Amplify The Arts Brings Whitney Barn To Life

The artist Darnell “Sain’t” Phifer. Abiba Biao Photos.

Behind the artist Darnell “Sain’t” Phifer, the King of Pop rose towards the rafters. On the canvas, Michael Jackson’s sleek body struck a pose in an acrylic-and-charcoal tuxedo, one hand extended as the other found his right pocket, and slipped a thumb into the fabric. Where a face might be, the canvas remained blank, a reddish brown heart hovering over a body in motion. 

Around it, sculptures and canvases seemed to look on from all sides, as if they were saying hello.     

Last Saturday and Sunday, Sain’t Phifer was one of nine Connecticut artists featured at the second annual Amplify the Arts Festival, held at the Eli Whitney Barn on Whitney Avenue. A celebration of New Haven and Hamden creatives, the event featured artists Amira Brown, Susan Clinard, Shaunda Holloway, Edward Jefferson, Nathan Lewis, Luciana McClure, Sain’t Phifer, Linda Mickens, and Jasmine Nikole. In addition, 16 young artists from Transcend the Trend exhibited their work. 

It was organized by Hamden Town Clerk Karimah Mickens-Webber, a longtime champion of arts and culture in the area, with the support of the Town of Hamden, a small but mighty Amplify the Arts team, and several partner organizations. This year, it was designed to feel more intimate than the inaugural fest, held in 2022 in in Hamden Town Center Park. 

Karimah Mickens-Webber. 

“We brought it in so people can be in conversation and talk and see and buy art, so that's a big difference,” said Mickens-Webber, who dreamed up the festival last year and was excited to bring it back. “I think we need to provide spaces to see other people's works, how they show up and how they see the world. And that just makes for a better community when we get to interact and share different experiences.” 

This year, Mickens-Webber said that a main goal of hers was to spotlight artists from Hamden, although several of the weekend’s creatives came from across the region. She said she wants the town to be known as an artistic powerhouse, just like its neighboring cities New Haven and Guilford.  

It was through that urge that she connected with artists like Sain’t Phifer, whose recent appearances also include the 6th Dimension Afrofuturism Festival and Wábi Gallery’s upcoming show Voir Dire at KNOWN Coworking in downtown New Haven. 

Based in Bridgeport, Sain’t Phifer began his work as an artist in 2018, after receiving a message from the divine to paint in his sleep. Since then, he’s used it as an outlet to combat his own struggles with mental health and depression. He said that it allows him to practice positivity. 

“God told me to paint, and I didn't paint before then,” he said, while showing visitors around his mixed-media snapshots of Black history. “I've just been painting ever since.”

On average, Sain’t Phifer said that his pieces take a day or two to create and are all about translating his thoughts on canvas. Phifer wants his artwork to transport people into “a place where you can kind of feel comfortable and playful and childlike,” he said.  

“We lost that in the world, so that's what I want people to feel like: being a child again,” he said.

Top: Work by Jasmine Nikole. Bottom: Spoken word artist Sharmont Influence-Little, who last month was named New Haven's inaugural poet laureate. 

Sunday, art exploded joyfully all around him, as both visual and performing artists moved through the space and filled the barn’s walls and open spaces with their work. Taking the mic on a makeshift stage, New Haven poet laureate Sharmont Influence-Little graced the festive; with his spoken word, starting with a poem about the art of styling his daughter’s hair. 

As his words floated over the space, they rang out richly with metaphor, putting words to the societal expectations put on Black girls and boys from an early age. 

Looking around after the piece, he asked attendees what art meant to them (watch the performance here) and began to create a freestyle poem pulled from those responses. 

“It was a fall day and I happened to walk down a cobblestone road into a barn and seen what amplified art looks like,” he began. “I seen what it took to put art on paper by seeing the love and passion behind all the tears and pain that people see. It was inspiring.”

Attendees listened closely as the words soaked the barn, blessing artwork that ranged from large mixed media sculpture and collage to oils and acrylics on canvas. Folding in what he had heard from those gathered around him, he steered the poem toward its end, ready to finish on a high note.

“We have the meaning of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” he read. “Without art, there would never be a revolution. There will never be any progress from books, to paintings to sculptures, from Basquiat to Savage. Understand this is amplified art and we did.”

UNH Senior Annalisa Correia. 

Outside of the barn, University of New Haven (UNH) senior Annalisa Correia made their debut, selling their prints for the first time. On one, the anguished and enraged face of a man starkly popped out from the green background. At first, a series of red squiggles around him seemed like a pattern. A closer look revealed that they spelled out the words “just get over it.”

Now art major at UNH, Correia initially started painting and printmaking as a hobby. When they started their studies at UNH, they realized that “I didn't really want to do dental hygiene,” they said. “Then I knew I wasn't gonna be happy and I knew I liked art, so I just went down the art path.”

Now that they are a senior, Correia imagines working in animation as a character designer or drawing comic books. They said that they hope people resonate with their work by seeing “how it speaks to them in their life.”

“I just want them [viewers] to enjoy it, like, [to] be able to look at it without feeling any pressure,” they said.

Correia also had some words of advice for people looking to get into artistry and monetize their work. 

“I know it's cliche, but believe in yourself,” they said. “There’s so many times where I wanted to just stop and go into a career that would be more stable financially, but if you truly want to do this, like push through all of that, and you'll just get it done.”

 Melissa Miller hugging Anna Festa; Jasmine Nikole hugging Holly Donohue.

Back inside, Melissa Miller was captivated by the art around her. Just twenty minutes after arriving at the venue with her friends Anna Festa and Holly Donohue, she already found herself moved by the experience, hugging both her friends and featured artist Jasmine Nikole.

“I  just feel the love and the creative vibe here,” Miller said. “And the poet he was beautiful, so it’s been a really moving experience. 

All three spent time looking closely at one of Nikole’s canvases, in which a Black woman stood in profile, her skirts billowing out in front of her as sheaves of light rose behind her. Her hair, a full Afro, glowed the same turquoise blue as her skirt and the light. 

“This conversation all started on like ‘Is she dancing?’’ ‘What is she feeling?’” Festa said, her eyes still on the canvas. “And we've ended up in a group and we're all emotional. We think the moon is affecting us.”

Donohue added that she felt “chills up and down” from listening to Influence-Little’s poem when the group arrived.

“I don't normally get that during the day, going about my work and being the person that I think I should be,” Donohue said. “So being able to come here and listen to something like that gives me a whole other feeling is phenomenal. It really is powerful.”

“It's love.” Miller said. “There's love all around, and if we only got more people to accept that love, we'd have such a peaceful world.”