Big Hoops to Fill

i grew up in roxbury playing on a swing set not far from where this piece now lives. i also grew up watching the women around me wear bamboo hoop earrings - door knockers - like a second skin. confident, cultural, and completely their own.

big hoops to fill brings those two things together.

the sculpture is a swing set. the swings are giant golden bamboo hoops - cast from fiberglass with steel interiors, hanging exactly the way earrings do. you can sit in them. swing in them. bring your kids, your grandmother, your best friend.

that invitation is intentional.

black and brown women are constantly navigating spaces that weren't built for them to rest, play, or just exist without purpose. this piece is a direct response to that. i wanted to create something that said: this space is yours. come heal your inner child. sit with someone you love. feel good about who you are and where you come from.

bamboo hoops aren't just jewelry. they carry the weight of hip-hop culture, immigrant communities, indigenous and african traditions, and the everyday lives of women of color who have always found ways to show up beautifully in a world that doesn't always show up for them. salt-n-pepa wore them. queen latifah wore them. your tia wore them. your mom probably wore them.

putting them in the center of downtown boston - monumental, golden, impossible to ignore - is about asking a simple question: whose histories get to be monuments? whose everyday objects get treated as worthy of celebration?

i think we know the answer. this piece is just making it visible.