Jamilah Omnia-M’Hawa Cissoko-Willis

My journey as an artist has been homecoming, self-love and self-expression. It has been filled with flow, intention, passion and understanding. It has involved surrendering to the universe, gratitude, confidence and accountability, and requires understanding my power and the power of others. I am interested in color play and understanding art — primarily color and design. I am also starting my journey into poetry, and I want to add more words and poetry to my visual art. I hope I continue to create more, share more and collaborate more. I wanted to submit three pieces to the project. Two are based on old thoughts that I wanted to reimagine into new ideas. One is an acrylic painting I did in 2015 when I was first discovering my love for paint at the Cranbrook Academy of Art’s summer program. Another is a painting I did for my art class at the University experimenting with more color and shapes, which was one of many murals I created for my ancestors. This particular one was dedicated to my great grandfather, Clifford Sharp. If you have been defined by the world as “Black,” you have been defined by limitation. The “Black” person is defined by their opposite to whiteness and their lack of privilege — and, some might say, lack of power. I reject these notions. This is not what we are, we have never been just “Black.” People of the African diaspora: We are a colorful, inspirational People. We absorb and represent the sunlight in its physical form; we shine in each moment, we embody strength, we are priceless, we control currency, we are the foundation of nations that thrive from us and we have been stolen from our original land. We are gold. We are golden. Our value is high.