Bridie Africa, Drawing, 19"x 17", 2015
Interview By Lissa Alicia
Genesis Crespo is a 23-year-old New York born Printmaker and Artist living in West Philly. Currently Genesis is due to release a series of dystopian tarot card patches through the Philadelphia Printworks line. Over tea Genesis and I chatted about art school, her patch designs and opening up a print shop in West Philly.
E Shiel is a non-binary visual artist and creative writer based out of Philadelphia. Their work has strong comic book and manga elements that they adapt into their own soft and colorful illustrations. Shiel’s illustrations have an overall cheerful demeanor while showcasing lifestyles of queer people and POC’s. In this interview we talked about their new comic Pretty Heart Bouquet, an upcoming zine and their love/ hate relationship with DC comics.
Interview By Lissa Alicia
"I think Afrofuturism is an outlet, a very important outlet, for marginalized people in America. It says, "It's okay that you feel like you don't belong here, because the truth is that you're from outer space." It opens up not just a whole new world, but a whole new universe. On an individual level, I think it gives people of color a place to put their anger, their sadness and their need for a sense of belonging. Honestly, as with all my projects, The Spacesuits came from a very personal need – namely, the need to carve out a piece of Earth for myself where I could feel okay about being an alien. And I mean 'being an alien' in the sense of being a black queer female immigrant from a third world country who grew up in-between cultures and in-between homes. That's permanent resident alien status. I don't ever expect to feel like I fully belong anywhere. So instead I focus on creating temporary refuges. Temporary spaces, temporary communities. Residing always in the bizarre." - Anaïs Duplan