MoCADA

The Muse­um of Con­tem­po­rary African Dias­po­ran Arts (MoCA­DA) uses the visu­al and per­form­ing arts as a point of depar­ture for explor­ing new artis­tic pro­duc­tion across a vari­ety of dis­ci­plines. Through exhi­bi­tions, com­mu­ni­ty pro­gram­ming and edu­ca­tion­al ini­tia­tives cen­tered in social jus­tice, MoCA­DA incites dia­logue on press­ing social and polit­i­cal issues fac­ing the African Dias­po­ra and fos­ters a dynam­ic space for the cre­ation and con­tin­u­ous evo­lu­tion of culture.

Com­mit­ted to giv­ing wings to artists by bring­ing dynam­ic, con­tem­po­rary art to a broad audi­ence, MoCA­DA con­tin­ues its lega­cy on Gov­er­nors Island for the 2024 sea­son with a high­ly-antic­i­pat­ed exhi­bi­tion, a series of spe­cial art instal­la­tions, work­shops, film screen­ings, and gath­er­ings including:

• Flaunt: Being the Dream — A dynam­ic, mul­ti­me­dia group exhi­bi­tion con­sist­ing of works made by 16 artists who explore the Black Trans­gen­der, Non-Bina­ry, and Gen­der-Non­con­form­ing (TGNC) expe­ri­ence to unpack con­tem­po­rary per­cep­tions of iden­ti­ty via the expres­sion of gen­der and sex. In this pre­sen­ta­tion, uni­ver­sal themes includ­ing social roles and the way we inhab­it them, cul­tur­al cues, pow­er struc­tures, sur­vival, plea­sure, and their inter­sec­tion with race, tran­scend prej­u­dices to rep­re­sent the purest form of self-real­iza­tion. (May 17-Novem­ber 3)

• NO I.C.E. by STOP1 Projects — An inter­ac­tive pub­lic art­work that trans­forms the bode­ga ice vend­ing machine into a plat­form for immi­gra­tion rights aware­ness. After liv­ing street­side in front of MoCADA’s Cul­ture Lab Brook­lyn loca­tion, the instal­la­tion final­ly comes to Gov­er­nors Island. Uti­liz­ing the famil­iar­i­ty of the ice box as an entry point, while cen­ter­ing the Immi­gra­tion Cus­toms Enforce­ment agency ​“I.C.E.” acronym to artic­u­late a pow­er­ful dou­ble mean­ing, ​‘NO I.C.E.’ rais­es a mir­ror to the viewer’s gaze. It is a lens that extri­cates lan­guage and images to chal­lenge per­cep­tions of Amer­i­can iden­ti­ty beyond the con­fines of nation­al­ism, eth­nic­i­ty, and race. (May 17-Novem­ber 3)

• Earth­seed by Dre Jácome — An exper­i­men­tal immer­sive archive, inspired by Temescal cer­e­mo­ni­al prac­tices and the pro­tec­tive form of pinecones, that hous­es the inti­mate land/​body sto­ries shared between artist Dre Jácome and long­time col­lab­o­ra­tor, Xime­na Violante. His­tor­i­cal­ly, archives have been sites of era­sure and cap­ture, not sov­er­eign­ty. Earth­seed aims to reimag­ine an archive where sto­ries are stored and pro­tect­ed as med­i­cine through land­back pro­to­cols in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Pales­tin­ian strug­gle. (May 17-June 15)

• Divine Inter­ven­tion: Heal­ing Modal­i­ties by Lehna Huie — A shrine-based instal­la­tion and sto­ry­telling project that uplifts rep­re­sen­ta­tions of var­ied spir­i­tu­al and heal­ing paths uti­liz­ing tex­tile, col­lage, per­for­mance video-based offer­ings and hon­or­ing dai­ly rit­u­als of care, com­mit­ment, and recov­ery. As part of her Ban­dung Res­i­den­cy sto­ry­telling project, Lehna invit­ed nine Black and Asian artists and orga­niz­ers to share reflec­tions on dai­ly rit­u­als of care, com­mit­ment, heal­ing, and recov­ery. These sacred sto­ries are con­nect­ed to land, cul­ture, fam­i­ly, and per­son­al or col­lec­tive heal­ing meth­ods. The instal­la­tion includes an intro­duc­tion to To Move Moun­tains, a film direct­ed by Lehna Huie, where three rev­o­lu­tion­ar­ies share their her­sto­ries, inspir­ing gen­er­a­tions to live in their truth. (August 19-Novem­ber 3)