Los Angeles based painter and poet Kamaria Shepherd (b. 1991 in Houston) has exhibited nationally and internationally at Ochi Projects in Los Angeles, CA; New Release Gallery in New York, New York; Human Resources in Los Angeles, CA; SoCal MFA Juried Exhibition at the Millard Sheets Art Center in Pomona, CA; Black Light at the Otis Graduate Studios in Los Angeles, CA; Palazzetto Cenci at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Rome, Italy; and Circolo Degli Artisti in Rome, Italy. Kamaria earned an M.F.A. in Painting and Drawing from UCLA in 2018 and a B.F.A. in Painting concentrating in Literary Arts from RISD in 2015. Kamaria is the 2018 UCLA recipient of the Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship. She was also the Swan fellowship recipient during her September 2018 residency at the Vermont Studio Center.

HA RECOLLECTION

Y’all ain’t coming to da house You know tha house The one with yo relatives you never see The ones that never see you, or acknowledge you

Y’all ain’t coming to da house Tha out house the old heads spoke of Hi they didn’t have basic plumbing and slept on a mud floor with just walls, No ceiling looking at the stars every night and how the rain seeped in

Y’all ain’t coming to tha house With the bed that held all of them together siblings and all said it wasn’t right for boys to be in the same room with girls, even brothers That’s why her children each had separate beds

Y’all ain’t coming to tha house Her momma told her not to have a lot of babies by a man They don’t treat you the same and definitely not any better Don’t you marry a dumb man but you can be a dumb woman

It is honored It is recommended

Y’all ain’t coming to that house You are too pretty to be so mean Stop that talk Just be quiet and sit pretty

Y’all ain’t coming to that house I was twenty-nine in that photo, and skinny, and my hair was long After I had left that house I got married, I wasn’t gong to stay there and get whipped by my daddy

Y’all ain’t coming to that damn house Doesn’t look hi she used to Doesn’t answer hi she used to Doesn’t smile less she has to

Y’all ain’t coming to that damn house Doesn’t try less she has to Doesn’t write less he has too Doesn’t cry like a baboon Doesn’t whine by blue moon