The following photos are from a portrait series highlighted in The Black Book 2022 is a virtual year book dedicated to celebrating Black life at Brown University. The project was named after Toni Morrison’s The Black Book (1974) a collage-styled book of art, patent applications, ads, music, and photographs curated by Morrison herself that explores the experiences of African Americans in the U.S. Morrison said that the purpose of the book was to tangibly exemplify that African Americans were “busy, smart and not just minstrelized.” Similarly, The Black Book was created to interrogate conventionally violent practices of archivization and give Black students at Brown a way to share and relish in their own achievements, joy, and community in their own image. Black student life @ Brown and Black life in general is rich, colorful, and worthy of celebration. It is not a complement, mechanism, function, or pawn of white supremacy. The proprietors of Black life are Black people and it is radically beautiful in the quotidian. To see explore The Black Book click the button below!
Shot, Creatively Directed, and Executively Produced by Dori A. Walker (she/her)
MODELS: AIDA SHERIF, ALLEN DUFORT, ALEX DUFORT, AMIRI NASH, ANA BOYD, ANDREA CLARK, ANISA MADAY, ARISSA TACHIE-MENSON, ASHLEY AMPARO, ATABONG KHUMBAH, AZIZA ALFORD, BIRUTAWIT GIORGIS, BRIANNAH COOK, BRITTANY RAPHINI, CAZIAH MAYERS, CECILIA MARINNAN, CHLOE VINCENT, CIARA SING, CYPRENE CAINES, DAVID MITCHELL, DELENA ALEMAYEHU, DEREK IRBY, DYLAN LEWIS, DYLAN VALET, EASTLYN FRANKEL, ELIANA LOPEZ, EMRAAN IBRAHIM, GELILA MESSAY, GUSTAV HALL, HANA BUTLER, HELENA BATES, JADA JOHNSON, JAMES NESBIT, JARRA OMAR, JESUS GONZALEZ, JOEL GONZALEZ, JORDAN TURMAN, JUNE DYKE, JUSTIN MCALLISTER, KASH OSENI, KEILEY THOMPSON, KEVIN CARTER, KIMBERLY COLLINS, KOFI YOUNG, KRISTOPHE YEN, LEILA WIRTH, LYRIC JOHNSON, MADELYN OTOO, MALANA MULLENS, MALI DANDRIDGE, MEBELE ONWUADUEGBO, MEKLEET MELAKU, MICHAEL PECK, MIDIAN YOSEPH, MILLICENT STIGER, MONIQUE JONATH, NAHUM YEHDEGO, NICK AMUH, OLUWASEUN ADEBAMBO, ORLANDO CEDENO, PRAISES AMPONSAH, RAHMLA JONES, RIYAN CAMPBELL, RUTH BELAY, SARAH OGUNDARE, SHEYENNE ALENN, SKYE JACKSON, SOPH THOMAS, SYDNEY BUTLER, TENIAYO-OLA MACAULAY, TRISTAN MCDONALD, TYKERIUS MONFORD, ZAKIYAH WHITAKER, ZOE UBAMADU