Artist
Zsudayka Nzinga Terrell
Zsudayka Nzinga is a mixed media artist and designer from Denver, CO. Her portrait work features acrylic, decorative paper, hand-dyed paper, fabric, oil bars, charcoal, pigment, and linocut stamp. Nzinga fuses traditional art forms passed through the Diaspora to create work that speaks to the power of history and how visual art aids in defining culture and identity. Her subjects are Black Americans, often women, placed in regal and empowering poses; her collage work is hand-torn and arranged to create colorful, highly patterned figures whose clothing mimics the history and style of African Ankara fabric. Her subjects are all powerful and composed, highlighting the pride and beauty of her community while revealing the ways one culture is connected to many others. She serves as Vice President of Black Artists of DC and is creating a community art space in Washington, DC's Ward 7 with her husband, James S. Terrell, and their three children.
About the Work
Bedtime Prayers by Zsudayka Nzinga Terrell is a deeply personal and politically resonant work that centers the experience of the Black woman in America. Through the framework of bedtime rituals and prayers, Terrell examines how Black mothers navigate the dual responsibility of nurturing their children while preparing them for the realities of systemic racism. The bedtime prayer becomes both a lullaby and a protective incantation — a moment of vulnerability and strength. The work honors the tradition of Black maternal storytelling and song as acts of cultural preservation, resistance, and radical love.