The Antidote to Hopelessness
Ted Radio X Jason Reynolds
This project was inspired by a podcast episode titled, “The Antidote to Hopelessness” New-York’s Bestselling Arthur and National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature; Jason Reynolds, talks about his childhood and how he developed his passion for writing.
There was a segment where he talked about how he didn’t grow up having access to books that made him feel understood as a young Black boy, and now he utilizes his gift to reach kids through stories that allow them to feel seen and heard, and I found that to be very moving.
I created this 12-page zine that summarizes and shares my views and interpretations on the topics that he discussed. Through these collages of images I’ve put together I wanted people to feel the emotion behind the words when they look through it, tap into that child like nature, the curiosity, the freedom, the hope.
Source: Jason Reynolds: The Antidote To Hopelessness. (2021,September17)Ted Radio Hour.https://www.npr.org/
Tools Used: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, InDesign
Black Women’s Association
The Black Women’s Association was a club that I created on campus during my sophomore year of college at Thomas Jefferson University. Before I transferred and graduated from Temple I was a student at Jefferson.
My goal was to create a safe space for Black girls who felt out of place on campus. Being a Black student at a PWI was something I struggled with a lot, it was hard finding my community and out of all the clubs that were offered none of them made me feel like I could be myself and be understood.
After being fed up with lonely days on campus I came up with BWA, the Black Women’s Association. Down below is a presentation that I created for our first meeting, introducing what BWA was, the board members, how our meetings would run, event ideas, etc.
This is a flyer I created to hand out on campus to spread awareness about BWA, I used Adobe Illustrator to create this flyer. This is how they came out after I got them printed.
Here are some photos I took during Jefferson’s involvement fair, this day was dedicated to having all the clubs on campus come out and talk to students about why they should sign up for their club. It was such a beautiful turn out and it was so nice seeing other girls who looked like me, share their excitement for BWA.
Poster Designs
This is a freelance project I did for the Philadelphia Opera featuring the show, ‘ Voodoo’ composed by the Harry Lawrence Freeman. Mr. Freeman was the first African American to write an opera that was successfully produced , ‘Voodoo was one of his most popular concert performances. Mr. Freeman was also the first African American opera composer to present his concert at Broadway(1928).
These were the first 4 drafts I came up with for the ‘Voodoo ‘ poster design, I wanted to incorporate different elements from the storyline, it’s a love story between a Voodoo priestess, a man named Mando and a woman named Cleota. It explores the themes of jealously, voodoo culture and the conflict between traditional and spiritual beliefs. The practice of voodoo has always been portrayed in a negative way leaving American stereotypes to run the narrative however, voodoo is rooted from a very spiritual space and in some ways used as a form of healing for Black and brown people.
*Before final edits
All created using Adobe Illustrator & 'Photoshop
Final Version
After going through all the feedback and comments I made several edits to create a more impactful look to the poster. I played around with different font types and textural effects, creating a well thought out and concise poster.
Picture Prompt Poery
I created these posters for a freelance job for a local poet named ‘Queen Bee’ in South Carolina, she wanted me to create a flyer to promote her poetry workshops. Her events were all about using imagery as sources of inspiration to write new poems. The first version is the one I created without the images, the second one shows the pictures she wanted me to include for her prompt.
