In Dialogue: Precious Lovell

BAND Artist in Residence: Precious Lovell

Join us in dialogue with Precious Lovell to learn more about her creative process and explore her current work in progress and the newest addition to her Warrior Women of the African Diaspora series, Marie-Joseph Angélique.

Precious Lovell grew up in a small North Carolina town during the 1960s and ’70s—an experience that profoundly shapes her sociocultural textile practice. Lovell’s work reflects a dual education: a formal curriculum that ignored Black histories and an informal, family‑driven re‑education that celebrated heritage through making. Stitching and cloth—skills nurtured by her mothers and aunts—became her chosen language. In her practice, she explores the narrative potential of clothing, drawing inspiration from the aesthetic, technical, and cultural significance of traditional textiles across the African Diaspora.

Since 2009, Lovell has been stitching a constellation of war‑shirts that honour Black women who, often at terrible personal risk, resisted enslavement and colonial rule. The project, Warrior Women of the African Diaspora was sparked in Ghana when Lovell encountered a statue of Asante queen Yaa Asantewaa, clad in a talisman‑studded battle garment traditionally reserved for men. Confronted with the erasure of female freedom‑fighters in public memory, Lovell resolved to translate their stories—materially and symbolically—into protective cloth.

For her residency with BAND, Lovell will focus on Marie-Joseph Angélique as the newest addition to this on-going series. Drawing on processes and materials specific to Angélique’s narrative, Lovell will imbue every fibre of the final warshirt with material evidence of her defiance

Presented with support of Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council.