Jennifer White-Johnson, An Afro-Latina Artist Advocating for Disability Rights and Neurodiversity

Afro-Puertorrican Artist, Design educator, Jennifer White-Johnson, a mother of a beautiful 9-year-old autistic boy shared her story with us. Her journey as an advocate for Neurodiversity is changing the narrative using her art and language to uplift important causes for our community. Check out our Q&A with this powerful Latina artist.

• Tell us a bit about your upbringing: nationality, family background, growing up Latine

• • • My mother is a Puertorrican woman raised in Ponce, Puerto Rico, My Father, a Black man raised on the southside of Chicago. I grew up in MD and DC around so much rich African-American and Latino culture. My family always encouraged me to be creative even when it seemed like it wouldn’t sustain me in the long run. The musical soundtrack of my life consisted of Salsa, Jazz Fusion and Gospel Music, which really helped to inspire the vibrancy and beat of my work. As my art began to intersect with protest art I learned to lean into the strength and legacy of my ancestors. We can’t let their stories be forgotten! By telling those authentic stories, their voices aren’t silenced, helping to preserve our rich, unique culture and heritage. We are the past, present, and future. Seeing the constant injustices brought upon our people calls me to bring visibility to the beauty, strength, and collective power of our people.

• Share your take on entrepreneurship – any specific defining moments in your journey

• • In 2018 I created my first photo zine uplifting Neurodiversity in my family. It has become an amazing conversation piece in honoring Black and Latinx families through a disabled lens. It’s archived in libraries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and National Museum of Women in the Arts.

• How have your different projects helped find inclusion for the Latinx community?

• • • I’ve learned that using language that disrupts surface culture is always best. Use language in your work that is meant to expose and uplift the most beautiful parts of yourself that no one expects you to celebrate. If folks can see themselves through your work, you know you’ve made the right choices. I find inspiration for my work when I’m immersed in movement work from a creative community left out of artistic narratives. My Puerto Rican grandmother, My Tio who used to call me ‘Piel Canela’, my Autistic son, my Afro Latinas, and fellow trigueñas, those who are often tokenized or misrepresented, and who still do not see enough of themselves represented in fashion media, and music.

  • Tell us about the biggest struggles/obstacles in your career, and how you have overcome them.

    • My biggest struggles have been rooted in trying to create within a box of false ableist expectations; throwing traditional creation methods out the window is the best way to create unapologetically and authentically

• What makes you most proud of the work you do? Share your “why”

• • • I really want my Afro-Latinas to feel seen, validated, represented, and prideful in celebrating their curls and skin color. We need to amplify the parts of our natural beauty that aren’t always celebrated. our caramel and cinnamon skin, and our natural curls, I hope my work can culturally inspire others to center what they want to see more of. I love how art and design can express and uplift themes of intersectionality which ultimately fueled the message for my Target designs.

• Do you have a mantra, piece of art, person or ritual that has helped you in a proud way that you would like to share?

• • • I find inspiration for my work when I’m immersed in movement work from a creative community left out of artistic narratives. My Puerto Rican grandmother, My Tio who used to call me ‘Piel Canela’, my Autistic son, my Afro Latinas, and fellow trigueñas, those who are often tokenized or misrepresented, and who still do not see enough of themselves represented in fashion media, and music.

• About your future projects & anything else you want to add and promote!

• • Be on the lookout for more apparel, zines, and art making workshops that help to keep the cultural messages simple yet impactful! This will be important moving forward. Making sure my visual statements are statements of solidarity and unity. The right message was so important for the Target campaign! saying exactly what needed to be said using apparel design. Making a statement that’s celebratory and highlights others who look like me. Piel canela pelo rizado. Cinnamon skin and curly hair. Being unapologetically bright, bold and radical. Ser Valiente, intrépido, radical.