We Were Always Here

An Outreach Exhibition

Curated by Sydney Buffalow, Nikki Brooks, and C. Alexandria Bernard

October 30th - November 23rd, 2024

We Were Always Here is a testament to presence — a bold declaration that Queer BIPOC and BIPOC communities have always been integral to the cultural and historical fabric of America. As curators and artists, we, Sydney Buffalow, Nikki Brooks, and C. Alexandria Bernard, have intentionally shaped this exhibition as both a remembrance and a celebration.

This collection amplifies voices too often marginalized or erased, bringing forward narratives of identity, resistance, love, and legacy. Each piece stands as a powerful reminder of the resilience and beauty that has persisted despite attempts to silence it.
Our intention is not only to reflect the history but to challenge its omissions — to expand the narrative and ensure that those who shaped our world are seen, heard, and honored.

We Were Always Here is more than an exhibition; it is a powerful assertion of presence, a reclamation of space, and a promise that our stories will continue to shape the future.

Anike Robinson

Interdisciplinary artist Anike Robinson incorporates history into contemporary art to spark dialogue about contested perceptions of Black people around the world. Robinson is a self-described “image hunter who documents provocative African Diaspora journeys across time and geography.” Her artistic process raises important questions that help “build community discourse in conversation with artists, activists, and arts and cultural organizations.”

Azul Alberto

Azul Alberto Nogueron is a queer non-binary multidisciplinary artist from Chicago, IL. They began their career as an artist in Chicago, where they worked with organizations like After School Matters, Fulton Street Collective, and the National Museum of Mexican Art. They received their BA from Monmouth College and received their Master of Fine Arts from Maryland Institute College of Art. 

Their current practice reflects the relationship between grief and love. Inspired by surrealism and fauvism, they are interested in the role of color and how it operates in the whimsical connection between the artist and the subject. In addition, their work addresses the dichotomy between religious beliefs and the queer experience. They are exploring their conflicting beliefs and use their own experience as a trans person to create stories of acceptance, fear, and curiosity in their paintings.

Bao Yen Nguyen

Bao Yen Nguyen was born in Vietnam in 1990, and immigrated to the U.S.A. in 1997. She received her BFA in Painting and Art history, Theory, & Criticism from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2013. Bao Yen’s works focus on manipulating photographs by using gel medium transfer and mixed media. Her work deals with the life of Asian Americans living between two worlds: the old and the new.

Brittany Moná (Moh-Nay)

My name is Brittany Mona' (MoH-Nay) I'm a multidisciplinary artist and educator based in Maryland whose work archives joy, memory, and transformations of Black Americans through collage and mixed media portraits. I blend art, spirituality, and storytelling, drawing inspiration from everyday intimate, and celebratory moments. 

My practice is both an artistic expression and an act of  veneration, and archiving, centering Black voices and stories. Through my work, I invite viewers to engage with cultural and collective identity, that center remembrance, celebration, and joy.

I'm currently a Touchstone Fellow at Touchstone Gallery in Washington, D.C

Brittany Moná ( Mo-Nay) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Maryland. Specializing in Black abstract and figurative portraiture. Her work blends neo-expressionism, graffiti, and African art. Through her practice, Brittany explores themes of liberation, joy, memory, and transformation.

David I. Snipes

Hailing from Brandywine, MD., David I. Snipes is a visual artist and educator that thrives in connecting visual art with community! Mr. Snipes loves to engage with children and adults in sharing art techniques, styles and history, in sharing a passion for creativity and imagination. He works with mediums including acrylic and watercolor paint, alcohol markers, and Procreate. You can find Mr. Snipes on social media (Instagram and TikTok) @snipesfineart, and his teacher page @mrsnipesgotclass.

Elisa Mayes

Elisa Mayes is a public school educator and ceramicist based in Prince George’s County, Maryland, whose practice focuses on functional pottery, with a particular love for large serving bowls. Wheel-thrown and made from midrange clays fired in oxidation, the work is rooted in use. Objects created to make everyday acts of eating, serving, and gathering more pleasurable.

Alongside function, Elisa’s work carries a quiet irreverence. She often employs materials historically associated with status and exclusivity such as porcelain and gold luster and uses them freely rather than reverently. This intentional abundance challenges the idea that these materials should be rare, precious, or reserved for certain hands. Formally trained as an educator and shaped through community studio spaces, Elisa’s practice reflects persistence, access, and refusal: a commitment to occupying ceramic spaces that have not always felt welcoming. Her work invites viewers to consider who ceramics is for, and what it means to serve and be served with intention.

Ife Al-Din

Ife Al-Din is a DC native that began her journey as a poet before emerging as a multidisciplinary teaching artist, wardrobe stylist and event curator in 2022. In 2020, her introduction to visual art was through acrylic on canvas and quickly evolved to include collage and mixed media work. Ife’s work is a microcosm of the way she experiences the world. These techniques are used as a layering of realities, personhood, and an exploration of how our internal and external worlds interact with one another. Ife’s art is an extension of her interest in psychology, which she received her undergraduate degree in. She graduated Cum Laude from Bowie State University in 2017.

Ife critiques the restless, selfish way the western world socializes us while calling back our individual and collective power. She proposes a world of emotionally evolved, self-sustained individuals and interdependence, which holds the possibility of eliminating escapism and socio-politico-economic injustices altogether. As of 2025, Ife is a self-published poet, 2x open mic host and curator through her brand, LOVE ICONIC, and an activist for Social Emotional Learning and educational equity for black and brown people of all ages.

Keyonna KAYEMJAY6 Jones

Keyonna, a Washington, D.C. native, is a multi-talented individual with a passion for art, community advocacy, and entrepreneurship. With a background in journalism and a Master's in Science Management, she brings a unique perspective to her creative endeavors.

As the founder of Congress Heights Arts and Culture Center (CHACC), Keyonna has been instrumental in bringing new and necessary artistic experiences to the East of the River community in D.C. She also serves as Board Chair of The Creative School, showcasing her commitment to youth, education and creativity.

In addition to her community efforts, Keyonna has pursued various hobbies and turned them into successful entrepreneurial ventures. She is a skilled tattoo artist, published fashion stylist, talented photographer, graphic designer, and avid gardener.

Keyonna's artistic talents have gained recognition, including being one of the seven artists selected to paint the 'Black Lives Matter Plaza' mural. She has collaborated with notable organizations such as the Washington Mystics, the Washington Commanders, and Pharrell's Something in the Water Festival.

In September 2022, Keyonna received the 37th Annual Mayors Arts Awards for Excellence as a Community Arts Advocate, further highlighting her dedication to the arts and her community.

As a proud mother to her children, Kayla Shawn and Keon Michael, Keyonna finds inspiration in her role as a parent and continues to make a positive impact through her artistic pursuits.

Lydia C Thompson

Lydia C Thompson is a mixed-media artist specializing in ceramic sculptures. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The Ohio State University and her Master of Fine Arts degree from the New York College of Ceramics at Alfred University. She received the 2025 South Arts Fellow award, a Fulbright-Hays grant for research on traditional architecture in Nigeria, a Windgate Distinguished Fellow for Innovation in Craft Award, the Artist Support Grant from the Arts & Science Council of Charlotte / Mecklenburg, NC, and a Lighton International Artists Exchange Program for research in Ghana. 

She was awarded an AIR at the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts & Sciences and has completed residencies at the Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center in Denmark and the Medalta Ceramic Center in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. In the fall of 2025, she will be an Artist in Residence at Starworks in Star, NC. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami, FL, Society for Contemporary Crafts, Pittsburgh, PA the Baltimore Clayworks, MD, The Clay Studio, Phila, PA, Clay Art Center, Port Chester, NY, the Ohr O’Keefe Museum, Bixoli, MS, Mint Museum, the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis, MN and Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, UT. She has conducted workshops for youths and adults and served as a juror and curator for national and regional exhibitions. She resides and maintains her studio in Charlotte, NC, and is a Professor of Art in the Department of Art & Art History at UNC Charlotte. 

Mentwab “Mentu” Easwaran

Mentwab “Mentu” Easwaran is an abstract expressionist artist from Ethiopia, living in Washington, D.C. She came to the United States as a young adult to pursue her dreams as an artist. 

Growing up, Mentu showed a talent for sketching, drawing, and painting, but she had little exposure to fine arts because there were no books or materials available in Ethiopia. As a teenager, she was commissioned to paint large murals on the walls of a new school constructed of cow manure and mud. The entire experience inspired Mentu to change the scale of her work, which gave her the freedom to tell complex, multi-faceted stories in a single piece of art, and experiment with different materials and textures.

Mentu’s style has evolved over the years, but her work remains narrative. While she starts each piece without a direction in mind, all of her work ties back to three central themes: migration, life as an immigrant, and love. These stories have been written in her heart and she feels a responsibility to tell them honestly, from her own perspective, without embellishments and falsehoods from the media. 

More recently, Mentu has focused on capturing acts of love that come from tragedy and injustice. She acknowledges that, while her canvases give her a space to release anger and frustration, they also give her space to transfer her emotions into positive energy and explore her curiosity. 

Her inquisitive nature led Mentu to use a variety of materials, mediums, and tools. She settled into a style that connects her present space to the natural world. She applies acrylic paint with brushes and knives and gives her paintings more depth and texture with spray paint, jute, and other fibers. By bringing the earth to her work, Mentu honors her native Africa.
In her early years, Mentu admired the work of Afewerk Tekle, the only well-known artist of Ethiopian descent she knew of as a child. She read everything she could about Tekle, his technique, and his path to becoming an artist. Mentu took her self-study further by asking neighborhood architects and engineers to teach her about the depth of field, shadows, and line making. This education allowed Mentu to develop a style of craft that is unique to her.

When she was a student studying design in NY, Mentu fell in love with Dali, Matisse, and Van Gogh, but it was the work of Contemporary Artists Gerhard Richter and Julie Mehretu that most captured her attention. Their art is powerful and complex but still balanced. The use of minimalist color palettes allows them to speak volumes through texture and depth. Mehretu uses architectural elements such as lines, space, and shapes to build a composition. Richter created in stages, allowing himself to react to the progress between each layer, making his abstract works one of Mentu’s favorites. 

Mentu’s most recent collection, Momentum, is currently on display at the DC Center Gallery, which is part of the DC Center for the LGBT Community. Mentu’s original art can be found at her online gallery, EthioGallery.com, and her work on products can be found through her marketplace, Coobaya.com. At the 36th annual DC Mayor’s Arts Awards Coobaya was given the Award for Excellence in Visual Arts, which honors an individual, group, nonprofit organization, or private entity that has made significant contributions to Visual Arts in the District of Columbia. 

Please contact the artist directly at ementwab@gmail.com with further inquiries.

Mika Relli

Mika Relli is a multi hyphenate creative based in Washington DC.

Nikki Brooks

Nikki Brooks is a visionary artist, born in the vibrant borough of Brooklyn, New York in 1975 and raised amidst the serene landscapes of Spotsylvania County, VA. With over 25 years of artistic exploration, Nikki holds a B.F.A from Virginia Commonwealth University and an M.F.A from Maryland Institute College of Art. 

Navigating multiple artistic realms, Nikki is a dynamic multi-disciplinary artist whose creative essence thrives within installations and assemblages. Her unique creations are characterized by a harmonious blend of digital and audio elements, paintings, sculpted text, and collage spaces. Each piece is a tapestry of emotions, inviting viewers to explore realms of writing, storytelling, and shared dialogue. Through her curated workshops, Nikki fosters environments that champion diversity, inclusion, truth-telling, and lament, encouraging profound connections with her audience. 

At the core of Nikki's artistry lies a resolute focus on social activism. Her works serve as powerful agents of change, compelling viewers to engage with the art forms - be it objects, images, sculptures, or writings - presented within the space. Drawing inspiration from esteemed artists such as Fred Wilson, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Maya Lin, and Adrian Piper, Nikki's creative vision transcends conventional boundaries, inviting audiences to embark on transformative artistic journeys. 

With an unwavering commitment to catalyzing societal dialogue and provoking introspection, Nikki Brooks stands as a beacon of artistic innovation, challenging perceptions and nurturing empathy through her compelling creations.

Rashad Ali Muhammad

Rashad Ali Muhammad (b. 1990 Alexandria, VA) is a multidisciplinary artist of the African diaspora based in Maryland. His practice delves into the intersections of culture, ethnicity, spirituality, identity, and nature, celebrating the vastness of the human spirit. His work reinforces notions of authenticity, self-love, and connection, inviting viewers to engage in deeper understanding while addressing stereotypes and misconceptions faced by people of color and the queer community. 

Working primarily in mixed media collage, Muhammad merges intention, investigation, and invention, dissecting established references and reassembling them into compelling new visions. His ongoing journey to expand emotional intelligence fuels his exploration of the intricacies of human experience and the expansive intersections that shape our lives. The clarity and refinement of Muhammad's work reflect his formal education in graphic design and photography. In addition to his art practice, he works as a creative director and graphic designer, where his contemporary artistic sensibilities and classic design training foster a whimsical and innovative approach. 

Muhammad was a resident artist at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, VA from 2022-2025. His art has been exhibited extensively throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region, with other national and international exhibitions. He is a 2023 Art and Peacebuilding Fellow with the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at GMU. His artwork has appeared broadly in print and digital media, including the Washington Post, Kolaj Magazine, Create! Magazine, and British GQ.

Shiloh Coleman

Shyama Kuver

Shyama Kuver’s artistic practice is inspired by her queer and Indo-Fijian identities, a deep love for speculative fiction, and growing up in pre-tech San Francisco. From a young age art was a place for exploration in her search for a sense of belonging. Without a solid national, racial, or ethnic identity, and a complicated (mis)understanding of motherland monoliths, her artistic style speaks to the multicultural, spiritual, and experiential contexts that have shaped her life and career.
 
Shyama is a community and self-taught artist. Her interdisciplinary practice is due to her experimentation with unconventional techniques, and styles, as well as by her interests in mysticism, temporality, and futurity. She explores notions of transcendence through a series of questions. What place does intergenerational trauma, connectedness, and (un)knowing have in our contemporary lives? What is power, what does it look like, and what is our scope of influence on its determination? What does it mean to be free, to be grounded, to know oneself? How can one’s own intimate struggle to build identity and a sense of belonging inform a larger landscape of dialogues, policies, and storytelling? Through her pursuit of these questions, Shyama builds small worlds where her figures, real and imagined, fill space alongside nature, planets, and colors symbolizing social dynamics and universes – past, present, and future.

Sydney Buffalow

Sydney Buffalow, known as Cr8tion Rebel, is a distinguished artist and graduate of the Corcoran College of Art and Design, currently based in Washington, DC. Her artistic journey is marked by a profound dedication to sustainable art, blending a background in ceramics, sculpture, and textiles.

Inspired by the intricate emotions associated with women, motherhood, femininity, transformation, rebirth, and sustainability, Sydney's art is a testament to her innovative techniques. In her recent series, "MOON MAMA”, she skillfully weaves African wax fabric and vintage photos into a celestial narrative, creating digital collages that reflect her unique perspective.

Sydney's sustainable creations redefine structure, imagery, and color. Utilizing discarded furniture and functional items, she transforms them into captivating pieces, incorporating old National Geographic magazines, African fabric, and recycled plastic. These pieces not only showcase beauty but also exemplify her commitment to environmental responsibility.

Best known for her public art murals, functional sculptures and collages crafted from repurposed items and industrial detritus, Sydney's art resonates with purpose and meaning. She actively collaborates with local artists on community projects, contributing to the enhancement of Washington, DC's artistic landscape, particularly in NoMa, Anacostia Art Go-Go, DC Mural Art initiatives.

In 2023, Sydney was selected for the 1st Cohort of Artists for "TORRENTS: New Links to Black Futures 2023," a Cultural DC/WMATA DC METRO project. Her digital collages and animations, displayed across five DC METRO Stations, offer a unique fusion of art and public engagement.

Sydney's impact extends beyond her studio, as she actively collaborates with local artists and curates notable events, such as DIY art experiences for  "Art All Night DC (Shaw)." Her role as a teacher and instructor at institutions like The Hill Preschool, Georgetown Day School, DCPS, The Barrie School,  Creative Grounds Coffee Shop  and currently the Smithsonian at the Anacostaia Community  Museum where she works as Museum Educator,  underscores her commitment to nurturing artistic talent and fostering a sustainable approach to art.

With a rich background in fine arts education, global travels, and a multifaceted career, Sydney Buffalow, AKA Cr8tion Rebel, stands as a formidable force in the world of contemporary art, inspiring change and redefining the purpose of artistic expression.

Thomas E. Dade

Blaq Picasso's (Thomas D.) work is inspired by music, identity, and mystery. Primarily an abstract painter, the artist uses various mediums to conceptualize his vision. Thomas was born and raised in Washington, DC.; credits working as an assistant to international artist Sam Gilliam and sculptor/architect John L. Dreyfuss for his passion to become a working artist. The artist currently resides and works out of his studio in Hagerstown, MD.

His work is driven by the notion that our ancestors have helped us live our future now. Pulling from ancient unexplainable phenomena for inspiration, such as the Egyptian pyramids and astrology has inspired me to create something abstract and mysterious. Thomas embraces the energy of music, mystery, and his ancestors to guide him through a colorful and complex journey of metaphysics.

This has been instrumental for the understanding of the invisible nature of life to transcend into a physical thing that can be created -ART. Under the veil of Abstraction and the pioneering aspects of Afro-Futurism. ~ Thomas E. Dade

Willie Little 

Willie Little is a Black multimedia artist and author. His visual narratives document a fading part of rural southern life, while also tackling topics of racism and Black Lives Matter, Social Justice, and the childhood memories of growing up on a tobacco farm in Eastern North Carolina. His memoir, In the Sticks and traveling multimedia, interactive installation, In My Own Little Corner, document and bear witness to his coming-of-age story, as an imaginative, poor, Black, gay/queer child in the rural south, who desperately dreamed of one day getting out of the sticks. He currently resides in the Palm Springs area and Portland, Oregon. Little is an artist whose genius incorporates sculpture, painting, sound installations, re-constructed architecture, re-cycled memorabilia, and real-life stories. 

Willie pours out his soul for all to see as he relives growing up during the late 60s, early 70s, a time of radical change in America. The common thread in all the work he creates is his examination of the manifestations of physical and societal decay in American culture. Willie received his B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His solo exhibits include the Smithsonian Institution, the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, the Russo Lee Gallery in Portland, the California African American Museum, LA, Noel Gallery in Charlotte, the American Jazz Museum, and the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Alabama.

Notable group exhibitions include the Walter Maciel Gallery, LA, Corcoran, the Craft Museum, LA and three International Assemblage exhibitions in Berlin, Germany.

He also participated in The Hourglass Project: Baggage, an internationally renowned residency and exhibition program, which toured venues throughout South Africa, Belgium, and Mozambique; the work is archived in a catalog published by Caversham Press. (South Africa)