Artist Bio:

A young human rights lawyer by profession, I began Cassava Leaf Textiles in the summer of 2011 in an attempt to join my love of upscale home decor and African haute couture with global community development, social entrepreneurship and philanthropy. My inaugural collection, Essentials, is based on an African staple foods theme, while my Winter 2012 collection, Rue 23, is a tribute to the time I recently spent in Dakar, Senegal and the Senegalese women who inspired me to start designing pillows. Cassava Leaf aims to capture the stories of Africa’s native and diasporic communities through symphonies of Dutch wax, bazin, kente cloth, mudcloth and other fabric central to traditional and contemporary African design. By creating upscale home goods at a fair price, luxury goods that glorify all that is good about the pan-African experience can provide functional fine art for everyday homes. Cassava Leaf is a labor of love, and while it is a profit-making endeavor, the goal in making profit is to use that profit to fund philanthropic and social initiatives in urban America and the pan-African Global South.