03/16/2026
My name is Reina Davis. I am a 26-year-old mother, a wife, and an artist. My journey began in Lake City, Florida, before I was adopted into a small town in the Kentucky Appalachians. Growing up as a biracial child in an all-white, strictly Pentecostal household, I learned early on what it felt like to be a "guest." I was the "Dam"—the one built to hold back the weight of expectations, religious duty, and a culture that didn't always have space for my true self.
For years, I tried to pray away my truth. I fasted, sought "deliverance," and begged to be different, believing my identity was a battle to be won. But the spirit doesn't break that easily. Even then, despite the trauma, neglect, and the "stolen light" of my adolescence, I remained a free spirit.
Life has tested me. I’ve walked through the fire of domestic violence and had to rebuild my entire world from the ashes. For the last few years, I’ve served as a social worker for the State of Kentucky. I’ve loved those families, and I’ve loved helping others find their footing, but I realized I was still playing the role of the barrier—holding back the flood for everyone else while my own soul waited for its turn.
I am shedding those layers now. I’ve realized that the approval and love I craved from my mother were actually things I needed to give to myself.
Now, I am stepping into my sovereignty. I am turning my stories into the physical form. Through pottery, I am writing my truth into the clay. Every piece I create carries the tears, the empathy, and the hard-won love of a woman who finally belongs to the sky, the true source, El Elyon.
We are all on this earth to let our egos die and to live in sovereignty with one another. I hope my art serves as your reminder that even when the stone is split, the light that comes through is divine.
I am no longer the dam. I am the flood.
