2020-2021 Luce Scholar

Bakari Sibert was born in Atlanta, Georgia and raised in Washington DC. As an adolescent Bakari spent his weekends collecting discarded building supplies and making repairs to houses with his father, and in his spare time reselling second-hand clothes with his mother. As an undergraduate student majoring in Political Science at Howard University, he developed a strong interest in the philosophical principles of political theory as well as bioethics. As director of Health and Wellness for the Howard University Student Association, he and his team successfully implemented the Free Feminine Hygiene Provision Program, a campus-wide water fountain renovation, and additional sustainability projects.

As a Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics research fellow, Bakari developed a codebook of ethics for genetics and genomics research for the country of Uganda in partnership with H3Africa. Bakari is an artist, and his practice involves carpentry, illustration, and fabric dyeing with natural dyes created by hand. He is excited to explore sustainable textile creation that is minimally subtractive, with a focus on longevity created through ethical labor practices, quality and organic materials, and minimized water and chemical usage. He believes that textiles, as one of the oldest art forms, is a solution to mitigating the effects of climate change, and with creative application, can be used to heal the environment and foster a more eco-centric social consciousness. His mission is to create work that will inform and affect change in environmental policy and aid work.