Celebrating Black History

Celebrating the limitless creativity of our Black community this Black History Month—and always…

As many companies and organizations scale back their DEI initiatives, CulturalDC remains steadfast in its commitment to uplifting Black artists. Now through the end of March, support our Black History Month Fundraiser and help us continue to provide unconventional space for relevant and challenging work.

At CulturalDC, we believe in equity, inclusivity, and accessibility. We strive to make space for art—ensuring that innovative artists across all disciplines have the resources to create, share, and thrive.

Donate $100 or more, and receive a CulturalDC tote bag or bandana featuring artwork by four incredible local Black artists: jET Carter, Autumn Spears, Rashad Ali Muhammad, and Rodney “BUCK!” Herring.

Jermaine "jET" Carter, hailing from southeast Washington, D.C., embarked on his artistic journey at the age of 6, drawing inspiration from cartoons of the 90s and early 2000s. His creativity sparked while tracing TV screen projections to capture what he saw through the screens.

A 2016 graduate of Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Jermaine embraced a typo, "Jetmaine," from a friend's text, giving birth to his art persona "jET." His pursuit of artistic growth guided him to The Cooper Union, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts. This education granted him an interdisciplinary perspective, liberating him from creative constraints. By melding animation, motion graphics, sculpture, and digital fabrication, jET crafted the expansive "jETCO" visual universe. “jETCO,” is an imagined, alternate universe inhabited by caricatures, metaphors, and allegories that is a direct reflection of jET’s perception of the society infused with his artistic practice. Through nonlinear storytelling and narrative collage, he maps out the jETCO world, a dramatized amalgamation of everyday absurdities and horror—those that exist particularly within the precarious social and political space Black Americans occupy.

Much of jET’s recent work involves creating vignettes through drawing and painting, illustrating various narratives about power, peace, struggle, and absurdities of daily life, juxtaposed with the cartoon influences he grew up watching. He feels comfortable using cartoons in his works to disarm the viewer at first glance.

jET inserts himself into the world as a character named jETTi who serves as hisavatar, wanting nothing more than to paint pictures and document the world around him. Other characters that reside within jETCO include JAMAL: a black police officer and very tragic character who is losing hold of his humanity within the commodity of other JAMAL’s. Then there is Rhonda, a little black girl and carrier of light that illuminates an otherwise dreary world plagued by late capitalism.

To solidify these creations, jETCO often handcrafts paper using diverse materials like bills, receipts, baseball cards, recycled drawings, and even Pokémon cards. Blending these materials with watercolor paper, sifting through a screen and allowing the paper to dry, forms a definitive foundation that adds texture and context to the narratives. This process yields a tangible, textured base for the world of jETCO, enhancing the illustrated stories and giving them more context. Once a narrative comes to mind, the jETCO paper is treated with passes of colored pencil and sometimes watercolor. In his belief, these additions to the drawing's foundations provide crucial support to the narratives he portrays.

Autumn Spears (b. 1998) is a Washington, DC native whose art serves as a powerful medium for reimagining Black histories and diasporic narratives. Her upbringing in communities of color, while simultaneously navigating predominantly white institutions, has profoundly shaped her identity and artistic vision. These contrasting environments have ignited her interest in exploring black representation and identity across the African diaspora.

In 2020 she received her BFA in Art Education from Albright College. In 2023, Spears held her inaugural solo exhibition, "Becoming," at the Freedman Gallery in Reading, Pennsylvania. This milestone event showcased her distinctive style and marked the beginning of a promising artistic journey. Additionally, Spears’ work has been featured in local cultural institutions such as the MLK Memorial Library, Charles Sumner School, and the Anacostia Community Museum.

Rodney “BUCK!” Herring is a multifaceted creative and malcontent, whose work explores the varied layers of the human experience. Delving deep into his own vices, praising his muses with reverence and questioning his own spirituality, BUCK! draws upon your very intimate emotions and exposes the nerve that connects you to your core humanity. Without a Doubt.

Based in Washington, DC, BUCK! finds kinship with anyone who harbors deep seeded resentment towards the current political regime and it’s abhorrent policies towards people of color, women, the poor, the LGBT community, and anyone else who sees this miserable shit for what is.

BUCK! is a graduate of Hampton University, a product of Baltimore, MD and a 26 year veteran of the professional art/design world.

Rashad Ali Muhammad (b. 1990 Alexandria, VA) is a multidisciplinary artist of the African diaspora based in Maryland and Virginia. His practice delves into the intersections of culture, ethnicity, spirituality, identity, and nature, celebrating the vastness of the human spirit. His work reinforces notions of authenticity, self-love, and connection, inviting viewers to engage in deeper understanding while addressing stereotypes and misconceptions faced by people of color and the queer community.

Working primarily in mixed media collage, Muhammad merges intention, investigation, and invention, dissecting established references and reassembling them into compelling new visions. His ongoing journey to expand emotional intelligence fuels his exploration of the intricacies of human experience and the expansive intersections that shape our lives. The clarity and refinement of Muhammad's work reflect his formal education in graphic design and photography. In addition to his art practice, he works as a creative director and graphic designer, where his contemporary artistic sensibilities and classic design training foster a whimsical and innovative approach.

Muhammad is a resident artist at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, VA. His art has been exhibited extensively throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region, with other national and international exhibitions. He is a 2023 Art and Peacebuilding Fellow with the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at GMU. His artwork has appeared broadly in print and digital media, including the Washington Post, Kolaj Magazine, Create! Magazine, and British GQ.