Leslie Barber is an emerging Jamaican American fiber artist and holds a degree in Fashion & Textile Management from North Carolina State University. After relocating to Washington in 2017, she felt an overwhelming sense of loneliness as she navigated primarily white spaces as a black woman. Desiring a creative outlet, she turned to the meditative act of embroidery to help ease her anxiety and depression and eventually started to interpret her fondness for fashion and culture into embroidered art pieces. In her art, she attempts to prioritize black culture, aspects of black womanhood and the joy black people continue to have despite a system built and maintained to diminish their successes. Her work was most recently selected for Shunpike’s 2022 Storefronts program and she has been awarded a duo exhibition through the City of Kent slated for sometime 2023.

https://www.instagram.com/bantuknotembroidery/