About The Work

S H I E L D

The Shield is the making and the telling and the creation of a thing which works. These are shields. They are artifacts that serve the purpose to protect, defend, spare, heal, and cover.


Shields are what I, as a nonparent but loving aunt and godmother have to offer. I didn't create these incredible gifted manifestations of light who illuminate my life, but I can help by assisting in shielding them. Ensure that through the motive force of prayer, desire, and action that they thrive,
by being there to make it happen.


Shield is also homage. The dream like steel in my soul, the hidden automatic, the incredibly deft programming that two children of the Africa to West Indies Diaspora did to their first born.

I remain grateful that there is not much I wanted or needed to undo.


Such an expansive foundation that they, my parents, grandparents and godmothers gave me; the strength, clarity, and joy of which shielded me for over 40 years from the incessant and unremitting attacks on the very nature of my being.

I can best honor the gift and insight by passing it on, by also shielding the Homo Novis.


My goal is to use techniques to fulfill vision and gain the skill that extends vision. This making is for me another way of telling some of the many many stories that this first-born, female, African Caribbean American, New Yorker, Ivy League emigré creator has been taught.


Akua Lezli Hope