Imani Noelle Ford is from the city of Chicago and a member of the Class of 2018 concentrating in African American Studies and pursuing a certificate in Visual Arts on the sculpture track. She became interested in these two fields through her interest in Religion, Hip Hop culture, Black Cultural practices, and the question of how to under conditions of marginalization. She is also interested in the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, construction of binaries, and queered identities. Her interest in her body and what it means to live through (and be in) our particular moment also drew her to African American Studies. Though her artwork and research are not the same, her research often informs her art. They both point to her body. She is also interested in experimental sculpture, physically intangible material, the color blue, the absurd, negative space, subjectivity vs specificity, light, and scale. In addition to her membership in the Visual Arts program, she is also a Mellon Mays Fellow. In the past she was involved in the Black Justice League, the LGBT Peer Educator Program, Religious Life Council, and many other organizations on campus. She was a 2016 recipient of the Martin A. Dale scholarship in which she traveled the country meeting black artists. After college she hopes to do a fellowship abroad, practice meditation, pursue art, and go to graduate school. Her dream is to professionally make art and teach at a university.