21 Under 21 Series: De’Ivyion Emonne Drew
Hometown: Raleigh, North Carolina
Major: Studio Art and African, African-American, and Diaspora Studies
“It is worthwhile and rewarding for me to reflect on my work as being substantive to the future success of black students after I graduate. Carolina will always be engaged with white supremacy in ways that have the potential to disparage black students intellectual, social, and physical wellbeing. My experiences in the past two years that I have been here have taught me much, and I know that mentorship and support networks are essential for black students to succeed. Mentoring students and seeing them succeed in their own ways will be my reward for the holistic work that I do as an agent of change.”
Outside of an organizer perspective, I am true to myself in pursuing art, which is one of the ways that I channel my value in activism.
My sculptures honor ancient African civilizations in a contemporary setting to challenge single story narratives about Black Existence. Much of the art history of the Nok, Ife, Jenne-Jenno, and Great Zimbabwe people are erased by colonialism and European reinterpretation of what existed before they arrived. The Great Walls of Benin extended four times the size of the Great Wall of China, and were among the many sculptural wonders that emerged from highly advanced African kingdoms. Sculptural mediums, such as brass, ivory, copper, and stone were used to bring representations of African royalty to life, balancing hyper-realism with spiritual abstraction. My pieces aim to do the same by establishing Black Existence of all forms as a sort of royalty, and to assert in the Western Canon the high value of Black physical representations. I make these pieces to affirm and reflect my own beauty as a Black person, but to also protest the overwhelmingly white and negative interpretations that misrepresent what it means to be of African origin.
These intentional interventions in exclusive spaces extend into my other extracurricular involvements. I have an internal purpose of linage and legacy that motivates me to transform my surroundings for the better. My ancestors worked for better and wanted liberation for us. My posterity is closer than ever to being liberated from the grips of colonialism and oppression, and I will work for us to see that day.
