Shantrelle P. Lewis, Neighbor

Shantrelle P. Lewis is an independent curator and scholar who currently serves as the Director of Exhibitions and Public Programming at the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI). A New Orleans native, Shantrelle migrated to Bedstuy, Brooklyn in Fall of 2009. Having received a BA and MA in African American Studies from Howard and Temple Universities respectively, Ms. Lewis has demonstrated a commitment to researching, documenting and preserving African Diasporan culture.  Her international travels throughout Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America and Europe have allowed her to observe the manifestation of the African aesthetic first hand. Shantrelle’s exhibitions have been seen at various institutions including Brooklyn's MoCADA and Skylight Gallery, NOLA's McKenna Museum of African American Art,  Chicago's Three Peas Art Lounge and the African American Museum in Philadelphia. Ms. Lewis initiates projects that are meant to incite, inspire, and shift the paradigms of their audiences.  Her most recent exhibition, Sex Crimes Against Black Girls, has inspired the production of an anthology that she is co-editing with Dr. Yaba  A. Blay. As part of her lifetime commitment to her beloved hometown, Shantrelle is producing and co-directing her first documentary with Brooklyn-based filmmaker Joshua Bee Alafia, entitled The Wild Magnolia, as part of an oral history project of the Magnolia Housing Projects of which she is Project Director.  As a NOLA ex-pat and new Brooklyn migrant, she simply adores her Bedstuy community.