines and has been shown at the Texas Biennial, New York University, Notre Dame University, MoCADA Museum, and the Curtiss Jacobs Gallery in Harlem.
Photo Credit: Dawn Okoro's "Punk Noir" exhibition | Images reposted with permission by Dawn Okoro
Her latest exhibition "Punk Noir" features large-scale paintings and wearable art that highlights the punk, or Afropunk, spirit. Influenced by artists and photographers such as Barkley Hendrix, Richard Avedon, and Andy Warhol, Okoro's art "explores the idea of black people presenting truthfully, unabashed, and resisting societal expectations." Drawing inspiration and influence from her Nigerian Igbo heritage by using West African photo-writing traditions among the Akan peoples of Ghana and nsibidi and uli, known as andinkra, in her work. Most of the subjects featured in her exhibition are Austin-based writers, musicians, and artists.
To view Dawn's work, visit her website: https://okorostudio.com.
Adele Supreme | @adelesupreme
Photo: Adele Supreme
Adele "Supreme" Williams is not just an artist –– she, herself is art, physically and spiritually manifested. Inspired by her imagination and everyday observations, she describes her art and illustrations –– in particular, her comics –– as "silly coupled with cerebral." Born and raised in South Central, Los Angeles, her renown and eclectic work touches on an array of subjects including sex, love, life, social media, and the intimate and even quirky thoughts everyone thinks but sometimes are too fearful and even embarrassed to say out loud. Williams' relatability and satire in her comics is not only influenced by self-introspection and her compassion for others, but also her desire to depict Black women and people beyond stringent ideals and representations by "showing the vengeful, soft, drunk, regretful, confused, silly, horny, self-conscious, curious, explorative, sneaky, smart and sweet side of Black women."
Photo Credits: Adele Supreme | Images reposted with permission by Adele Supreme
Challenging people to be authentically themselves and to embrace who they are in their entirety, Williams' first solo exhibit, "The Pretty Nasty Imagination of Adele Supreme," debuted in 2016 and traveled to various cities including Miami, Columbus, Los Angeles and Chicago. Also in 2016, Amazon debuted Williams' "Oh my God, Yes! A Series of extremely relatable circumstances" which will be adapted into animated series. She is also the author of her first children's book titled "My Hair Grows Up."
To view Adele's work, visit her website: https://www.adelewashere.com.
Giselle Buchanan | @vishuddha
Photo: Giselle Buchanan
Giselle Buchanan is truly a goddess of all trades. A multidisciplinary artist, poet, and writer from the Bronx, New York, her work not just only emphasizes artistic aesthetics but integrates holistic and restorative healing and justice. Currently residing in Brooklyn as a community activist and organizer, Buchanan has integrated her art and activism as a therapeutic agent, working with women, incarcerated men on Rikers Island, and children in East Harlem, the Bronx, and Brooklyn. She has partnered and worked with several organizations, including the Bronx Museum, Harlem Textile works, and New York Writers Coalition, she also leads and facilitates workshops and programs that encourage, empower, and cultivate creative expression and artistic talents of marginalized and underserved students.
Photo Credits: Giselle Buchanan | Images reposted with permission by Giselle Buchanan
With artistic and political areas of interests, including rehabilitation and the arts; holistic healing and power of expression; community art and expression; Womanism; race, gender, and class; social justice and more, she has performed and hosted workshops at the Apollo Theater, the Chicago Theater, Housing Works Bookstore, MoCADA Museum, and Tufts University. Her writings and poetry have been featured in Hanging Loose magazine and media outlets. Her zine, "A Love Letter to Self" was published in 2017.
To view Giselle's work, visit her website: https://www.gisellebuchanan.com.
Adee Roberson | @adeeroberson
Photo: Adee Roberson
Adee Roberson's artistry not only embodies and evokes emotion –– her work constantly entices the viewer to know and want more. Born in West Palm Beach, Florida, Roberson's work speaks to and embodies the vibrancy of Black women –– in all their various shapes, frames, forms, evolutions, fludities, and identities. Using bright colors, bold shapes, and beautiful images of Black women in her art, her work "weaves sonic and familial archives, with landscape, technicolor, rhythm, form and spirit."
Photo Credits: Adee Roberson | Images reposted with permission by Adee Roberson
Currently based in Los Angeles, California, Roberson's use of familial archives elicits a fictive connection and kinship and allows the viewer to see their families, their friends, their community members, and even themselves in her timeless and awe-inspiring artistry. She has exhibited and performed at numerous venues, including Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Charlie James Gallery, Contemporary Art Center New Orleans, MOCA Los Angeles, and Art Gallery of Windsor, Ontario.
To view Adee's work, visit their website: https://www.adeeroberson.com.
Jaimee A. Swift is a journalist and Ph.D. Candidate at Howard University majoring in Political Science. When she's not writing, researching, and/or reading, she's dancing to Beyonce, eating nachos and traveling. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @JaimeeSwift. You can check out her work at jaimeeswift.com.
Exclusive: Melanie Fiona On Making High-Vibrational Music & Saying Yes To Partnership
Melanie Fiona is back! After taking a little more than a decade-long hiatus, she has officially made her return to music and blessed us with two singles, “Say Yes” and “I Choose You.” While both singles are very different from each other, they both reflect who she is today and the type of music she wants to make. In our conversation, the mom of two expressed what she learned during her time away.
“It's interesting, even when I said it is like coming back, I don't ever feel like I really left because I was always still performing. I've still been public. It's not like I went into being this recluse person or version of myself, but the thing that I really learned in this process is that I think things take time,” Melanie says in a xoNecole exclusive.
“I think often we're so caught up in it, being on the timing of demand or popularity, or, like, striking while the iron is hot and the thing that I've learned is that everything is on God's time. That's it. Every time I thought I would have been ready, or, like, things were taking too long, I had to reship some things, personally, professionally, in my life. I also gave myself permission to make a living, not just make a living, but make a life for myself.”
Making a life for herself included getting married to Grammy-nominated songwriter Jared Cotter, starting a family, and embracing new landscapes, such as podcasting as a co-host of The Mama’s Den podcast. She also began doing more spiritual work and self-care practices like meditation, sound healing, Reiki, acupuncture, and boundary setting, which allowed her to get in touch with her inner voice.
“I wasn't putting out music, and I wasn't experiencing a number one record, but I was being a number one mom,” she says.
“I was experiencing things that were allowing me to heal and get in touch with myself so that I could make new music from a space of joy and freedom, and excitement again because I definitely feel like I did lose some excitement because of just politics and industry and what it can do to your mental health and even your physical health. So giving myself the space to really just say, ‘Hey, it's okay. Everything's right on time.’”
The joy and excitement are felt in one of two new singles, “I Choose You,” which is more of a lovers rock vibe, a tribute to Melanie’s Caribbean roots. While the Grammy award-winner is known for ballads like “It Kills Me” and “Fool For You,” she is becoming more intentional about the music she makes, calling it high-vibrational music. She says her music is a “reflection of my life,” as it captures every facet, from hanging out with friends to riding around in her car.
“Say Yes” has the classic R&B vibe Melanie is known for. However, both songs are inspired by her relationship. Melanie and Jared got married in December 2020, and the Toronto-bred artist dished on their relationship. Fun fact: he is featured in the “Say Yes” music video.
“When we first started dating, I had come into that relationship post a lot of self-work. I had gotten out of a long-term relationship, I had a year and a half to date and be by myself and do a lot of work on myself alone. And when we met, I remember feeling like this has to be my person because I feel it,” she says.
“And so when we went into that relationship, and we started dating, I was very clear. I was like, I know what I want. I'm very clear on what I need, and I'm not going to withhold my truth about myself in this process because of pride or fear of rejection. I know you love me, but I'm coming with my heart in my hand to let you know that if we're gonna get there, we have to put fear aside and say yes. So that was kind of like my open letter to him, which is why the video is us having a conversation.”
Melanie also shares that saying yes to her partner has empowered her in many ways, including motherhood and showing up for herself. Her new EP, also titled Say Yes, will be available at the top of 2025.
Check out the full interview below.
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Feature image by Franco Zulueta
Entertaining Like Ayesha Curry: Expert Advice For Holidays Done Right
Be prepared to wow the crowd.
It’s officially the holiday season, which means parties and gatherings galore. Between Friendsgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Eve celebrations, many of us are preparing to host loved ones in our homes one or two times between now and the end of the year. No matter the occasion or season, hosting for family and friends is a labor of love. But we can also agree that entertaining can be overwhelming, especially for first-time hosts.
As a seasoned host and entertainer, Ayesha Curry knows something about creating a memorable event for loved ones. Whether preparing for an intimate dinner with your immediate family or hosting a larger crowd, your guests will think you are a pro this holiday season with her tips on everything from welcoming guests to setting a beautiful table.
Q: What is your top tip for hosting?
Ayesha Curry:Part of being a great host is spending time with your guests, which means you can’t be stuck in the kitchen. Prep is key! I usually serve wine with the meal, but a cocktail or mocktail is a great way to greet guests. I prep the garnish the night before and batch the drink just before guests arrive. When the party begins, I pull everything out of the fridge and am ready to serve.
Writer Note: If you would like to offer non-alcoholic beverages for your sober or sober-curious guests, I love Saint Viviana Cab. It maintains full-body cabernet and flavor; no one will ever guess it’s alcohol-free. You can easily create a signature mocktail using Bittermilk’s Smoked Honey Whiskey Sour mix.
Q: Do you suggest any prep for serving or cooking?
AC:I lay out all my serving dishes and utensils the night before with little post-it notes saying what goes where. That way, I’m not digging around for anything. For more elaborate menus, I lay out quarter sheet pans and label them with tape according to the dish. I prep and measure everything for each recipe and then load each sheet pan with everything needed to make the dish. I wrap each tray in saran or foil, stack them, and place them in the fridge. Pull out the sheet pan you need when cooking, and everything is ready. It’s something I learned at the restaurant that saves so much time.
Q: What’s one item that should always be on a dinner party menu?
AC: Bread or roll with butter is excellent for holding guests over if the kitchen is delayed.
Q: What’s one non-menu item you should always have on hand?
AC: For a non-menu item, wine!
Q: How do you decide on a theme or menu for a gathering?
AC: It all starts with the occasion and the guest list. If it’s a group that doesn’t know each other very well, I may get more elaborate with the theme to help break the ice. For a group of friends or family who don’t get to see each other very often, I usually keep it simple so the evening can be all about catching up. A great playlist, good wine, and a family-style menu are all you need.
Q: Should attendees be expected to bring a gift?
AC: If I’m hosting, I’m not expecting gifts. The gift is taking time to come over and enjoy a meal with me! But bringing something to enjoy at the gathering, like a bottle of wine, is always appreciated.
Q: What are three affordable gifts that guests can give a host?
AC:A bag of excellent coffee is a beautiful gift for a host. Sweet July’s House Blend Coffee is sourced from all-female co-ops, so it’s a gift I love to give to the women in my life. Whether it’s being served after dinner or just for the host to enjoy on their own, you can’t go wrong with a bag of high-end coffee.
Fresh flowers are great if you have a host who likes total control over the food and beverage menu. Go for something neutral in color that can work with any décor.
The Sweet July Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar set is my go-to host gift. Bottled in Napa, it’s a gift any foodie will appreciate - and use!
Q: What are some creative tablescape or decor ideas that you love?
AC: I like to keep my dinnerware neutral and classic (like this ceramic collection in nutmeg) and infuse color and texture through linens. For centerpieces, I want to use what I have in my yard. If it’s summer, it might be flowers or greenery, but interesting branches can also look architectural in tall, clear vases next to tapered candles in the colder months. There’s no need to spend a ton of money on flowers.
With Ayesha’s tips, you can create a holiday gathering that your family and friends will cherish forever.
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Featured image by Getty Images