Stephanie Brown
MFA ’18
Project Yashaya will re-imagine society’s understanding of what Jesus looked like by mass producing a visual image of him based on research in various fields. Yashaya means “My Saviour” in Hebrew. Zondervan Bible Dictionary confirms, Hebrews named their children based on a particular position, function, or relationship. My graduate thesis work is rooted in black representation. For this project I am interested in restoring empowerment to black populations by providing them an alternative perspective of the representation of religious figures. I plan on working with divinity scholars and library specialists in addition to researching texts outside of the biblical canon. I will work with an illustrator and a painter to create a new image of Jesus based on the research I will collect. I will then work with a graphic designer to transform the image into stickers, buttons, and posters that will be available and free to the public. These images will be sent to various cities, where they can be distributed to communities as well as left in public places to be found by the general population.
Library Mentors: Charles Ransom & Evyn Kropf