Kenya (Robinson)

Kenya (Robinson) in her own words:

“THE-THEY said I could write anything I liked.

Shiiiit, I’m just happy to be alive.  A few days ago, my father sent me an email, talking ‘bout he gon’ put a life insurance policy on me. At first, I felt some type of way -- that he would even consider Me checking out before him. But on second thought, it’s not like THE-THEY of our light twisted fantasies would be out of character in offing Me.  Or the Me in Louisville. Or the Me in Baltimore. And especially that one Me in Waller County, Texas.  Could be the M.D. won't really listen, when I finally get some insurance, a preconceived precondition of “white” mindedness.  Like they did Serena.  Or maybe I’ll wreck the car I don’t have yet, while signing along to Megan Thee Stallion, splish-splashy genitalia, my ultimate undoing. But trust, I’d swirl elder, in a flowing caftan, à la Mrs. Roper, rather than combust over a martyr-hero's pyre like Black Panther or Breonna.  I don’t have no kids, so a sculpture for my mother, in the permanent collection of the African American Museum of History and Culture, is my legacy. I guess. Or maybe when I mastered, Blue Ivy, without an undergraduate degree, that was ‘sposed to make me feel like a Somebody.  Or when alllll the “white” ladies called, after George Floyd was murdered, and I did all that work making them feel better ‘bout theyself. I haven’t heard from them since. 

At least there’s Wikipedia.  

Love, 

Kenya (Robinson), LLC“

Kenya (Robinson) was born in 1977 in Landstuhl, Germany. She lives and works in Gainesville, FL.

WORK IN THE EXHIBITION: 

Kenya (Robinson), An Argument That All Confederate Monuments Are For The Birds, 2018. Digital photo collage, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist and the New York Times. Original photographs Edu Bayer for the New York Times and Farinoza and Chamnan Phanthong, via Adobe Stock.