A person whose art is about making black women feel safe and sound while also sharing stories about myself and others. I’m Janaya,  a black queer 16-year-old who does graphic design, digital art, and traditional art and occasionally writes poems in Brooklyn. I’m really motivated by Melanie Martinez, Tupac, and BTS for what they preach in their songs. I’m hoping to reach out to not just black people but specifically black women/fems but also other POC women/fems because I would like to do art as a side job while working as a psychologist for black people.

From 1844 to 2022. Nothing changed, except white people mumbling the n-word under their breath instead of in your face. 178 years by the way. The events of the year of the lash still appear today. Mass incarnation, Year of the lash, more known as “Año del Cuero” was when Cuban officials hear about a revolt and tried to beat slaves into not doing any more revolts. As a result, slaves and freed slaves who probably didn’t even hear about the revolt were bound to a ladder, whipped and interrogated. Sometimes even killed or imprisoned. Killed and imprisoned? Like the number of times, innocent black men or even children were falsely accused. Simply minding their business then suddenly lynched from a sudden rumor from a white person. I’ll pray to god for it not to be a white woman.

With this, I’ll present to you how actions right now are just repeating actions from the past. I’m mainly speaking about the unfair justice system. Especially how police officers or people with higher power abuse it to their advantage all because we black people wanted to be treated as human. Sounds exactly like what happened in the George Floyd/BLM movement. So many national guards and officers over the BLM movement and white superiors tried to “protect” themselves because they were “scared” but when the white people raided the capital, suddenly there was silence. No national guards, no white people saying they felt unsafe or endangered. Nothing.

This just shows how even from the littlest thing, white people have managed to get their way but as black people, we didn’t let that discourage us nor stop us. Now after taking the time to look at my art and the story it holds. I want my pieces to be a safe place and to tell adults and especially kids because by teaching children this, things will start to change.