KALAE NOUVEAU'S intricate intimacies
Hair and photo by Stephanie Annaliese
Interview by Deborah Oster Pannell
Kalae Nouveau is an artist, stylist, model, singer, actor and emcee. Born and raised in NYC, she has moved through different forms of expression with an organic flow that reflects her seemingly boundless creative spirit. Her recent participation in a group show at Allouche Gallery co-curated by Swoon, Monica Canilao and BLK PALATE, “The Intricate Intimate,” was the culmination of years of work using her own body and face as a canvas. We first met riding the 1 train, when my son took a liking to her necklace, a gold painted cassette tape on a giant gold chain, and we struck up a conversation. Her energy was, and still is, magnetic.
Kalae, you’ve cycled through a number of forms of creative expression since I’ve known you. I get the feeling that you were one of those kids who stole the show at school recitals. Have you always been this way?
Definitely. Ever since I can remember I have been an artist and conduit of muse. I danced, I was in plays, had piano recitals and went to specialized schools. I feel privileged to have a mother who recognized and respected my artistry from the womb.
You released an album of original material as an emcee, AFROMATIKNEOHIPPIEROCK*SOLEMUSIC, under the name Kalae All Day, produced by Princess Superstar. It contains tracks featuring a number of established rappers, including Homeboy Sandman, Mic Wilson and Likwuid. Then you came back strong with a 17-track mixtape, Pass Times & Crass Lines, including collaborations with an even bigger line-up of producers and emcees. Can you talk about what it was like being a woman as part of the NYC hip hop scene back then? How did you get into it, and what made you move on?
Being a femcee back then was relatively easy. The market wasn’t saturated and honestly, the talent level wasn’t what it is now. There were about ten dope femcees in the underground scene, and I was one of them. I had my band with me, and I was singing and bringing something new to the scene. I was highly sought after and respected. In high demand. It was a fun era for me, but unfortunately I was really young and naive and had no clue what I was getting into half of the time.
After being in a relationship with a highly acclaimed emcee who asked me to not be a part of his crew and to back out of shows I was billed on, my confidence started to dwindle. Women often have to choose between love and career because of societal standards. At the time, I felt I needed to dull my light if I was to be loved the way I craved. Really depressing, now that I look back at it. But he’s not all to blame, that was me not standing inside of my greatness. I’ve gotten over that now. I’m grateful. And I miss those years, and I still hold that rapper in high esteem.
I also had problems with my management. They signed me promising that I could stay “Kalae” and then started asking me to write songs like Rihanna. And if you remember Kalae All Day, she was no Rihanna, and she never tried to be. I was my own entity and that ask made me feel devalued. I was hitting crossroads on many fronts that led me off my path. But I’m happy to finally be back on track.
A few years ago, you adopted the new public persona, Kalae Nouveau. One of my favorite of your music videos during that time had you rapping with Charlene Kaye in her song, “Woman Up.” The name change seemed to signal a major shift in your sense of yourself and your place in the world. What sort of personal evolution were you experiencing, and how has it continued?
The name came about because I had a contract with my management where they owned my name and any money I made using it for three years. This is what I mean when I say I was young and naive. I searched for a new name for the sake of my own autonomy. And it hit me - NEW! That’s how Nouveau was birthed.
You’ve done a good amount of work as a plus-sized model, and I see you just got signed with a new agency - congratulations! How have you reconciled working in an industry that has enshrined beauty standards that have supported so many of our culture’s biases towards women, our bodies and our overall appearance - for example, being labeled “plus-size?” Have you been able to achieve and/or maintain a personal sense of empowerment through this work?
I don’t know that I have reconciled it, but I do know that doing this work is important. I do know that being seen is important. I do know that showing diversity in this culture is on an uptick, and I’m excited and honored to be a part of the movement - this new wave of thought and appreciation for all sizes and all races and all genders and all sexual orientations and the elimination of white-washed, colonized beauty standards.
Photo by Jade Beall
During the long pandemic lockdown of 2020, you went deep into the world of styling, creating almost daily looks out of make-up, accessories and a wild assortment of household materials that you shared on Instagram. Some of these looks are straight up glamorous (your remake of Cardi B’s Met Gala costume landed you a spot in Vogue Magazine), but others are more raw and revealing of deeper emotions and challenging experiences. How do you see your presence on social media as part of your artistic practice, and how does this figure into your personal regimen of both creative expression and self-care?
In Buddhist temples they practice the art of mandalas, which is an incredibly contemplative meditation in art and creation. They take one little bit of sand and add different colors and replicate different aspects of their intention, of their society, of their heart, and they create these beautiful, perfectly symmetrical images, and then they blow them away. Social media for me is a way for me to put my craft into the ether. It’s a conduit for releasing my creative energies, so I can go back to my meditation in creation. The sacred space has always been in the moments the art is created. Social media is just a tool for inspiring others to meditate with me.
Kalae’s remake of Cardi B’s Met Gala costume
You were recently a featured artist in the exhibition, “The Intricate Intimate,” at Allouche Gallery. This was the first time you were asked to participate in a group art show. How did this come about, and what was it like having such intimate images of yourself be made public in a physical environment?
This incredibly talented artist, Swoon, invited me to be a part of the show, after seeing what I had accomplished in my art journey over quarantine. I didn’t have any works to put up. I didn’t know what I was going to show after making over 100 looks. I still wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to say in this particular medium, so following the prompts, I thought about my relationship to eroticism. I thought about my relationship to self-portrait work and my relationship with make-up and drawing out these personal intimate moments that have been highlighted, especially through this period of self-evaluation that was allowed to some during quarantine. I found myself wanting to show my body as a canvas, my soul as a conduit for muse more than just a look that I could turn again. I’ve turned plenty of looks, and even though every single one has a different aspect of me, I want to show a broader clear visual of what it looks like and what it feels like to be inside of my creative world. Nudes are now something I do regularly. I feel so empowered by my own existence.
View more of Kalae’s work and check for updates on her site and Instagram.
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Deborah Oster Pannell is a writer, editor, musician, and arts producer. She has curated and performed at KGB Bar, Animamus Art Salon, Shag, Green Oasis Community Garden, Chinatown Soup, The Red Room at KGB, UNDER St. Marks Theater, JCC Harlem, and The Yard: Williamsburg Bridge, where she was the inaugural resident art curator from 2018-2019. She has written numerous online articles and interviews, edited museum catalogs, edited and written introductions for several books, and her essay was featured in the award-winning anthology, We Got This — Solo Mom Stories of Grit, Heart, and Humor. She is currently the Gallery Manager at C24 Gallery in Chelsea, where she helps produce and promote a diverse, international curatorial program that champions emerging, underrepresented and marginalized artists.
