blazing a trail.

Malene Djenaba Barnett is an American artist and activist who is dedicated to preserving the legacy of Afro-Caribbean women potters and telling the stories of silenced ancestors. She creates dynamic designs that celebrate the artistic and cultural traditions of the Black diaspora, incorporating motifs from traditional African fabrics, pottery, and ceremonial dress. Malene recently completed a research trip to Jamaica, where she studied African-Jamaican ceramic traditions and focused on the traditional Yabba pot made by enslaved women for survival. In addition to her artistic work, Malene founded the Black Artists + Designers Guild (BADG), a non-profit organization that supports and promotes Black designers. She is fearless in calling out the lack of diversity in the design industry and believes that there is still work to be done to improve opportunities for designers of color. [Extracted from the article]