Educated Little Monsters, a performing and visual arts program happening out of Bushwick Brooklyn since 2013. ELM was started to give youth a safe space to create art at a moment when displacement started happening at a very rapid rate. And continues to grow even now at this time.

Displacement = Gentrification=Colonialism=Racism

When gentrification hits urban communities the erasure of black and brown culture begins. It’s bad enough that our black and brown youth are raised in a country where cultural relevance is hard to find especially in a social world.

For about a year I've had a vision of a cultural photoshoot. Young girls of color are rarely given the opportunities to self identify in the society we live in. I wanted to give them a piece of their culture that has been hidden for so long and continues to be. Freedom and equality is to allow any person of color to feel beautiful and empowered by the color of their skin.

We no longer allow this system to identify us with false standards within our image to feed to our girls.

We are black
We are brown
We Are the indigenous
We are what's been taken
But could never be replaced
We are fearless
We are culture

Jazz Brooklyn

Thank you so much to Kassandra De Jesus of @rebirthyoursoul for all the face, body paint and feather pieces
Thank you so much to Alicia Diamond of R abbit Hearted Girls for capturing these moments with so much grace
Thank you to Cassia Aloe Lafour of @boanjewelry for blessing us with your designs

‪It Takes a Village to raise a Child as it takes A Child to Raise a Village