Dr. Semente is a painter, sculptor, researcher, capoeirista, performer, and educator specializing in art and culture of the African diaspora. She is the new Curator of Education and Public Programs at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. Born Amanda Caroline de Oliveira Pereira in 1993, in São Paulo, Brazil, they came to use the name “Semente” (pronounced Seh Mein Chi) through her capoeira practice. Semente is the Portuguese word for seed which symbolizes the way I seek to plant seeds of liberation through my work. Dr. Semente received a B.A. from Brandeis University in 2015 and an M.A. and Ph.D. in African and African Diaspora Studies from the University of Texas at Austin ('17 and '22).
My visual and performance artwork features personal and collective narratives of the African diaspora from the spiritual, political, social, and economic perspectives using a range of mediums such as oil, acrylic, watercolor, clay, foam, wood, textiles, jazz-aesthetic performance, dance, capoeira, etc. I have been making art my entire life and have several ongoing series, containing original works of which can be purchased as one-of-a-kind art objects, requested for exhibitions, or made into prints upon request.