Umar Rashid’s drawings of the Cee-lo game extend his fascination with how play, chance, and power intersect across time. Cee-lo, a street dice game with roots in China’s Sic Bo and later embraced in African American communities, has long been a space where risk and luck reflect the larger forces that shape survival and hierarchy.

Cee-lo isn’t only about luck; it also rewards the style and confidence of the player, how they throw, talk, and carry themselves during the game. That performance of power and poise echoes the dynamics of empire itself, where control is often as much about appearance and persuasion as force. In both, chance and mastery intertwine: the throw of the dice, like the sweep of conquest, is shaped as much by charisma and bravado as by fate.