Edwige Charlot & k. funmilayo aileru
Edwige Charlot (they/them) is a French-born Haitian immigrant artist and designer. As a descendant of the home island of Ayiti, Charlot uses nature-based motifs to grapple with Caribbean and Creole identities and culture. In their artistic practice, Charlot borrows from installation, collage, and printmaking to create works from a lexical visual Creole language. Their transdisciplinary approach blends and mixes mediums and techniques into a visual creole.
Charlot has been a presenter and panelist for the Americans for the Arts, Artist Communities Alliance Annual Conference, the College Art Association Annual Conference, Yale School of Art, Fordham University, World Council of Maine, and Bomb Diggity Arts.
Charlot’s work has received support from the Rhode Island Council on the Arts, the Andy Warhol Foundation through the Interlace Grant Fund, the St. Botolph Club Foundation, and the Maine Arts Commission. They earned their BFA in Printmaking from the Maine College of Art. Charlot’s work has been exhibited in New England, New Jersey, New York, and Oregon, among others. They have been an artist in residence at BOOM Concepts in Pittsburgh, PA (2022), Queer.Archive.Work in Providence, RI (2021), Tides Institute & Museum of Art in Eastport, ME (2013), the Quimby Colony (2011) and the Maine College of Art in Portland, ME (2012), and the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT (2012). Recently, Charlot was awarded the General 2023 Operating Support for Artists Grant by the Rhode Island Council on the Arts. They currently reside in Providence, RI, with their child and partner.
k.funmilayo aileru (xi/xem/xyrz)is an artist and cultural bearer with over a decade of experience in community-based facilitation and design. xi values collaborating with people and communities dedicated to co-creating a just future world. aileru’s work focuses on creating access to transformative art experiences, practicing accountability in design processes, and uplifting Indigenous knowledge and technology.
Much of xyr work visualizes what Black liberation and Indigenous sovereignty might look like beyond our current conditions. xi often uses scifi concepts and aesthetics to achieve xyr objective. As a multi-medium artist and cultural bearer, aileru primarily works in traditional craft, visual art, graphic design, and art education.
aileru received xyr MFA in Digital + Media from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 2017. In 2014, xi earned xyr B.A. in Media Culture Studies and Media Arts from Hampshire College (Amherst, MA). Currently, xi serves as a co-founding member of the Providence-based Blackearth Collective & Lab.
A descendant of the Yoruba people and an enrolled member of the Narragansett Indian Tribe, aileru resides on xyr ancestral homelands with xyr partner and child.
The South Providence People’s Archive (SPPA)
The South Providence People’s Archive (SPPA) is a physical and digital collection of recorded memories and dreams commemorating the Black and Native American residents of the Public Street area – past and present. The archive will include — but will not be limited to — cultural art, family photos, community print-works, digital scans, and audio recording that document the people, places, and ways of life that animate the neighborhoods surrounding Public Street.
The purpose of SPPA is to contribute intimate accounts of Black and Native American life to the public record. With these intimate accounts, the archive’s hope is to offer a deeper reflection of the Black and Native American history, culture, and vision of the South Side. SPPA is designed to be community-determined and ongoing, sharing agency with residents on how their stories are told and held. The project is based on building authentic relationships, necessitating embodied practices of trust, honesty, and kinship.
In addition to hosting community gatherings, SPPA will continue offering free services and resources such as high-quality scanning, printing, recording, art making and photography to support residents with digitizing and sharing their memories and dreams for the area surrounding Public Street.
For more information about past and future programs of the SPPA, see Edwige Charlot’s personal website.