User:Grarfield/Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle

Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle (born 1987) is an American artist, author, and Assistant Professor at the University of California at Berkeley Department of Art Practice. Her work focuses on questions of race, sexuality, and history through a variety of visual and textual mediums. She lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Notable works include the Kentifrica project, the Tituba series, The Evanesced, and the Uninvited series. She is a member of CTRL+SHFT Collective in Oakland, California.

Tituba Series
In Hinkle's drawing series, Tituba, she was inspired by Maryse Condé’s novel "I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem" and relating to Tituba's experiences as witch while pregnant with her son. Her goal is to merge the experiences of inhabiting a black, pregnant body and the thought of the otherness that Condé depicted by expanding on the background of Tituba's life.

"It is this body that people don't know what to do with and so some of that discomfort [is] important to keep in there."

The Kentifrica Project
In Hinkle's The Kentrifrica Project, her goal is to create a collaborative space to examine Diaspora and cultural visibility. She invites communities to aid her in reconstructing the Kentrifican Identity, of having an African background and originating from Kentucky, through leading workshops and discussions that further expand its concept. "The project draws on the collective histories of the artist, collaborators, and participants, as well as historical migration narratives, music, and food to create various elements of Kentifrican culture." The exhibition itself is comprised of objects that are specifically Kentrifican, including recipes, instruments, clothing, adornments, and maps. Cultural concepts that Hinkle emphasized within Kentrifica is the absence of property ownership and a collective culture.

"Through the embodiment of various voices and modes of address, Hinkle examines what happens to bodies in transit and how they are contextualized culturally depending upon historical hegemonic signifiers of race and culture." [14]