WHERE ARE YOU FROM? | YBCA Young Artists At Work

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My art piece is a video titled "where are you from?". It features Simone Dunye, a visual artist from Oakland who has a very intriguing, unique, and telling heritage. It equally features scenes of my sacred place, the East Lake District, and Oakland's Chinatown. The purpose of this piece was originally to convey the effects that a lack of knowledge of one's origins has on the identity. However, during my filming and cognition about the topic, I had an insight I did not expect. I came to realize that, unlike that infamous quote which says something of the sort: "you must know where you come from to know where you're going", not knowing where you come from is more a test of creativity than a loss of belonging. Not knowing what countries were the birthplace of your ancestors is without a doubt an unfortunate result of the black diaspora. However, it has forced black people to redefine themselves by the present moment and not as a product of the past. Before this project, I was unsure of how to answer the question "where are you from?" but now I feel confident and satisfied saying that I am from Oakland and currently in my life, that is all that matters. —Michaela Pecot

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Created by the Young Artists At Work (YAAW) program, a paid, yearlong multidisciplinary arts-as-activism residency for Bay Area high school youth at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.