Public Program

In conjunction with the curatorial project "Collective Presence," on view at DW through April 14, Paraspace Books will host a screening and discussion of the short film, "Oil on My Mind." Director Erica Hua Fletcher will join the discussion via Skype, facilitated by S Rodriguez and Sara Balabanlilar, founders of Paraspace Books. "Oil on My Mind" is a project of a collaborative, art-based inquiry on grassroots approaches to wellbeing, ecology, and loss in the Southwest. More info: https://oilonmymind.wordpress.com _____ Erica Hua Fletcher, Ph.D. is native Texan. She received her training as a health humanities scholar at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and now serves as the Zorich Fellow in Mental Health Policy at the Hope and Healing Center & Institute in Houston. She also teaches classes in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California in Irvine. Sara Balabanlilar and S Rodriguez co-run Paraspace Books, a bookstore and workshop project devoted to queer speculative and science fiction and a 2017 Idea Fund grant recipient. Balabanlilar is an arts organizer and administrator in Houston; she currently serves as the Marketing and Events Director at Brazos Bookstore and is a member of the DiverseWorks Artist Advisory Board. Her […]

On Friday, March 1 from 6 - 8 pm, Raul Orlando Edwards and Reinaldo Costa of Strictly Street Salsa will host a dance workshop in the gallery - Heritage in Motion: Not So Equal. This workshop allows participants to experience the richness that is the Latin Diaspora. Not So Equal will highlight the many areas Latin dance and music have in common with cultures from Europe and Africa. This event is free and open to the public. No experience required. Participants are encouraged to wear comfortable clothing and shoes to move around in. Heritage in Motion: Not So Equal is presented in conjunction with the curatorial project Collective Presence, on view through April 14. _____________________________________ Raul Orlando Edwards is the Executive Director for Arts of Tolerance at Rice University’s Boniuk Institute for Religious Studies. He is also the creative entrepreneur behind Strictly Street Salsa, FLAMART (Featuring Latin American Music and Art), and Houston’s Afro-Latin Festival Reinaldo Costa is a dancer and teacher who works closely with Edwards at Strictly Street Salsa and with the Afro-Latin Festival. He has studied and performed across North America, including Cuba and Mexico.

WITH ARTIST LAURA NAPIER Houston is an oil and gas town, and here, the industry is part of everyday life. Share your swag, and your story, during this event. Participants are invited to bring personal items related to the oil and gas industry from coffee mugs, t-shirts, key chains, etc. for a show and tell. Items brought by participants will be discussed and photographed. All participants will receive a copy of an artist produced book, created from selected stories and images, to be released in fall 2019. IMPORTANT: spaces in this workshop are limited and RSVP is required. Please email [email protected] with the subject line "Story Circle" to reserve your spot. Sea of Oil traces visual and narrative social cultures in Southeast Texas, where oil, gas, and petrochemical industries are embedded. Through gathering stories and objects, Sea of Oil looks at how oil and gas cultures intersect with everyday life, as we are faced with massive, global climate change. This show and tell is the first in a series of Sea of Oil story circles that will shine a light on oil & gas communities through collecting and preserving stories from industry workers and their families, residents of fenceline communities, […]

In conjunction with the curatorial project Collective Presence, at DW through April 14, Paraspace Books will host a screening and discussion of the film, dawn chorus ii: el niagara en bicicleta, by Sofía Córdova. Sofía Córdova will join the discussion via Skype, facilitated by S Rodriguez and Sara Balabanlilar, founders of Paraspace Books. dawn chorus ii: el niagara en bicicleta was filmed in Puerto Rico over the last 2 years, shaped largely by the financial crisis and the island's colonial history and more recently, the climate change-related natural disasters which have affected the island -- the latest of which, Hurricane Maria, and the subsequent, grave political mishandling of the situation, gave the project its ending and the urgency. Prior to the hurricane, this work was already engaged in conversation with blackness and anti-blackness in the Caribbean, syncretic religion and dance music as modes of survival and liberation, and fantasy and science-fictional strategies as means to break out of our current arc of history. The film includes documentary tactics and fantastical elements, choreographed dance, and costuming. More info: https://sofiacordova.com/dawn-chorusii-el-niagara-en-bicicleta _________ Sofía Córdova was born in 1985 in Carolina, Puerto Rico and is currently based in Oakland, California. Córdova's work considers sci-fi […]

WITH ARTIST JOSHUA RIOS The Politics of Collage is a hands-on workshop with artist-in-residence Joshua Rios. This creative workshop offers participants an opportunity to create mixed-media collages related to land politics and postcolonial science fiction. Rios will first give a short presentation on Stranger in a Strange Land, a 1976 sci-fi rock opera created and produced by Chicanx high school students in Crystal City, Texas. Working under the direction of playwright Gregg Barrios, and influenced by the music of David Bowie, the students’ play addressed a wide variety of topics, including CIA mind control, alien contact, political assassination, and the post-apocalyptic landscape. Following the presentation, participants will be invited to create an assortment of collages related to the students’ theatrical production. Specifically, we will make work in the form of futuristic landscapes and sci-fi costume design. All ages are welcome, no art skills required. All materials will be supplied, including light refreshments. _________________________________________________________ Joshua Rios is faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he teaches courses in visual critical studies and research-based practice. As a media artist, writer, and educator his projects deal with the histories, archives, and futurities of Latinx subjectivity and US/Mexico relations as […]

Artists-in-residence Rabéa Ballin and Joshua Rios will each discuss their artistic practices, and address the questions Collective Presence curator Ashley DeHoyos asked them to consider when she invited them to participate in this project: How do forced or imposed changes like war, colonization, environmental crisis, and natural disasters change the landscape? And, what are current land politics affecting black, brown, and indigenous communities? Rabéa Ballin’s work has explored culture through the lenses of drawing, painting, and sound while using research and inquisitive practices to unearth hidden histories. Ballin currently lives in Houston’s Historic Third Ward and is a professor of Fine Art at Lone Star College. Joshua Rios is an educator, media artist, and writer whose projects deal with the histories, archives, and futurities of Latinx subjectivity and US/ Mexico relations as understood through the intersections of modernity, postmodernity, and neo-colonialism. Rios’s projects highlight moments of intercultural contact and co-belonging.

WITH LISA E. HARRIS Threshold is a deep listening and creative sound workshop with a durational performance led by Lisa E. Harris. Participants are invited to join Lisa in an improvised repetitive mantra, ragas, anthems, and movements. Like rings on a tree trunk or grooves on a record, we are creating tradition through revolving sound and response. This event is free and open to all, no previous performance experience required. Lisa E. Harris is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, and composer. Her work focuses on the energetic relationships between body, land, spirit, and place using voice, theremin, movement, text, and new media to explore healing in performance. Harris co-founded the creative arts collective Studio Enertia, together with new media artist and curator Alisha B. Wormsley. Threshold is presented in conjunction with the curatorial project, Collective Presence, on view at through April 14, 2019.  

WITH RAUL ORLANDO EDWARDS & REINALDO COSTA Heritage in Motion is a performative workshop series that allows participants to experience the richness that is the Latin diaspora through the lenses of dance and movement. From the Soul to the Dance Floor is the second event of this four-part program. Led by Raul Orlando Edwards and Reinaldo Costa of Strictly Street Salsa, participants will engage in a percussive and uplifting class, guided by fundamental movements related to religious music and dances. From the Soul to the Dance Floor will illustrate how particular spiritual movements have influenced popular dance and culture. This event is free and open to the public. No experience required. Participants are encouraged to wear comfortable shoes and clothing for freedom of movement. The class is approximately 2 hours. Raul Orlando Edwards is the Executive Director for Arts of Tolerance at Rice University’s Boniuk Institute for Religious Studies. He is also the creative entrepreneur behind Strictly Street Salsa, FLAMART (Featuring Latin American Music and Art), and Houston’s Afro-Latin Festival Reinaldo Costa is a dancer and teacher who works closely with Edwards at Strictly Street Salsa and with the Afro-Latin Festival. He has studied and performed across North America, including […]