Diasporic Aesthetics: Making Radical Geographies

Sade Alexis is a Black Woman artist and writer, living, working and loving on the stolen lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, səlil̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ nations. She was born and raised on these lands and understands them as the only home she has ever known, and in knowing this, she sees it as her duty to fight alongside Indigenous land defenders who actively protect and love these lands. Sade’s work focuses on the ways in which Blackness can be understood and celebrated through art, in all of its complexities and intricacies. She uses her practice as a means of bringing Black experience into the historically colonial art world. Sade also uses her practice to understand what it means to be stolen people on stolen land, her work questions homelands and our ties to them, or lack thereof. She is a recent BFA graduate from ECU. She is currently working as a freelance illustrator and as an art instructor for neurodiverse kids.

Nicholas D’Ornellas is a Guyanese-born printmaker and weaver living in Jersey City, NJ. He holds a BFA (2020) from The Cooper Union for The Advancement of Science and Art. His focuses include printmaking as a vehicle into life-size handwoven screen-printed textiles that explore subject matters of domestic immigrant narratives. Nick’s work pays homage to his ongoing interest in the functionality of craft and also his family’s flight from racial and classist violence in Guyana. He physically threads together the layered emotions that come with being within a deeply consuming family structure. Nick’s hand weaving can be understood as both rehearsal and transformation of memory.