“Founded in the summer of 2020 amidst a national groundswell of calls for racial justice, New Roots Art Collective is a group of four Tampa-based artists committed to expanding African American representation in the arts. In Root’d at Gallery221@HCC, artists Melvin “Langstn” Halsey Jr., Indie Reece, Ron Simmons, and Briauna Walker share traditional, contemporary, aspirational, and reimagined visions of black power. Through their work, the members of the New Roots Art Collective build on the legacy of previous generations of black artists, acknowledging and honoring their cultural history, while striving to create more space for African American artists to be able to center their work in pride, joy, and free expression.”