Strata

Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator

Miami, Florida

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Outdoor scene with two human figures in tall grass near a forest. Text reads “The impact of the work is embedded in the human being and in the quality of life of the human being.” Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator. NPN logo and the word "Strata" appear at the bottom along with an arrow pointing to the right.
Brown graphic slide with abstract stacked stone shapes in pink green and cream. Text reads “Their bodies speak about racism and hate and love and seedlings and nature. It is about politics.” Strata.
Informational slide describing Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator as a local and global incubator promoting emerging artists from Latin America the Caribbean and Caribbean diasporas. Text also notes residencies exchanges exhibitions and scholarship. Decorative stones and labels read Miami Florida and Founded 1996.
Green and brown quote graphic. Text reads “This billion dollar art world needs reshaping. It’s brutal. When you step out and proclaim you’re an artist particularly the kind of artists we support you don’t find welcome in a lot of places because of your content. You have to be prepared for that.” Sage Crump NPN. Second quote reads “Because the art world is a really brutal world.” Rosie Gordon Wallace DVCAI.
White quote slide with colorful stones at top and bottom. Text reads “I just came back from rural Georgia and saw people who look just like me same cadence in their voice same way they swoosh their bodies. People from the continent of Africa the entire continent there is a thumbprint on all of us that we don’t quite understand. It actually makes you nervous when you see somebody that looks like you but you don’t know.” Rosie.
Pale green quote slide. Text reads “My daily life is charged is fueled by politics. And I enjoy it. I enjoy the politics in the art world because the politics in the art world gives me language. The art world sometimes gives me language to deal with the politics outside in my body.” Rosie.
Brown quote slide with large colored circles. Text reads “How are we going to respond to the call. How are we going to know the code. How are we going to know when the masses are to come. If we don’t have at least an understanding or an agreement of what this political agitation is that we feel inside of us is.” Rosie.
White quote slide with large blue and green abstract circles. Text reads “The idea that things are better for the next generation the moving forward and that the next generation are the ones who are going to make the dreams realized. And you know those are the things that you have just to move forward.” Tanya.
Resource slide titled “Culture as Liberation.” Text explains how in the Caribbean reggae carnival poetry and diaspora helped move liberation when politics could not. Recommends “The Caribbean and Decolonization Through Culture” from ArkHistoria.com.
Brown informational slide with Strata logo and text reading “a cultural political conversation.” Text explains Strata is designed to deepen engagement with culture on the road to collective liberation through conversations with artists movement thinkers cultural workers administrators and revolutionaries.
Brown closing slide with NPN and DRJaM logos. Text reads “Strata is a project of the National Performance Network’s Department of Racial Justice and Movement Building. Learn more at npnweb.org/strata.”
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Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator (DVCAI)

About this Episode

Strata – Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator (DVCAI) (@dvcai) is a local and global incubator based in Miami, Florida, that nurtures and exhibits emerging artists from Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Caribbean diaspora. In this episode of Strata, Rosie Gordon-Wallace, Founder and Curator, and Tanya Desdunes, Executive Director, bring us into what it means to be of the diaspora, the organization as a body politic, and the Caribbean crossroads their work inhabits.

“The impact of the work is embedded in the human being and in the quality of life of the human being.”

Strata, a cultural political conversation from NPN, explores the role of cultural work on our journey to collective liberation. Through conversations with cultural workers, artists, and movement thinkers, Strata reveals how cultural organizations are engaging the political life of their communities and beyond through exploring the layers of ideas and praxis that guide us toward a world with humanity and dignity for all.

This conversation was recorded in 2024. Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator is an NPN National Partner (view their profile).

Resources

Credits

Artists works by Aisha Tandiwe Bell, Amanda Bradley, Yacine T. Fall, Rosa Naday Garmendia, Miguel Keerveld, Kurt Nahar, Devora Perez, Asser Saint-Val, and LA Samuelson.

Video footage by Amadeus McCaskill.

Courtesy of the artists and Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator.

Design and production by Big Tada.

NPN DRJaM

Strata is a project of the National Performance Network’s Department of Racial Justice and Movement Building (DRJaM).

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Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator (DVCAI)

Two figures in a lush green field with tall grass and tropical forest behind them. One, covered entirely in blue body paint, sits crouching with hands pressed together near their face. The other, covered in white or gray body paint, stands with a large banana leaf draped over their head and shoulders, one arm extended. Both appear to be part of a land-based performance.