RECLAIMED

In Reclaimed, Kevin A. Williams paints a young Black girl whose very presence defies centuries of erasure. Her hair, unapologetically full and untamed, signals a quiet rebellion against the tyranny of assimilation—a refusal to conform to a standard never meant for her. She holds an artifact from the Benin Empire, a piece of her history long stolen but never forgotten. Her gaze, steady and confident, and her flowing white dress speak of royalty that transcends time and circumstance. To her, this is no act of reclamation, but a reminder of what has always been hers. The energy in this painting is rooted in self-awareness, a knowing that to reclaim is not to recover, but to affirm what was never lost—identity, pride, and power.