GET FOKUS’D: TALES FROM THE PORCH EXTENSIONS
The Tales From The Porch exhibition series has become a staple in the city of Buffalo. Run by Get Fokus’d Productions, the multi-medium project shines a light on artists and figures in the community with an aim to understand different perspectives and break down stereotypes. Set to open the follow-up to the series this Friday, April 28th, Aitina Fareed-Cooke who oversees the project spoke with us about the event.
“Tales from the Porch extensions gives an opportunity for emerging artists to tell their own stories based off of their perspectives of what the porch is to them,” she explained. “And so they looked at the Tales From The Porch that was created from last year and then I guided them into interpreting those stories to a certain degree and transition into how they use their own artistic mediums to tell their own porch stories.”
Fareed-Cooke who is a rapper and also the owner of Get Fokus’d, organized a large community event around the 2nd iteration of her Tales From the Porch series that highlighted local community leaders last year. With a backdrop of musical performances, vendors, and a mobile photo installation, the multimedia showing of figures like Gail Wells of Buffalo Freedom Gardens or Alexander Wright, founder of the African Heritage Food Co-op, just to name a few was to showcase positive community perseverance and representation.
This go-round is all about highlighting young emerging artists. Under Fareed-Cooke’s leadership and her production company’s apprenticeship program called Fokus’d Kreatives, the 5 selected artists will take inspiration from Get Fokus’d last exhibition and apply different artistic applications to their work including photography, film, video production, illustrations, and many more - as a response.
Learn More About These Emerging Artists Below. And Learn more about Tales From The Porch HERE
ISAAC FAREED
Isaac Fareed, artistically known as Aizyk, is a multimedia artist who is a homeschooled high school sophomore. Fareed uses photography and illustrations to show people how he views the world. Using a fisheye lens coupled with digital illustrations, Fareed gives a “porch” to inanimate objects as a way of giving a voice to the voiceless.
TALLULAH GORDON
Tallulah Gordon is a SUNY Buffalo State University student studying Experimental Media Production. Gordon's piece focuses on the role that the Jewish folktale of the golem plays throughout history and the duality of the message it tells. Printed onto large curtains, the piece is meant to be read from right to left as is from the Torah.
KAITLYN LOWE
Kaitlyn Lowe, also known as The Galactic Griot, is an interdisciplinary artist from Brooklyn with a bachelor's degree in Media Production from SUNY Buffalo State University. She feels called to tell stories of the African Diaspora that encapsulate who folks truly are and what they dream they can become through poetry, photography, and video. Lowe's work is a direct response to some of the painful first photographs of Black folks in America. Lowe’s work captures the essence of African American artists from New York City as they purposefully take up space.
MYKISS WASHINGTON
Mykiss Washington is a student at Cheektowaga Middle School and studies photography at the Contemporary Photography and Visual Arts Center (CEPA Gallery) as a Photography Works participant. He chose to use a Polaroid camera to capture images of people and locations while gathering advice. His goal is to use photography to collect stories in order to gain counsel and share knowledge with others.
STEPHEN FORMAN JR.
Stephen Forman Jr., also known as Paulie! attends SUNY Buffalo State University as a Drawing/Painting major. He draws upon his Christian faith and the Black experience to create illustrations that tell stories of those who need to be seen and heard. His contributions to the Tales From The Porch Extensions exhibition include two paintings that critique the late-stage capitalist greed that affects Black bodies and homes all over the country.