“Who told you that you were Black?” explores the tension between identity versus how we are perceived. The southern landscape holds long narratives in Western culture. This work captures four seasons of trees in Atlanta’s parks and neighborhoods and invites you to compare the timeless beauty of trees to the narratives that are placed on people. I connect to nature and Black life through a lens of what I term “rhizomatic typologies” to provide multiple access points for interacting with and creating new narratives. As a single father raising children who do not yet recognize how they are perceived by the world around them. My thesis exhibition, seeks to bridge a connection from our lived experience to the perceived experience given to us by history.