Black Power Ground, 2026
Malene Djenaba Barnett
Black Power Ground, 2026
Stoneware
25 x 12.5 in (6 individual Panels)
Larger ceramic tiles hold the phrase Black Power carved again and again, arranged in a pattern that recalls the structure of Kuba cloth. The repeated words shift between clear text and bold geometry, turning language into a grounded field of strength.
The piece affirms that Black power is not easily dismantled or erased—it is built into the very ground we claim and create.
Black Power Scripts
This series transforms the contemporary Adinkra alphabet—a symbolic writing system created by Dr. Charles M. Korankye—into sculptural declarations of Black liberation, carved into clay surfaces that recall the facades of Nubian and Hausa architecture where wisdom and protection have long been inscribed into walls.
Black Power Scripts turns clay into a language of remembrance and resistance. Each mural draws from these architectural lineages, where walls once held words of guidance and protection. Carved in this contemporary Adinkra script, the compositions echo the rhythms of Kuba and Kente cloth, translating ancestral form into new declarations of power.
These works build spaces of affirmation in a time of erasure—reminding us that Black power is self-defined, self-sustained, and carried within.
