05/16/2026
Did you know? I’m also a photographer, artist & writer? So I recharge by exploring our city’s cultural fairs and galleries, even tho because they are so numerous and frequent it’s easy to just get caught up in work and daily routine.
A couple years ago I went to an art Muesum in a main city of a European country and it was there I became aware how lucky we are in NYC to be exposed to the best artists of the world and creators in real time. There’s so much invested here and that’s our gift and challenge because with so much commerce also comes cost, center ropes and barriers to entry for artists; it even just a micro culture of what “is” “real art”?
That why I’m glad my friend and curator Ed shared what I-54 was about. Having grown up in Kenya I was immediately drawn to the fact that it’s Afro centric and mainly international based galleries: London, Lagos, Paris, Geneva, Morocco, Brasil, and more. Artists of African descent living all over the world. Talent and an approach that felt fresh. Color! Boldness. Stories of identity. A woman with an Afro, the image all created with nails. Feeling. Boldness. Reparation. Repression. Rising.
When I was five or so I became aware of how my nanny lived 6 days a week on our property in Nairobi in the 1960s but in a different kind of house. Cinder block. Rudimentary. I already knew English, Armenian and Swahili. She used to sit next to me on our driveway in the afternoon and hold my hand and teach me Kikuyu, her tribal language. Someone I felt favored by her of the three of us. A grand mother figure perhaps. Salt of the earth or at least that’s what the five year old felt.
I started asking why? Why do we love differently.
40 years ago this summer I first moved to New York. I couldn’t afford to live in Manhattan so I shared a one bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. When I rode the train back and forth, I’d see my nanny in the faces of older or middle aged African American women. The same strength. The struggle. The soul of centuries. The smile that is full of heart. Survival. Compassion and passion. More too. The impact.
New York taught me about life & myself. -54
