Tickets
FREE, No RSVP REQUIRED
Suggested Donation, Payable at the Door
Proceeds will help support Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center and The Church
Please note: Our Parking Lot will be closed today - please park at St. Andrew’s or utilize village parking
The 5th Annual Celebrating Creatives of Color returns and for the second time will be hosted at The Church. The event will showcase creative artists and authors of color from Sag Harbor and beyond, and provides an opportunity for artists and authors to display their work and interact with other art enthusiasts and collectors. All artwork and books will be for sale.
Procceeds from this event will help support the Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center (BCCRC) and The Church. Artists and Authors will donate 10% of their total sales to support these two important community organizations.
This year, we are pleased to offer a special Author Event as part of the celebration!
11:00 AM - 12 PM: Readings from select authors - Join authors Harriette Cole, Don Lemon, Wendy Mills, Victoria Christopher Murray, Former Ambassador Suzan Johnson Cook, and Jennifer Morgan, PhD for a live reading hosted by Sunny Hostin. All books will be available for purchase and signed after the reading.
Purchase a grab-and-go treat from Deanna Smith, the party perfectionist, and linger to enjoy all the fair has to offer!
Visual Artists to include: Judy Henriques Adams, Akili Buchanan, Daevon Byron, Andrew Canyen, Jeremy Dennis, Faith Evans, Beverly Granger, Garry Grant, Paloma Hostin, Jennifer Ivey, Rod Ivey, Paula James, Michael Jelks, Mona Jelks, John Pinderhughes, Victoria Pinderhughes, Olney Marie Ryland, Shawn Rhea, Ernani Silva, Sharon Van Liempt, Sheniqua (Shea) Young. List in formation.
A warm wave of gratitude to the event organizers and Village of Sag Harbor residents from the Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest, and Ninevah Communities: Beverly Granger, Gwendolyn Hankin, Victoria Pinderhughes, Paula Taylor, and Olivia White. Their efforts have helped to bring attention to emerging and established creatives while supporting community institutions that provide access to enhanced cultural understanding and continued learning.
For questions, please email CCCSagHarbor1@gmail.com
MEET THE 2025 ARTISTS & AUTHORS
List in formation. More info coming soon!
AKILI BUCHANAN
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I consider myself a “Liberation Artist”. My works are decidedly political in their themes, reflections and commentaries on the burning issues of our time, both here and abroad. I have been an Activist and Advocate for Freedom, Justice, and Participatory Democracy for most of my life. My art is simply a manifestation of that lifelong commitment to social change.
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Akili Buchanan is an Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker, network television news producer, print journalist, commentator, lecturer and educator with over 20 years’ experience in media and telecommunications. Akili taught film, television production and Social Studies at the university and secondary school levels for the past 27 years. In 2022, Akili left teaching to re-dedicate himself full-time to his many artistic energies, forming HuemanWorks LLC, as its Executive Director. Akili is a graduate of Princeton University and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Akili’s television production work garnered numerous national and international awards, including three Emmy nominations. His documentary "Rap City Rhapsody," a cinematic exploration of the roots and meaning of rap music and Hip-Hop culture, won an Emmy for Best Direction in 1991. "Rap City Rhapsody" received critical acclaim from numerous national and international publications, including the L.A Times, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, The Source magazine, and TV Guide. Akili was also the subject of a special profile segment on the nationally syndicated Black Entertainment Television (BET). Akili served as media consultant to various news organizations and has lectured on media, politics, music and popular culture at universities, film festivals and conferences both here and abroad. He served as juror in several national and international film festivals, including the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, The San Francisco Film Festival, The Golden Chest in Bulgaria, the Prix Futura in Berlin and the Newark Black Film Festival. Akili was a regular social and political commentator for WBLS Radio’s weekly podcast, OpenLine in New York, and featured in Netflix’s critically acclaimed documentary series, “Who Killed Malcolm X?”
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DAEVON J BYRON
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Daevon J Byron, also known as Cusisnapped, is a 29 year old artist from Jamaica, Queens who specializes in digital art. His pieces often transform complex emotions that are difficult to put into words, into colors.
“The hope is that once we’re able to see that emotion, we can accept it.” - Daevon Byron
Although fresh to the art game, he has been featured in several galleries and art shows nationwide. And, now he’s here to share his newest collection with you: the Mars Project. The Mars Project tells the tale of humanity’s eventual successful journey to the Red planet and how being human will impact the residents of our new home.
HARRIETTE COLE
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Harriette Cole is a bestselling author, nationally syndicated advice columnist, leadership and public speaking coach, and media trainer. For more than 30 years, Cole has coached entertainers, corporate executives and students to present their brands effectively. A former editor-in-chief of Ebony magazine and fashion director of Essence magazine, Cole has engaged the media in a myriad of ways. She has produced stories about Barack and Michelle Obama, Prince, Michael Jackson, Queen Latifah and Beyonce.
In 2016, Cole founded Dreamleapers, an educational platform designed to help people access and activate their dreams. Since then, she has hosted the Dreamleapers podcast where she interviews people who are manifesting their dreams. Guests on this show, as well as Real Conversations with AARP that Cole launched in 2020, include: Phylicia Rashad, Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker, Donna Karan and Ruth E. Carter.
JEREMY DENNIS
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Jeremy Dennis is a contemporary fine art photographer, an enrolled Tribal Member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation in Southampton, NY, and the founder and lead artist of Ma’s House & BIPOC Art Studio, Inc., a nonprofit art space and residency program on the Shinnecock Reservation dedicated to uplifting Indigenous and BIPOC artists.
His work centers Indigenous identity, culture, and the legacies of colonial assimilation, using photography to stage cinematic, otherworldly narratives rooted in Native oral stories, history, and contemporary experience.
Dennis is a Stony Brook University alumnus (BA ’13) and Forty Under 40 honoree (2017), and earned his MFA from Pennsylvania State University (2016). His photographs have been exhibited nationally and internationally, with solo and group exhibitions at The Armory Show, Expo Chicago, ZONAMACO FOTO in Mexico City, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Notable exhibitions include Speaking With Light at the Denver Art Museum, and In Our Hands: Native Photography, 1890 to Now at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Among his numerous honors are a 2025 NYSCA Grant, Pollock-Krasner Foundation Residency Fellowship, Andy Warhol Visual Arts Residency (2023), Getty Creative Bursary Award, and Running Strong for American Indian Youth Dreamstarter Grants (2016, 2020). Most recently, he was awarded the Artist to Artist Fellowship from the Art Matters Foundation.
Dennis’ creative work often draws on personal and communal histories, tackling themes of identity, resilience, and visibility within Native communities. His major projects include:
On This Site — Native Long Island (2016–ongoing): A photography series and interactive online map that documents culturally significant Native American sites across Long Island. The project also produced a companion book and exhibition, preserving and sharing important Indigenous histories connected to the land.
Rise (2018–ongoing) and Nothing Happened Here: These series use staged photography to confront ideas of belonging, erasure, and colonial violence from an Indigenous perspective. Through haunting, cinematic scenes, Dennis reclaims historical narratives and explores the ongoing impact of colonization.
Stories — Indigenous Oral Stories, Dreams, and Myths (2013–ongoing): Inspired by Native oral traditions, Dennis transforms ancient legends and dreams into contemporary photographs. These works imagine supernatural, otherworldly moments, merging storytelling with visual art to honor and reinterpret Indigenous cosmologies.
His curatorial projects include Shinnecock Speaks at Ma’s House & BIPOC Art Studio, Inc., and Eternal Testament at The Church of Sag Harbor.
Dennis has participated in prestigious residencies such as the Andy Warhol Visual Arts Program (2023), Santa Fe Art Institute (2021), Yaddo (2019), Watermill Center (2017), and the Vermont Studio Center/Harpo Foundation Residency (2016).
He currently serves on the advisory boards of The Boys & Girls Club of the Shinnecock Nation, The Bridgehampton Musem, The Church of Sag Harbor, WNET Group’s THIRTEEN/WLIW Community Advisory Board, and Ma’s House & BIPOC Art Studio, Inc.
Jeremy Dennis lives and works in Southampton, NY, on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation. -
FAITH EVANS
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Faith Evans is from East Hampton, NY. Her dream of going to art school was not an option when she graduated from high school. So instead, she moved to LA and received her bachelor’s degree in radio, TV and film and then jumped into a career in advertising in Los Angeles. Decades later, she returned home to East Hampton with her young family. In 2020, she had time to be with herself & listen to her heart’s calling to get back into art. She picked up a pencil & paper and her new art life began. It was like magic!
Every piece she makes tells a story or has a message. Her new chapter also aligns with being an advocate & support to the youth. She created art workshops for teens. She illustrated a children’s book soon to be published. She works for 2 nonprofits on the east end. There, she’s able to support kids & teens doing artistic projects. Faith continues to dive into her love for art with commissioned work, illustrating, selling her art, creating more drawings from her heart and curating art shows.
BEVERLY (BEBE) GRANGER
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Beverly (Bebe) Granger discovered her passion for working with clay at the Hinckley Pottery Studio in Washington D.C. in the late 1970’s. She currently has a home studio in Sag Harbor, N.Y. where she devotes her energy to exploring the world of clay. While her work has been primarily wheel thrown, she has recently ventured into the realm of hand-building, resulting in a broader body of work. She recently participated in a workshop at LaMeridiana Pottery School in Tuscany, Italy where she found inspiration from the beauty of the region. Her goal is to create pots that are both functionally and esthetically pleasing to the user.
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GARRY GRANT
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Garry Grant is a New York City-based artist celebrated for his expansive, large-scale abstract works created on multi-canvas compositions and intricately layered wood panels. A Detroit native, Grant studied at the College for Creative Studies, where he began forging a path that blends fine art with the meticulous craft of master gilding. His early experience restoring antique frames for renowned framing houses informs his distinct visual language—one that emphasizes texture, depth, and timeless craftsmanship.
Rooted in a deep fascination with ancient civilizations, Grant’s work explores the resonance between historical memory and contemporary abstraction. Drawing from the visual grandeur and symbolic weight of antiquity, his art becomes a portal—connecting the present to the enduring echoes of the past. Over more than two decades, his practice has evolved into a compelling fusion of abstraction, material history, and narrative storytelling.
Grant’s work has been widely exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across the United States, including The Brooklyn Artist Exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum and Luminosity: A Detroit Gathering at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.
Through his richly layered surfaces and conceptual depth, Garry Grant continues to honor ancestral legacy while pushing the boundaries of contemporary abstraction.
JUIDTH HENRIQUES-ADAMS
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Judith Henriques-Adams was born in New York City.
Her undergraduate work was done at both Howard University School of Fine Arts in Washington DC, and at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She received an additional graduate degree from the Bank Street School, Parsons School of Design in New York City, and Truro College. Judith moved from New York City to Sag Harbor after spending twenty-six years as an art teacher in both the Netherlands and New Jersey teaching numerous disciplines to different grades while raising her son.
With time and space Henriques-Adams can now explore numerous different influences in her own paintings. Her work draws from her experience in teaching calligraphy, a love for the written word, and her interests in shape and graphic design. "My ideas almost always happen in twilight when I'm sleeping. It may be a certain design or shape - but then it has to resonate.” She also adheres to one of her teaching principles, namely perspective. “I need to put some distance between myself and my work, to turn away and then go back and look. I used to lug canvases around the house but now I can just take a picture on my phone and look at it at different times.”Modernism is at the core of Henriques-Adams’ artistic sensibility, exemplified by the works of artists such as Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. They boldly dissected the surfaces of their paintings into symbolic geometries, slicing and dicing human figures and landscapes alike. Henriques-Adams approaches her canvases with the practiced eye and the delicate touch of a gazelle. Her affection for paint creates a density or texture that evokes the feel of flesh intertwined with a geometry reminiscent of buildings and landscapes.
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PALOMA HOSTIN
SUNNY HOSTIN
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Sunny Hostin is a five time Emmy Award-winning legal journalist, two-time New York Times bestselling author, and co-host of The View. On May 2nd, 2023, Sunny released the seconf book in her Summer trilogy, Summer in Sag Harbor, which became an instant New York Times bestseller. In May 2021, Hostin released her debut novel, Summer on the Bluffs (William Morrow), which skyrocketed to #11 on The New York Times Bestseller List and is currently being adapted into a series as the first major project for SunnyHostin Productions for Amazon MGM Studios. Sunny lives with her husband, two children, two dogs, two cats, two beehives, and a flock of chickens in New York.
PAULA JAMES
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Before settling in Harlem New York, Paula was born and raised outside Boston, Massachusetts, spending her summers on Martha's Vineyard. Her parents knew at an early age that she had a gift for making Art and signed her up for oil and water painting classes at the local YMCA. This began her journey into the artworld, which continues to this day as a mixed media artist and jewelry designer. After years of painting on canvas, she became fascinated with precious and semi-precious gemstones and metals she transformed into wearable art. Her jewelry fabrication and silversmithing knowledge and skills were acquired several years ago at the renowned Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York. She is dedicated to continuous learning to perfect her craft and has studied or been mentored by fine jewelry designers from all corners of the earth.
Her creations are the essence of mixed media art that combine precious metals such as sterling silver and gold, precious gemstones including Freshwater pearls are frequently used to create timeless and elegant designs for her clients. Her designs can be purchased online at PaulaJamesNY.com, or her Instagram store @pjnyjewels, boutique art galleries, private showings and pop-ups to name a few.
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MONA JELKS
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I am a New York-based artist, born in Harlem and raised in Brooklyn, currently living in Long Island. I am a self-taught artist, having also studied at the National School of Fine Arts. My medium of choice is oil on canvas. Much of my work is inspired by my travels and the influential people who have inspired positive change in our lives.
Painting and drawing are not just hobbies for me; they are integral parts of who 1 am. As an educator, I designed programs, created bulletin boards, and painted murals in my school. I feel fortunate to have retired from the Department of Education over twelve years ago.
Since then, I have dedicated my time to exploring my creative side, using various mediums and subjects to express my perspective on the world.
Painting has always brought me peace and helped balance my hectic life as a single mother in various leadership roles as an educator. My goal is to share my vision through my art, hoping to inspire others and bring them happiness and peace.
DON LEMON
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Don Lemon is the host of The Don Lemon Show, streaming live daily on YouTube and everywhere podcasts are available. With three decades of award-winning journalism and storytelling behind him, Lemon has taken his signature style and outspoken truth-telling to a new platform, welcoming a variety of guests and newsmakers to his show, with topics spanning everything from social issues and race to pop culture and current events. His shows also often feature his personal take on the stories and topics that are shaping lives and conversations.
Lemon has spent his entire career as a journalist and is the former anchor of the long-running CNN primetime program, Don Lemon Tonight as well as CNN This Morning. He has won a variety of distinguished awards for his work which has spanned nearly three decades, including an Edward R. Murrow award, multiple Emmys and a Peabody award, among others. In addition to CNN, Lemon has served as an anchor and correspondent at the NBC and MSNBC television networks, as well as at local stations in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and St. Louis.
Lemon has covered countless global breaking news stories from the anchor desk, as well as on location, including the war in Ukraine (for which he received a Peabody award in 2022), the death of Osama Bin Laden, the inaugurations of the 44th and 45th Presidents of the United States, the school shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Newtown, Connecticut, and the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, George Floyd and Tyre Nichols. He joined CNN as a correspondent in 2006.
Lemon has been honored with countless awards not only for his journalism, but also for the impact his work and influence have made on society. He was voted one of the 150 most influential African Americans by Ebony magazine in 2009. In 2014, The Advocate included him as one of the publication's 50 Most Influential LGBTQ People in Media. In December 2016, Lemon was honored with a Native Son Award, named after James Baldwin, recognizing and to “encourage the increased visibility and impact of black gay men in society.” In 2017, Out named him to its Power 50 list of the Most Influential LGBTQ People in the USA. And in June 2019, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village, New York, Queerty named him one of the Pride 50 "trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards equality, acceptance and dignity for all queer people.”
Lemon is also a best-selling author. In 2011, he broke barriers by revealing that he was gay in his auto-biographical book Transparent. A decade later, in 2021, his book This is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism, debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. It was inspired by what he saw, learned and felt about the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.
Lemon graduated from Brooklyn College with a BA in broadcast journalism. He lives in New York City with his husband and their three dogs.
WENDY S. MILLS
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I have been coming to Sag Harbor since I was 8 years old. My contemporaries are Bebe Granger, Barbara North and Candy Williams (all have different married names). My family stayed with the Hairstons when they had a house on Milton Lane in Azurest. My family rented until 1978 when my parents Nellie and Thomas Stanley built their house on Cuffee Drive.
I have travelled to Ghana, Burkina Faso and Benin Africa. I grew up in a very political and culturally inspired home. My book has much of my family history intertwined in the main character’s development.
I moved to NC for many reasons and my new husband and I began our 30 year adventure in Charlotte in September 1993. I needed to write after leaving our apartment on Central Park West for NC. We brought a slave ship exhibit to Charlotte as part of our scuba club's endeavors. I taught college in Charlotte as full time Professor of English as a Second language and English as a Foreign Language.
In 1994 the genocide war broke out in Rwanda and read every news article and saw all international news about it. I researched and read more books no AI back then. I finished the book after my husband died and Rwanda got great press in Conde’ Nast Travel Magazine as the cleanest country in Africa.
My mission is showing steps to forgiveness and how horrible war is after and it’s repercussions.
JENNIFER MORGAN, PhD.
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Jennifer L. Morgan is The Silver Family Professor of History in the Department of Social & Cultural Analysis and the Department of History at New York University. She is the recipient of a 2024 MacArthur Award and is currently the Andrew R. Mellon Fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library.
She is the author of Reckoning with Slavery: Gender, Kinship and Capitalism in the Early Black Atlantic (Duke University Press, 2021) which won the Mary Nickliss Prize in Women’s History from the Organization of American Historians and the Frederick Douglass Prize awarded by the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. She is also the author of Laboring Women: Gender and Reproduction in the Making of New World Slavery (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004) and the co-editor of Connexions: Histories of Race and Sex in America (University of Illinois Press, 2016). Her research examines the intersections of gender and race in in the early modern Black Atlantic.
Her recent journal articles include “Reproductive Racial Capitalism” in a special issue of History of the Present co-written and co-edited with Alys Weinbaum, and “Partus Sequitur Ventrem: Law, Race, and Reproduction in Colonial Slavery,” in Small Axe. In addition to her archival work as an historian, Morgan has published a range of essays on race, gender, and the process of “doing history,” most notably “Experiencing Black Feminism” in Deborah Gray White’s edited volume Telling Histories: Black Women Historians in the Ivory Tower (2007).
She is currently working on The Eve of Slavery—a project about slavery and freedom in the seventeenth century that centers around Elizabeth Key—a black woman who successfully sued for her freedom in Virginia in 1656. In conjunction with that project, she serves as an Executive Producer for Key to Freedom a narrative film project written and directed by her daughter Zinha Morgan-Bennett.
VICTORIA CHRISTOPHER MURRAY
JOHN PINDERHUGHES
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John Pinderhughes was born in Washington, DC. He grew up in Alabama, Maryland and New Jersey. He attended Howard University. He fell in love with the camera and photography while in college during a summer he worked in the mountains of Ethiopia with Operation Crossroads Africa. He began his career photographing the student uprisings and sit in’s of the 1960’s. He moved to NYC in the late 60’s to pursue his dream. He worked for McGraw-Hill and Venture/ Look Magazines where he learned from many of the prominent professionals of the day; though they did not understand he wanted to be a pro too; assuming he was a messenger. In the very early 1970’s Pinderhughes attended the WNET Film and Television Training School, which was the first major effort to help African Americans to crack the TV/ Film unions.
John Pinderhughes has worked as a commercial photographer in New York City for the past 50 years; operating his own full service studio. Advertising clients have included Con Edison, Verizon, Chase Bank, Anheuser Busch, BMW, American Family Insurance, Prudential Insurance, JC Penney, McDonalds, Burger King, Coors, Pepsi, Sony… Editorial clients have included Black Enterprise Magazine, Odyssey Couleur, Family Circle, TWA Ambassador Magazine, Essence, Scientific American, Venture Magazine, The US Army… Album Covers/ Music Business has included such luminaries as Wodini, MC Lyte, Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack, Sherry Winston, Scott Jarrett, Tom Browne, to name just a few. Pinderhughes has also managed to pursue a career in Fine Art. He has had numerous one man shows and has shown continually over the last 45 years. Prestigious venues include: The Studio Museum In Harlem, The Museum of Modern Art, The Brooklyn Museum, The Smithsonian Institution. Pinderhughes has received numerous awards and grants including a recent grant from the Open Society Foundation to document the post Katrina Gulf region.
Pinderhughes is the author of a cookbook, “Family of the Spirit” (Simon & Schuster, 1990), numerous children’s books (McClanahan, 1999 / Golden Books, 1995), “Coming Together” (Hyperion, 2003), a collaboration with author Harriette Cole. Pinderhughes has served on the board of The Advertising Photographers Of America. He recently retired from the board of the Long Island chapter of The Nature Conservancy, after serving for 15 years. He has been an adjunct professor of photography at New York University and a Canon Print Master and a Canon Explorer of Light. He has been a member of The Kamoinge Workshop since the early 1980’s.
VICTORIA PINDERHUGHES
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Victoria Pinderhughes is the owner and designer for Jewelz By Victoria, which creates one-of-a-kind hand-crafted jewelry that is wearable art. Each piece of jewelry is carefully thought out, organically made with a variety of metals, beads, or polymer clay, as well as many hand-crafted findings. Her designs appeal to those who like jewelry that recalls memories of place or time, gravitate toward the unusual, or view jewelry as an essential element of dressing for the day’s activities. Victoria has studied metalsmithing and polymer clay at Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT); 92nd Street Y Jewelry Program; Riverside Church Jewelry Program; Studio Jewelers, Ltd. - jewelry trade school; and David Benlolo. She has attended polymer clay retreats including Clayathon, Keystone Polymer Claycation, as well as Polymer Art Summit (PAS). Victoria has also completed classes with well-known Polymer Artists: Jana Roberts Benzon, Bonnie Bishoff, Dan Cormier, Valerie Hall, Loretta Lam and Lynn Yuhr. In addition, Victoria is a member of New York Polymer Clay Guild (NYPCG) and International Polymer Clay Association (IPCA).
Before becoming a jewelry maker/artist or discovering polymer clay, Victoria had a rewarding professional career as a licensed clinical Psychologist and continues to work with young children on a seasonal basis.
SHAWN RHEA
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Shawn Rhea is a Harlem-based, self-taught visual artist and writer. Her work has been included in Art Student League of New York exhibits (2022 & 2023); the MoCADA Museum's "M'Dear: the Black Maternal" exhibit (2023), Kota Alliance's "Celebration of Light" exhibit (2023/24), The Sag Harbor “Celebrating Creatives of Color” Art Show (2024), The Billie Holiday Theatre “We Love You Black Woman” Exhibit (2025), and the spring 2024 issue of Killens Review of Arts & Letters. Her original figurative work "A Prayer for Auntie," which captures a moment of connection and bonding between Black men, was selected for silent auction by the Whitney E. Houston Legacy Foundation in support of its 2023 fundraising event.
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My practice explores the intricacies of human connection, ritual, legacy, and existence. I am particularly interested in capturing the ways Black women use knowledge along with corporal, metaphysical, scientific and divine powers and practices to counter oppression. My work also explores how Black womanhood is portrayed, dissected, analyzed and mythologized. I work primarily in mixed media, soft pastels, acrylic and digital collage using vivid colors to symbolize the complexity and fullness of life. I am influenced and inspired by the color play and physicality of the AfriCobra and '70s Psychedelic Art movements and by Faith Ringgold's storytelling.
OLNEY MARIE RYALND
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I am Olney Marie Ryland, an artist with a profound connection to woodwork, inherited from my father and cultivated over a thirty-five-year journey. As a wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, my artistry is imbued with memories of familial love and the legacy of craftsmanship.
My artistic path began in childhood, surrounded by the sights and sounds of my father's workshop. It was there that I absorbed the intricacies of carpentry, a knowledge that lay dormant until I found solace in crafting dollhouses after his passing. These creations, born from his teachings, evolved into my signature "Urbane Façade collections," inspired by the urban landscape of Brooklyn, New York City, and the Bronx.
The vision for my brownstones and townhouses springs from the view outside my mother's nursing home window on South Oxford Street in Brooklyn, encapsulating the essence of urban architecture. Beyond brownstones, my passion extends to recreating historic buildings in Queens, the Bronx, and South Carolina, with a particular focus on preserving the legacy of Weeksville, a post-Civil War community built by Enslaved African Americans.
My involvement in the Addisleigh Park Civic Organization and the Greater Allen Cathedral Mass Choir reflects my commitment to community, fostering creativity and empowerment among those around me. Exhibitions at Colors in Black, JCAL, LeSpace Gallery@ 123rd St in Harlem a permanent installation, The African American Museum in Hempstead, Colors In Black Exhibit for 8 years, Creative’s of Color Exhibit in Sag Harbor in 2024 and the permanent installation at Weeksville serve as platforms to share my work, each piece a reflection of gratitude for the enduring legacy passed down by my father—a legacy that continues to evolve and inspire. I am scheduled to do a 1 woman show at the Gallery at St. Johns University for the month of September 2025.
ERNANI SILVA
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Soon after discovering that his destiny was tied to painting, he ran away from home to Bahia, “the backdoor of Yoruba and Condomble”, as he calls it, a reference to the African religion and its ceremonies and rituals. Enjoying the culture that Bahia offered, Ernani worked on improving his technique and in 1969 migrated to the United States. Since then in his own words his work has become “less primitive”, yet continues to reflect his
homeland of Brazil in its various forms, feelings and moods. Ernani work sometimes borders on the mystical or bizarre and at other times his work is funny and satirical.
As Ernani Silva continues his journey as a career artist with over fifty years of experience, his abstract paintings continue to evoke his cultural content of his native Brazil together with his African and Indian heritage. “Striking colors, rhythm and movement – at times he becomes a choreographer and purposefully directs the figures on the canvas and at other times, he is a storyteller documenting elements of his culture and folklore or an activist fighting for the preservation of disappearing peoples – all combine to produce a very visceral response in the viewer.”
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I appreciate my God-given talent and believe that art is a healing force. My inspiration is life itself by bringing joy, peace, and healing through the power of my gift. My paintings are my way of touching one’s spirit and soul of others. Art took control of my life and healed me from the scars of abuse. I have helped others in their healing process by sharing what I have learned.” I enjoy working with underprivileged youths in Rio de Janeiro as well as, the United States by offerings ” Art To Heal Workshops” to children and disabled individuals. My art is also therapy for me; it is a cathartic force in my life as well as others. My inspiration is life itself.
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Awards:
SEVAA- Southeastern Virginia Arts Association “Fine Art -1st Prize
Grand Prize Afram Festival
Official Artist for 2005 Chicago Jazz Festival
Nubian Women’s Circle of Art Award
Women Against the Wind, has been adopted by the Breast Cancer Society of Long Island, N.Y.
Work selected by the City Hall of Tampa, Fl. to represent Brazil Celebration
Personally, acknowledged by the Mayor of New York for artistic contribution to The New American Art Show.
The Dedicators, Inc., NY.
Primary supporter of MoCADA during its inception through donations of art.
Private Collections:
Ruby Dee
Tina Knowles Lawson
Andy Garcia
Elza Soares
Cassandra Wilson
Tampa, City Hall,
Album cover “Good Vibes” Step Ahead
Chad Smith, Drummer Red Hot Chili Peppers
Star Jones, Actress
SHENIQUA (SHEA) YOUNG
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Sheniqua Young is a Jamaican-American visual artist from Long Island, New York. She discovered her creative talents at an early age, and would always find herself creating something by drawing, painting or other crafts. Sheniqua graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelors of Arts in Sociology. Her paintings explore the themes of nature, femininity, and Caribbean culture. Utilizing oil, watercolor and digital art she creates vibrant, joyful paintings.
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…MORE ARTISTS COMING SOON…