Biography

Kennedi Carter is an artist and photographer, currently based in the American South. A Durham, North Carolina native by way of Dallas Texas, Kennedi Carter is a visual artist with a primary focus on Black subjects. Her work highlights the aesthetics & sociopolitical aspects of Black life as well as the overlooked beauties of the Black experience: skin, texture, trauma, peace, love and community. Her work aims to reinvent notions of creativity and confidence in the realm of Blackness.

Crossroads Arts Fellows Project

"The Water Bring We, The Water Wanna Take We Back . ..”: A Photographic Exploration of Southern Waters and Black Religion

The culture of Georgia & South Carolina’s Sea Islands conjure imagery of old oak branches blanketed with Spanish moss, the sweetest low country spirituals resounding through the air, sticky heat, and the wading movement of Black folks in water. A place simultaneously African and Caribbean, a culture steeped in the art of marooning. Beyond this, with its rice fields and ever-shifting coastlines that seem to vanish before our eyes, the lowcountry holds an air of mysticism. The Chieftess of the Gullah Geechee Nation, Queen Quet, often emphasizes the profound connection between water, land, and culture. She states, “The water bring we, the water wanna take we back… You poison the water, you poison the culture.” This sentiment highlights Gullah Geechee life, yes, as a culture, but even more, as an ecology of endurance in the face of threat.This photographic project will construct a visual narrative around Queen Quet’s statement regarding the resilience of Gullah culture and its spiritual practices in the face of the increasing threat of commercial tourism and rural gentrification, on the one hand, and the impacts of environmental change, on the other. The photographs I will produce will convey a story of how religious lore intervenes against these threats. The images will convey the spiritual bond between a culture, the land, and the sea.