About

Daughter of Contrast

I live on the dividing line; I lay at a four-point intersection of Black, white, lower class, and affluent: food stamps and private schools, Section 8 housing, and Hampton Beach vacation homes. I strive to prove my Blackness as a privileged light-skinned American.

Lithuanian immigrants intent on finding a new life in the land of the free, along with slave ancestors traveling from Georgia to South Carolina, and making modern moves to the north, brought immigrant lineage and forced migrants together.

I was born and raised in the hood of Boston. The urban environments I grew up in have shaped my visual aesthetics; the hood, being my life’s backdrop, has provided me with many inspirations and a particular perspective.

Hood politics, the process of gentrification, my own biracial identity, and how the “other” race identity is defined by projected categorization all play a role in my work. It is autobiographical; I sculpt with clay, make molds, and cast forms. I cut, rip, glue, tape, fold, and slice paper skins and walls, creating cityscapes and biracial beings. I am the daughter of a Black man and a white woman; my work has had contrast in mind from its inception. I highlight the many class and racial hierarchies within these social constructions.

I am the Daughter of Contrast—a reflection of who I am made from and what I produce.

Ms. Bennett

As an arts educator, my teaching is hip-hop. By that, I mean it is a pastiche of history, culture, art, respect, representation, expression, and experimentation. My classroom is tranquil yet active—a sculpture classroom open to all mediums. Through my lesson plans and experiences, I give my students opportunities to uncover their personal histories to understand their futures. My students discover new connections with materials and techniques, being innovative and resourceful. They are expressive, inquisitive, and inspired in the classroom; art is a tool they can use to share their thoughts, feelings, and opinions.

I believe all students should have equity in the classroom.

I believe all teachers should be passionate, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable about the subject they teach and have a calling to education, allowing them to have genuine connections with students.

I believe all administration and institutional leaders should have years of experience teaching in the classroom before having control of a school or department.

Artist. Teacher. Curator.

Mission Hill, Boston, Ma