Symone Titania Major is an award winning documentary photographer, choreographer, and poet from the South Miami Dade town of Goulds. The renaissance woman of Goulds is the winner of the 2016 James L. & John S. Knight Foundation’s Knight Arts Challenge and the 2017 Miami Dade Department of Cultural Affairs Community Grant for her new original project, “The Unvoiced Community: BBQ Men & Women Of Goulds, a photography series visually inspired by the works of Gordon Parks and Spike Lee, which focuses on her community’s local street corner BBQ vendors.
As a independent self-taught artist, community enthusiast, and local talent supporter, her concerns have always been to show the authentic nature of each art form while curating a style that connects with one’s feelings and understanding of her portrayed message through the depth and colour of her storytelling. With the passionate belief that as an artist, “it is my responsibility to create an open communication platform in order to encourage sustainable solutions for a better community”, she focus her works towards the depiction of the dichotomy in which she lives. Light and dark. Ugly and beauty. Love and hate. Problems and solutions.
Symone understands the importance of having a high quality project and presentation as an individual artist and this is why she studies under local nonprofits to gain experience in curating successful works. As a past marketing intern at MDC Live Arts , Symone is capable of strategically promoting a body of work through different mediums of communication, as a current volunteer of Artist Within Reach Organization she is able to practice her event planning skills by being hands on with developing the structure of celebrity art based workshops. Volunteering within the local organizations also allows her the opportunity to appreciate and connect with the people of a community, which she believes is the heartbeat of any local inspired works.
With her family as her foundation and a strong relationship with God, Symone Titania Major believes in the strength of love and unity, which drives her to spread prosperity and growth through her works, in hopes of inspiring a peaceful and beautiful world to live in.