Description
• Size: 5.25″ × 8.25″ (13 × 21 cm)
• Metal wire-o binding
• 140 dotted pages
Summer of 2013 I ventured on what would be a life shifting experience. I traveled to a village outside of Accra, Ghana, as a recipient of a grant to lead students to paint a mural on their primary school wall. Since that time, I’ve developed a yearning for learning about the connections of Black people and our ancestral backgrounds in Africa through nature. One of my learnings over the past three years is of one of the most historic and agriculturally sustainable practices in Africa – and all nations – polyculture. This practice, also known as companion planting, is the act of growing more than one crop species in the same space at the same time. Polyculture is also part of my heritage. My paternal great grandparents, Booker T. and Hosie Davis, practiced companion planting while raising 8 children in Unadilla, GA. where they grew corn, green beans, okra, watermelon and more. To celebrate my ancestors and polyculture, I made three paintings (Okra 2021, Onion 2022, Cucumber 2022), each representing a different crop, but collectively are companions.
