Category: Art and other media

Co-producer of “In Sacred Spaces,” three-part podcast. Link.

A three-part podcasting project that highlights the forgotten histories of feminist, antiracist, and queer-affirming activism of Black Harlem churches (particularly St. James Presbyterian and Grace Congregational Church), and places these histories in dialogue with New York City’s (Black & Latinx) Ballroom scene. The project weaves together stories of faith, ritual, marginalization, solidarity, loss, and desire, and foregrounds queer subcultures of spirituality and community-building, especially among trans and gay people of color who often “lose” the safety net of the church when they come out.

This project was funded by Humanities NY and Columbia University’s Public Humanities Fellowship, and produced by Aya Labanieh, Milan Terlunen, Colby Xzavier King, and Olivia Leigh Branscum.

Public Humanities Fellow, The Zip Code Memory Project: Practices of Justice and Repair, Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Social Difference, 2021-2022.

This community-based public humanities project focused on memorializing the disproportionate effects of Covid-19 on black and brown neighborhoods in the Harlem, Washington Heights, and South Bronx zip codes of New York City. As Public Humanities Fellow, I assisted with creative and performance workshops in these neighborhoods, and served as the Assistant Curator to Işın Önol on the final art exhibition, Imagine Repair, which opened at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine on April 23, 2022 and featured the works of local artists alongside more established names such as Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Carrie Mae Weems. The project was led by Marianne Hirsch and Diana Taylor, and included partners and funders from across the city. Below are selected artworks from the exhibition, which was covered in the following article in the New York Times.