AMKMQ is a multidisciplinary artist, writer and “world-builder.”

Painting and drawing since about three years old, AMKMQ has molded worlds, beings and ideologies for herself through the use of a diverse array or mediums – ranging from painting & sculpture to videography, poetry and digital design. Her work often ends up a blended concoction of physical and digital art (blurring the lines between the two).

Taking roots in Afro-Futuristic Surrealist Feminism, AMKMQ’s craft seeks to redress her 21st-century, post-colonial hybridized scars through the following processes of introspection: pre- and “post”-colonial analysis, metaphysical introspection and through the creation of her own lineage, fossils and ‘histories’ within these sickly, vribant landscapes that she traverses through as ‘Oasis.’

A philosopher at heart, her work centers around the following themes:
– Afro-Futurism, New-Age Surrealism and “Black” Metaphysics
– Feminism, Purity Politics and the Black Female Utopia
– Introspection, “Madness” and Mental Health
– Afro-Mythocracy and Black Escapism
– Pre and Post-Colonial Analysis
– The Politics of Remembering

With ALL earnestness, she refers to herself as an ‘Apocalyptic Afro-Futuristic Traveler’ – describing her “journeys” throughout these worlds she visits in her mind’s eye and within her spirit as “traversing through colorful lands, places and beings in which [she] gets to exist exactly as she should be – exactly as she is – destroying the worlds and ideas forced upon her in this current reality.”

Currently in her final year at the Brown University–Rhode Island School School of Design Dual-Degree Program, AMKMQ is studying International & Public Affairs as well as Painting, while balancing a full-time professional art career.

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UNE FILLE EN FEU Manifesto by AMKMQ, University of Warwick, Sociology (B.A.), Personal Essay, London 2018

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“WHO AM I?”

First and foremost, je suis une fille en feu. I am a girl on fire; always have been, always will be. No – SCRATCH THAT – I am a woman on fire. An eternal flame; a ball of passion; a compilation of space and matter and particles that matter. I matter. I matter and I have a purpose. First and foremost and PERPETUALLY: Je suis une fille en feu avec une raison d’être. Toujours.

Secondement, je suis une conteuse éclatant. An artist; a master of colours, emotions, space and time. I tell stories and fables, and I do it all with a blank canvas and brush. I am a marvel; an artistic powerhouse that MUST be leveraged. I have the potential to immortalise my name in the sands of time, and I WILL do so. Why do I create? I do it for myself; for my talent; for my ego; for my own SANITY. I also do it for the attention, and that is okay. That silky-smooth feeling of pride and self-satisfaction runs quickly through my veins – puddling in my mouth every time I watch another individual marvel at what I can accomplish with a paintbrush. It is a given. It is also a confirmation. A confirmation of my prowess, my power and my talent that need-not be necessary, but is present, nonetheless. It is my addiction, and I am proud of that. This drug – a toxic-beautiful relationship without which I would be NOTHING and EMPTY without – is EXACTLY what will keep me going to the ends of of time. This belly-dropping, heart-wrenching hunger will remain in the pits of my stomach and the depths of my heart until the day I leave this wretched earth, and I LOVE that.

Troisièmement, je suis en colère – infiniment. It is WHAT keeps me going. This anger; this passion; this flame in the bottom of my belly is what gets me up in the morning. It is what pushes me quand la paresse et la dépression stuffs its way down my throat – holding me prisoner. Not to be corny, but it is THIS anger; THIS tigress nature that keeps me going, because who the fuck dares think they are better than me? I haven’t explained particularly well but you get what I mean. WHAT am I angry about? I am angry about women’s rights – across the world but ESPECIALLY within Africa. I am angry that there are social boundaries, limits and quantifications of my femininity that keep me from being and exploring the FULL individual that I want to be. I am angry that from the day of my birth, I have been held accountable for the eternal sin of being woman; that I constantly have to be “grateful”, “thankful”, “STUPEFIED” by the fortune of my condition; that I should take up less space because I am one of the “lucky ones” – one of the few to even have THIS much of a voice; this much “access.” I am ANGRY that women are cosntantly persecuted for being just that: women. I am ANGRY that I am “destined” to endure a lifelong trial of femininity and ‘appropriateness.’ I want to shave my head; I want to be into makeup;  I want to give top energy; I want to sit with my legs wide open just as much as I want to wear pretty, shimmery-emerald ball dresses; I want to not feel the need to defend my desire for liberation and equality; To no longer apologise for having just as much desire as a man; To no longer compromise my value system and beliefs in order to “find a ‘man’.” I want to FUCK BEING LIKEABLE and I want to DO EVERYTHING FOR AND BY MYSELF. I want EVERY step I take to BE IN MY OWN NAME and FOR MY OWN SAKE – for the sake of my G, for the sake of my Angels, for the sake of my Ancestors, for the sake of my loved ones, for the sake of ME – NOT for the sake of “marriage,” or “likability,” achievements, or the opinions and social expectations of others. I am ANGRY, because, for whatever reason, I am not yet TOTALLY “unapologetically me”.

Lest we forget, je suis une égocentrique. I am constantly & helplessly intrigued and entangled within my own mind, soul and feelings. Most times, I don’t care about anything else. I care about me, but not in the way in which you’d expect; not in a self-loving way. More in an unrequited, soul-wrenching love sort of way. Everything I do has to do with me, my feelings, my desires and my reactions to the world outside me - as they should, non?

In the least obvious way ever, je suis une romantique indécrottable. I am a hopeless romantic. Always have been, always will be. It is why, despite the constant state of anger and passion I am in, I love Kwenorkuor more than I can love myself. It is why I dream of having four little boys and my little Oephelia running around causing a ruckus around me. It is why my compassion sometimes overtakes my sense. It is why I dream of finding the other half of me, of finding the missing parts of myself in someone else and of having sex till the day I die. (Actually, the last option may just be me being horny. )

Lastly, and most importantly, I am a person qui ne se comprende pas encore complètement. I have so much more to learn about myself, who I am and my place in the world; and I will continue to do so until the day I die. My gravestone will be my diploma, and EVERYTHING I do will be for that frightened little dreamy dark-skinned girl; lost in her head – the baby-girl I once was and always will be, along with everyone beside her. EVERYTHING I do, will be in their name. EVERYTHING I do, will be in the name of the Black Female Utopia. EVERYTHING I do, will be for the progression of Afro-Futuristic Liberation.

“WHAT DO I WANT?”

I want to be brilliant. I want to bellow from the bottom of my lungs and feel the grounds of the earth quiver in its wake. I want to lay down and make snow-angels in the sands of time. As every other selfish and conceited human being would: I want to be immortalised.
I want to make a difference in this world; 
I want to see a change in black women’s and children’s rights across the 195 nations that span this earth; I want to see my countries freed from the treacheries of Neo-Colonialism. I want to be sexy, to be gifted, to be generous, to be beautiful, to be powerful, to be compassionate, to be happy, to be phenomenal. I want to feel the power of self-belief course through my veins – pooling in my stomach and matching the beat of my heart.
I want to run around naked; to be free of unnecesary societal pressure; to be liberated. Yes. I want TO BE LIBERATED - liberated from my self-made chains; from the chains in which society and culture have placed me; from the chains of self-doubt & depression, and from the chains of responsibility. I want to be ALIVE, not just living. NOT simply existing. I want to feel every molecule of oxygen enter my lungs; to taste every modicum of flavour each time something enters my mouth; to view every inch of my surroundings in overwhelming and astounding HD. I want to be CONTENT, yet ALWAYS DRIVEN. I want to love art, and to truly believe I have the right to take part in it. I want to be organised; to never lose my spontaneity and acute impulsiveness but to also have my life together.I want to be in love; I want to crave the touch, the taste, the presence of a non-faceless being, and to cherish the vulnerability that comes with such a task. I want to be expressive; to be loving; to be affectionate, yet badass. I want to believe in my genius, and to once again see the boundless future and blessings in store for me. I want money, yes. I want to be freed from the chains of self-doubt. I want happiness. I want generosity and compassion. I want a thirst for life again; a thirst for life and a thirst for knowledge. I want a never-ending abhorrence of complacency and to once again live a life dominated by ambition. I want to continually strengthen my inner Universe through a healthy relationship with G and my spirituality. I want to live a life of passion, ambition, desire; I never again want to feel like a waste of space. I want to take EVERY step in life with ALL that I have in me, and to hold compassion for the race, love, my family, me, and life itself.
I want to LIVE.