Photo credit: Sir MaApples

Aah. The dream I had this morning. Sunflowers as tall as trees, planted a distance apart, along a grassy urban plot. I was afraid cause all I could see were giant green trunks and tiny baby suns sprouting along side. Before I was brave enough to lift my blind, I yelled, David is that you! The tallest, brownest, most enormous ‘SunPie face’, replied by bobbling up and down. In an instant quick dance, pale blue bus, people laughing, fiery car crashes, lights. SunPie face vanished. And like magic I was on the blue bus watching. -Gracie

Fly KnickKnacks, art off the wall is a reminder that labels are for shelved items, not people. You, the people enhance this most whimsical side of the creative in each piece. As a visual and performance artist, activist, advocate, spiritualist, and poet I invest the same love and passion into my art work as I do into my life’s work. I use mixed media, vintage, and upcyled materials to maintain the best quality. I can transform anything into the most unusual version of itself or better than itself: jewelry, pendants, brooches’, buttons, pins, caboodle’s, handbags, fanny packs, magnets, collage, photo frames, key chains and trinket boxes. Fly KnickKnacks has an air of mysticism that combines both sacred and political messages. All pieces are one of a kind and blessed with magic. 🙂

I have dancing in my blood and coquetry in the very marrow of my bones. I come from a long line of crotch on the floor, hype, drenched in sweat, Caribbean, antebellum south dancers! My elders danced at home, in church, on the streets. There was dance everywhere from block parties to Earth day celebrations at Malcolm X park in West Philly. I remember my first year at Garden Spot High School; there was a talent show. I wore a blue and white sheet and danced to an African drum CD. I practiced for weeks! My classmates and teachers were pleasantly surprised. I even joined the Latina sisters merengue and bachata routine. I was the only black person to graduate in my class. The white girls had cheer-leading, so I started my high schools very first dance troupe that I believe still exists today.  Kept Lincoln University’s dance company alive by renaming it Onyx in honor of all of the beautiful blacks that cultivated movement to sounds on campus. I loved teaching. My smile and patience always connected people to me. That was my way of relating to my pupils. Teaching the culture behind the dance first then the moves. We got down to business and never ceased to have FUN! And while my career as Therapeutic Recreation Specialist allows for a fair amount of creativity, art, and movement I have no consistent space to teach dance or movement the way I know how. I’m lucky to still have a space to dance-as a professional member of a respected African dance company and by traveling to take class with other dance company’s around the area. However, I do miss teaching dance. I miss the energy exchange of that.