Blair Ebony Smith, PhD

aka 

lovenloops

Blair, also known as lovenloops, is a learner from Richmond, Virginia who is passionate about making celebratory spaces, art, and sound with Black girls and those who love them. As a DJ and homegirl with collective/band, Saving Our Lives, Hear Our Truths (SOLHOT), Blair deepened her love for Black sound, music and making space for Black girlhood celebration. Currently, she is dreaming, teaching, learning and making space and sounds that open us to listening, slowly and voluminously, especially to Black girls, people and living beings. Her art and scholarship explores themes of memory, loops, home and everlasting love. Blair is currently an Assistant Professor of Art Education and Gender & Women’s Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She received her PhD in Cultural Foundations of Education with a graduate certificate in Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies at Syracuse University. 

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Artist-Curator Statement 

Sound, music,  and art-making/design have always, already been apart of my daily love, living, being and studies. I find my sound and art through my memories of a Black Richmond, Virginia, my family (my beloved parents whom I've survived), being with lovers and doing Black girlhood.

 

lovenloops as an artist-curator-scholar alter ego is a way for me to play with and remember self in relation to SOLHOT, earth/galaxies, home, lovers, Black girlhood/feminism. 

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It is a way for me to meet people/non-humans/lovers where we are, with our dreams. It is a way for me to meet Black girls and Black girlhood where we are, in celebration beyond biological identity. lovenloops is a way for me to meet myself where I am. 

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**CV available upon request

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