FEATURED ARTISTS:

Issue 13 seeks to address the freedoms we constantly have to negotiate and what we must leave behind to move forward, including our traditions and ways of behaving in workplaces, neighborhoods, and schools. Mindfully, we must consider the repercussions we may face if we continue to discover who we are becoming or want to be.

I had the incredible honor of conducting all the interviews and photographing most of the featured artists this time. I got to know them on a deeper level, a group of brave people. I became aware of things I didn’t know before and enriched my knowledge about what goes on behind the scenes.

I am grateful for their time and willingness to want to be a part of this issue. We asked ourselves what freedom means in different contexts, one that sometimes doesn’t exist, and we have to create it to feel free. Despite the distance, borders, and laws, we always strive to keep our traditions passed through our great, grandmothers, and grandfathers who made it to the United States.

These interviews reveal the passion artists have to move forward and what it means to define freedom with their practice while showing their vulnerability of being here, right now. While conducting the interviews, I was trying to realize my own freedom, and inspired by their practice, listening to their story, I felt freer.

FREEDOM in the shape of US is a collection of stories, anecdotes, and insights into the lives of five artists who are in a constant state of transformation, searching for the true meaning and value of the word freedom.

My hope is that this work brings a sense of personality to the practicality of being a member of the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities in this time in the United States.