As a continuation to my post about the lack of representation of fat black girls in the art world, I thought it would be fitting to introduce to you some fat black art babes making a difference. These are women I truly admire and some of the best discoveries I’ve ever made. I do hope one day they truly get the full recognition they deserve.
Stacy Barthe
    is a Haitian American singer-songwriter from Brooklyn, NY. This soulful songbird has written for the likes of Britney Spears and Rihanna. This year she released her debut album, BEcoming, which peaked at 92 on the Billboard Top 200. Since the inception of iTunes and other music downloading websites, very rarely do you come across artists who take the time and produce a cohesive album from intro to outro and she has done such with this album. It’s starts with a violin-heavy intro, reminiscent of Bernard Herrmann’s Prelude, titled “My Suicide Note” depicting a girl on the brink of ending her life. But over the course of the album, that young girls slowly gets out of the deep dark place she was once in, not without much struggle, and grows into the woman she can be happy with. She’s vulnerable and honest throughout this whole album, her melodious voice speaks of going through depression and being suicidal over a harmonious mixture of quintessential neo soul and R&B beats and learning to love herself and have an optimistic outlook on life. Please go and check out her album on iTunes.
 Porsha OlayiwolaÂ
 is a Nigerian Slam Poet who resides in Boston. She is poetry teacher at MassLEAP and a member of the NBGC council, bringing light to queer women of color who live in Boston. She is the winner of the 2014 Individual World Poetry Slam and a runner up of the 2013 Women of the World Poetry Slam. She is most known for performance piece, “Rekia Boyd”, which speaks about the erasure of black women in the fight against police brutality. She performs with such conviction, voice unwavering even when you hear the pain clear as day. Her performances speak of various issues Black Americans deal with living in America. “Water” goes into brutal detail of why majority of Black Americans do not swim. Her words flow between standard english and AAVE seamlessly. You can watch her videos at Button Poetry on Youtube
Alonna Cole
   is a Black American Photographer based in Harlem. She is a SUNY Purchase graduate with a BA in photography. Her work primarily focuses on black life in New York City, capturing the small details one doesn’t normally notice, the posters of black hairstyles on the walls of salons to the way the lights of the community halls hit you at a certain angle. She aims to show that the lives of Black people are not marred with perpetual violence and that we do live everyday lives. Her photography also focuses on the architecture of New York City and black art. There are a lot of photography who shoot New York City, honestly it has been overdone, but she truly bring something new and refreshing to the table with the way she makes use of the foreground. I personally like to think of her work as black minimalism. You can check out her work at @alonnacole and her Instagram
Rochelle Brock
  is a fashion photographer from Brooklyn, NY. She first started dabbling in photography in 2009, a few years after her father passed. What inspired her to pick up the camera was that she realized that she had no photos of her father, or photos with her father.  Even at a young age this fact affected her greatly which is why she seizes every chance to capture her friends on film. Photography is something she sees herself doing until the day she dies and her passion is obvious with how high quality her work is. Her photos are clean and crisp with an urban editorial flair that you would  normally see in magazines like The Fader and Dazed. Her goal is to bring body positive representation and it is evident with her photo series, “Honey”, “M I A M I F O R N I C A T I O N”, and “DVRK PARTY”. You can check out her amazing work at her website and instagram
