An artist working in digital collage, Makeba “KEEBS” Rainey makes work about Black Liberation, building community and creating space for Black femmes to be seen and heard. Working out of her Philly studio, Makeba says “I’ve always been an artist. I am an artist because I don’t know how to be anything else.” Although her primary medium is digital collage, her process and materials are in many ways a response to the subject matter. Right now, she’s learning how to sew: “A new medium can be a great challenge, but ultimately worth it!” says the artist. Recent projects include process-based collaborations incorporating installation, writing, research, community engagement, audio and video. Makeba is currently working on, among many other things, “The Soul(s) of…” a project that documents the histories of Black women who were born and/or raised in communities that are currently being gentrified. This project consists of life-size digital collage portraits of each woman and a digital archive of their stories. Neighborhoods include Harlem, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and communities in Philly. Makeba exhibited the Soul(s) of Brooklyn series at Photoville this year. As a 2018 fellow with the Center for Emerging Visual Artists, she intends to expand the project to interview more women in Philly, further develop the online archive, and create public art installations that attempt to reclaim the neighborhoods these women are from. Makeba recently curated an installation at Vox Populi for the Knew Member Show called “Black Auntie.” The installation is an experiment in healing generational trauma through story-telling and emotional skill-sharing/building in collaboration with oral historian and poet Kymberlee Johnson-Norfleet as Black Auntie and her cousin, Dream Director Hakim Pitts. “This installation explores the processes of sorting through pain, reclaiming our voices back and writing our own narratives of what and who we are through poetry, prose, personal reflections, and age-old practices from ancestors.” Black Auntie will be up through February 2019. Additionally, Makeba opened up a home gallery in Philly called the B(A)LM studio. “B(A)LM” stands for Black Artist Liberation Movement and started out as an online collective of Black artists and designers who create on-demand graphics for Black Liberation Organizations worldwide. The goals of the B(A)LM are to politicize artists, pay artists for their work, and networking. The B(A)LM is rooted in the guiding principles of the National Black Lives Matter network. Through January, a group show featuring contemporary art from Ghana curated by Abena Nyarko of Know My Arts will be on view alongside work by the B(A)LM’s first resident artist Janyce Denise Glasper from Dayton, OH. Programming in conjunction with these two exhibitions will focus on financial literary through an African lens and entrepreneurship. Upcoming, the B(A)LM pop-up gallery hits H-Space in Washington DC, a collaborative venture with programming and events centered around healing justice, African diasporic unity, cultural preservation, and the upliftment of Black and Brown femmes, February to April 2019. “I’m working with some really amazing healers, activists, organizers, educators and artists across 4 states to create this sacred space. Using meural screens, all artwork in the gallery will be displayed digitally, which allows artists from all over the world to participate.” Looking forward, Makeba is envisioning the positive evolution of the B(A)LM studio in Philly, and hopes to develop an international Black artist residency as soon as next year.
Follow the B(A)LM on IG @itsthebalmdotcom
Follow the artist on IG @justkeebs
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