CULTURE: Multi-Media Artist Kendrick Daye’s BLACK QUEER TAROT

Jun 5

Challenging outdated, non-inclusive decks of the past, the BLACK QUEER TAROT takes the traditional 78-card Tarot arcana and remakes them with a diverse cast of muses.

Harlem-based artist Kendrick Daye’s mission is to create work that centres Black queer people. In his latest project, he applies his signature analogue collage technique to a reimagined and inclusive Tarot deck. In this world, freedom is a given for all Black queer people.

“As Black queer people, we’re constantly on defense from a world outside and inside that seems hellbent on making everything that much harder for us. For me, it’s about finding that joy despite the outside influences. When I was younger and struggling with how I wanted to show up in this world as a Black queer man I would always remember something my mother would say, my mom’s a Leo, so needless to say she’s a fighter. It was inspiring watching her wage war in the outside world to make things go right in our inside world. And after when she was trying to get centered she’d always say, “never let em steal your joy baby.” And I always hear that in the back of my head. Because we have to find those moments for ourselves despite what burdens the world puts on us,” says the artists in an interview with Fucking Young.