This work is from an ongoing series titled Hoodoo Assassins, which refers to an army of real and imaginary women created by the artist to protect a symbolic space she calls “The Parallel Universe.” Here she has found refuge during the past four years of police violence and the resurgence of White supremacist terrorism. Her subjects channel the personas of subversive individuals who project a self-possession that exudes strength and resolve. Stout says, “while we may be in this mess, we don’t have to succumb to it and allow ourselves to be of it.”