December 5, 2024 – January 22, 2025
Nevada Humanities Program Gallery
1017 S. 1st Street, #190
Las Vegas, NV 89191

Reception and Exhibition Discussion
Thursday, December 5, 2024
5 – 8 pm PT, Discussion 6 pm
Nevada Humanities Program Gallery

Birthed from the Soil presents a multidimensional portrait of Yawah Awolowo, known as Mama Yawah, an organic farmer, natural food chef, and midwife from Cuba, Alabama. This exhibition highlights the functionality of Mama Yawah’s life, demonstrating the beauty of ancestral knowledge of caring and working with the earth for generations, while living and tending to the community. The multi-media exhibition is by Iyana Esters and is curated by Stephanie Gibson, Director, Lilley Museum of Art, University of Nevada, Reno, NV.

Birthed from the Soil is on display at the Nevada Humanities Program Gallery, 1017 South 1st Street, #190 in Las Vegas, from December 5 through January 22, 2025. Viewing hours at the Nevada Humanities Program Gallery are Tuesdays through Fridays from 1 to 5 pm PT, and until 9 pm PT, the first Friday of the month for First Friday events. Visitors may also make a viewing appointment by contacting Bobbie Ann Howell at bahowell@nevadahumanities.org or 702-800-4670.

This exhibition is presented by Nevada Humanities and supported, in part, by the Nevada Arts Council, a state agency, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and the state of Nevada.

Artist Biography:

Combining her art with her background in folk herbalism and environmental health, Iyana Esters experiments with a multitude of photographic processes including documentary photography, imaging on natural plant materials, and photo mural projects, with an emphasis on highlighting stories about gender, sexuality, and ancestry in the Black + Afrodiaspora. She has been a part of group exhibitions with renowned Minnesotan photographer Wing Young Huie, and has shown her work at the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, the Social Documentary Network, Reno City Hall, the Lilley Museum of Art, and public art with the Wedekind Road Art Project. She has taught photography to children and adolescents in Latin America and has been an UP NEXT candidate with Diversify Photo.

Artist Statement:

Between my upbringing in the Wild West, and time in the deep south, I have seen the multifaceted beauty of these places and the people who live in them. My parents always encouraged me to express myself and know my roots, which has manifested into photography and my relationship with plants in folk herbalism.

Traveling globally has influenced my knowledge, and my image-making typically relies on naturally-lit compositions using a documentary style, and incorporating plant materials into my projects. I use photography as a lens for storytelling to capture Afrodescendants’ connection with Mama Nature to invoke emotion and thought as these entities alchemize. Birthed from the Soil allows you to look deeper around you, to show how ingrained ancestral knowledge carries within us and how spirit connects us even if something has changed physically.

Birthed from the Soil: A Photo Affair by Iyana Esters