winter 2022 studio update
Hi fam!
Happy solstice! It’s been a busy season in my studio and I’m so excited to catch y’all up on everything I’ve been working on! I was accepted as an AIR Gallery national member— a huge honor that I’m still processing. As a member I’ll be showing at AIR in NYC this coming summer, but more on that soon! I was also the recipient of a $15,000 grant through the Panta Rhea Foundation. I’m incredibly grateful to both Panta Rhea and the Berkeley Art Center, which has agreed to be my fiscal sponsor, for the support and I can’t wait to premiere a new project at the Berkeley Art Center late next summer. I also want to thank the wonderful Stan Douglas, who I met through Sophia Chang’s Unlock Her Potential program, for his invaluable mentorship this year. As for shows, Salt to Catch Ghosts just closed at Slash in SF, but if you want to catch my work in person (in the bay and beyond) you’ll have plenty of chances in the new year.
current & upcoming shows: SF, Córdoba, NYC, Berkeley
I’m currently showing at SOMArts in an incredible show titled The Indigo Project, curated by the inimitable Bushmama Africa and Isha Rosemond. The show explores the connection between “Indigo, Cotton, and Denim across the temporal geography of the African Diaspora” and will be up through February 5th— come check it out! I’ll be showing alongside Bushmama Africa, Abayomi Anli, Nikesha Breeze, Ashara Ekundayo, Stephen Hamilton, Rachel Parish, Isha Rosemond, and Bryan Keith Thomas.
In other news, I’m so excited to be showing in Córdoba this spring at the Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía in the company of some truly amazing artists in Remedios. In addition to screening my film Sopera de Yemaya and constructing an altar installation within the museum space, I will be staging a large-scale performance at the opening titled Bendición and can’t wait to share the footage with y’all once we have it.
As an AIR national member, I’ll also be showing at AIR in NYC in July 2023, so look out for more info on that soon! And for all those in the Bay, I’ll be showing and performing at the Berkeley Art Center in August of 2023 as a part of their upcoming show Rabbit Hole curated by Adrianne Ramsey.
book launch
I have a book out this January! To Defend This Sunrise: Black Women’s Activism and the Authoritarian Turn in Nicaragua is officially out Jan. 23rd, but pre-orders are live on the Rutgers website and on Amazon. We’ll be celebrating the launch in Berkeley this March and you’re all welcome to join the party.
recent performances, talks, & screening
In November, Dragonfly and I reprised Orisha Wedding at JACK’s Radical Acts performance art festival, with the help of KaliMa Amilak and Lalin St. Juste. It was lovely to be in community with so many other artists, and I really encourage you to check out their work. Our performance was featured in the Brooklyn Rail’s coverage of the festival, which you can read more about here.
This October, I participated in Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens’s ecosexual Fire Symposium at UCSC. I spoke on a panel with my partner and collaborator Martín Perna, K-Haw of the Rural Alchemy Workshop, burlesque artist Lady Monster, and artist Nicole Rudolph-Vallerga, and later screened the full length version of my film Sopera de Yemaya. Many thanks as always to Beth and Annie, two truly incredible artists and dear friends of mine. Watch out for their upcoming documentary, Playing with Fire.
At Intersectional Environmentalist’s Earth Sessions event in San Francisco, I spoke on Black/Queer Ecologies and Aesthetics in conversation with Kiana Kazemi and got to share the stage with the lovely Raveena. Look out for future collaborations with IE and give the talk a listen! Special thanks to 5Media for co-sponsoring this event and amplifying my work.
That’s all for now! Thanks again for your ongoing support and interest in my practice— I appreciate you! As always, feel free to share this newsletter to anyone else you think may be interested.
More soon.
c
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