DIASPORIC WATERS

"Diasporic Waters" is an iPhone photo project from 2022, created around India Point Park in Providence, RI. This series re-imagines the decaying pylons of the old shipping pier in Narragansett Bay as Africans lost to the Middle Passage returned as sentinels—dark, silent, and watchful. They withstand the tides: fully exposed at low tide, only their "heads" visible at high tide. They serve as eerie reminders of the transatlantic trade in cotton, rum, and humans that enriched many New England families, especially the Browns of Providence. With no monuments to memorialize this grim history, I created a visual memorial with large-scale gelatin silver prints that reflect the ethereal quality of the water and the spiritual essence of these figures, guardians from Drexciya, the mythical civilization born from souls lost at sea during the Middle Passage.