Messejah Washington (b. 1994) is a multidisciplinary artist and curator working in Chicago, Illinois. Growing up on the south side of Chicago he was exposed to the arts at a young age and developed a passion for it through his father, visual artist Dale Washington. He has recently curated a group exhibition dedicated to his late father at the Bridgeport Art Center. He is a Lumniarts finalist, Illinois Arts Council Agency Grant recipient, and current artist in residence at First Presbyterian Church in the First Artists coalition. He has received training in Florence, Italy in sculpting/painting and currently attends the Ravenswood atelier in Chicago to receive classical training in drawing and painting. Messejah Washington has exhibited work throughout the Chicago land area and is working on a new body of work centered around his experiences living colonized in America. Messejah incorporates different motifs in his work, most noticeably the Uncle Sam hat that serves as a symbol of US hegemony and the red star emblem to show solidarity with workers worldwide. Messejah places these motifs in paintings that reintrepret images from Bronzeville, Chicago in the 1940’s, and his own family photo archive. Messejah paints children from bronzeville to reference the Great Migration. The journey of millions of blacks from the rural south to northern cities and the lives we’ve experienced after our arrival. Bronzeville was the first neighborhood blacks from the south settled when they arrived in Chicago. Bronzeville also was the site of the most violent race riot in the city’s history in 1919. Class antagonisms between Irish and Black migrants in a competitive job market continued to escalate. Thousands of black residents were left homeless after their houses were burned by Irish mobs. Messejah makes this work with the intent that future generations learn from the mistakes of the past and to highlight how living under capitalism perpetuates these events today. His work is intended to highlight those in his community and to show solidarity with other working class people internationally.