ANYAMELE DIETE-KOKI, Amarachi

This body of work is the self portrait of a younger me who sits at the core of me today. As I grow and experience more of the world she is there speaking to me. Sometimes she still whispers that to open myself up to others is to open myself up to victimization. But i now know love, through unconventional chosen families that choose me everyday with intention. I let that love open me up to be seen fully as I am and allow that young girl to see the world beyond the eyes of her first experiences.

I hope the viewer takes a way a sense of sonder looking at this piece. My yoga teacher used to say “we all look different, but we feel the same” in relation to the idea that no matter what variations of difficulty we sit in our poses we all feel the same tension of discomfort in our stretch—I hope that metaphor resonates through life and we hold our neighbors in love & gentility without judgement because we have all gone through things in our diverse lives.