Rivka Valérie Louissaint
Rivka Valérie Louissaint MFA ‘22
Email: rivka_louissaint@berkeley.edu
Kakou [pronounced Kah-Koo], also known as Rivka Louissaint, is an Oakland based mixed media visual artist, writer, educator, performer and community organizer.
Her art, often ignited by an interaction, a thought, or as a reaction to what’s going on in her environment and of her experiences as a black, queer, working class, female, Haitian immigrant, explores the multidimensional nature and effects of the world’s present systems of oppression and exploitation. She pulls from different places – like working class struggles, popular struggles for national liberation, and struggles to end racial and gender hierarchies – in order to create dialogue and inspire people to organize around social, economic, and ecological issues.
Kakou is inspired by the movements of the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords, the Brown Berets, the Cuban Revolution, the May ‘68 student movements in France, Mexico, Chile and the US as well as the African Liberation movement. She is currently in her first year of the MFA program in Art Practice at UC Berkeley.