Creative Power for Social Change!
Greetings Community!
I am LaShawnda Crowe Storm an artist, activist, community builder and occasionally an urban farmer. Whether I am making artwork or sowing seeds, I use my creative power as a vehicle vehicle for dialogue, social change and healing to transform around topics such as racial and gender violence, social change and community healing.
If life were a photo, then my artwork would be the film negative, exploring the forgotten histories and neglected contemporary realities such as lynching, racial and gendered violence. By printing these forgotten negatives, I make seen the unseen and give voice to the silenced.
At the core of my creative practice is a desire to use art as a vehicle for dialogue, social change and community healing. Drawing inspiration from craft, folklore and indigenous African spiritual practices, I interweave mixed media elements with interactive and community-based components where equal weight is given to the final art piece and the creation process. This multifaceted approach opens space for the community to engage in the difficult dialogues presented in my work.
Art has the power to create change. Not always through the spectacular and grandiose, but by one idea, one project, one building block at a time. By printing the forgotten and hidden negatives of our past and present, my artwork challenges viewers to see their world with a new lens and take action to build a more just and healed future for all. Art serves this purpose and I will continue to make my work a testament of its power.
