About

By taking an interdisciplinary approach to defining and examining what ‘black ekphrasis’ means, this creative-critical research offers distinct, expansive and philosophical ways of encountering the methods in which black poets respond to art.

The research asks what literary instruments and linguistic techniques poets employ and what methods and modes do artists use to depict blackness and how do these converge or diverge from one another. By bringing the work and modes of black poets into conversation with that of the artists (where possible), the research considers the meanings and philosophical ideas that emerge at the creative juncture as well as the ways depictions of blackness ‘speak to’ and are intercepted by the poets. By examining poetry in tandem with art, the research offers an embodied and immersive way of understanding ekphrasis, black and even decolonial ekphrases and opens up important interdisciplinary dialogue in this area.

The research is composed of distinct elements; critical analysis which introduces, defines and discusses in depth various black ekphrastic texts in tandem with the images that inspired them, my own poetry and set of drawings informed by the research as well as a commentary on the processes of publishing Poet and Artist collaborative chapbooks.