From wafts of night-blooming tobacco, and historic greenspaces as locales of refuge or rendezvous, to glimpses of phantoms on midnight strolls and streets turned movie sets at golden hour, Richmond, Virginia is a place where past and present, truth and legend, intertwine. It recognizes a deeply rooted history with a desire to steadily blossom anew— much as I have in the twelve years of living here.
Thus, this series poetically traces my coming of age as shaped by the place I’ve grown to call home. Referencing the hardiness of its leaves in tandem with the delicacy of its flowers, To Cultivate A Magnolia visually explores the mythology of the American South through the folklore and history of Virginia, the complexities of queer identity, the contemporary presence of the American Civil War, and the ongoing journey of becoming.

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