New Jersey Native Expresses Femininity Through Her Life And Cultural Background

By Isaiah Joseph | Published March 7, 2022

During the month of March, we celebrate women’s history to reminisce on the courage of women in past generations and to praise how their actions and bravery afforded women the opportunities and freedoms they have today.

At Kean, we celebrate the month of women’s history by the variety of events that they are hosting on campus. But it’s not only the history we celebrate, it’s also about the importance of the outcome it projected on today’s women.

On the first floor in the Center for Academics and Success (CAS) on your left, the Karl and Helen Burger Gallery is holding an exhibition dedicated to the strength and bravery of women’s culture.

Profundo are photo collages by Afro-Caribbean photographer and painter Tamara Torres.

Torres was born into poverty in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1978, of Puerto Rican and Taino ancestry.

Torres brings her artistic vision to our residence to illuminate the relationships of the men who have influenced individual women within the feminist upsurge in Puerto Rican communities.

“These photo collages are external manifestations of the untold internal light within these women, kindled and fortified by men who played large roles in their life.” says the description of the exhibit.

Torres expresses her personal experience of femininity growing up between American and Puerto Rican cultures as she narrates her own story through the experiences of darkness created by depression, anxiety, and societal trauma.

Torres’s idea of Profundo became the motive, as she was gathering women’s stories and photographing them. She also talks about the different types of internal emotions that they were dealing with during the pandemic.

Her art expresses the cultural importance of femininity through traditions in her culture surrounding music, dance, and festivities as she adds unique characteristics to her photographs to tell the stories of the native women’s daily lives and what they face

“These paintings are a physical manifestation of my journey to Profundo,” said Torres. “They will also continue.”

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