Steffani Jemison

Steffani Jemison examines language, movement and Black expression in her film A *ray, made in collaboration with shape-shifter and Tik Tok performer Lakia Black, a lifelong resident of Uniontown, Alabama. Over several months, Jemison and Black worked with acting coach Marishka S. Phillips on a series of filmed acting exercises. Phillips and Black are recorded in front of a painted backdrop resembling Black's home in Alabama. By alternating between footage of Uniontown and Black performing three different characters inspired by Tik Tok personalities, Jemison looks at migration as a process of radical hope and transformation. Her work evokes a sentiment of migrants from the past: the desire for new possibilities of life outside one's origin.