Jardyn Lake

Jardyn will create Paraiso, an exhibition of  photos and videos shot in Salvador, Bahia. This exhibition engages themes around race, religion, and the class and sexual politics of Afro-Brazilian people. Jardyn hopes that the exhibition offers a means to build resources and safe space for LGBTQ African-Americans around African-based religious practice as they learn about LGBTQ people involved in the Candomble as Priests, Priestesses, and initiates. The exhibit aims to engage communities by invoking a sense of responsibility in sharing the legacies of Afro-Brazilians, cultivating a sense of solidarity between African- Americans in Philadelphia and the history and culture of Afro-Brazilians, re-imagining the face of Brazil as Black people, raising consciousness around issues such as race relations and economic hardship, and introducing spiritually isolated LGBTQ people of African descent to the Candomble spiritual practice.