Join Indigo Arts Alliance (IAA) and Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) for The Wave, a series of three online conversations, with this session hosted by artist Nyugen Smith and moderated by PAMM Curator María Elena Ortiz, and features poet Nyamuon Nguany Machar (AKA—Moon), journalist Trymaine Lee, art historian and curator Jefreen M. Hayes, and multidisciplinary creative Ciara Elle Bryant.
Current headlines tout pre-existing conditions as the reason for disproportionately high coronavirus cases and mortality rate among Black and other communities of color. The focus of such conversations is personal responsibility and overall health.
Date and Time:
06/09/2020
12:00pm to 1:00pm
Location:
While the museum is currently closed to the public, this program will be offered remotely via Facebook Live and YouTube Live.
Contact:
education@pamm.org
Social determinants such as low-wage employment, cost of medical care, food and housing insecurity, and reliance on public transportation are among the list of pre-existing conditions. The determinants should be highlighted as part of various discussions related to this topic. The panel will discuss how they have been responding to the developments in these areas as it relates to each of their professions, interests, and research.
This series will create dialogue around the current and future impact of the pandemic on Black and Brown communities locally and globally, and prioritizes the need for generative conversations, together with concrete actions, that are in service of and benefit to our communities.
Series Dates
The Wave: EXODUS | Movement of our people | May 30, 2–3pm | More info
The Wave: SPIRITUAL SUSTENANCE | June 17, 7–8pm | More info
Panelist Bios
Ciara Elle Bryant was born and raised in Miami, Florida and is a multidisciplinary creative residing in Dallas, Texas. Bryant uses photography and mixed media techniques to discuss the identity of Black culture and how it exists in the new millennium.
Jeffreen M. Hayes, PhD is an art historian and curator, who merges administrative, curatorial, and academic practices into her cultural practice of supporting artists and community development. Hayes is both an independent curator and the executive director of Threewalls, a non-profit contemporary art space based in Chicago.
Trymaine Lee an American journalist. Lee is a national reporter for MSNBC, where he writes for the network's digital arm. He shared a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of Hurricane Katrina as part of a team at The Times-Picayune of New Orleans.
Nyamuon Nguany Machar is the regional coordinator for Youth Move Maine, a youth advocacy organization that helps at-risk youth find their voices and advocate for themselves. In this position, Nyamuon also consults with the Maine Medical PIER program, a first episode psychosis recovery program geared toward supporting youth find alternative and creative ways to express and maneuver their road to wholeness. She is also a mentor, advocate, and committee member in the South Sudanese community of Maine.
María Elena Ortiz is curator at Pérez Art Museum Miami, where she has curated the exhibitions william cordova: now's the time, Beatriz Santiago Muñoz: A Universe of Fragile Mirrors, Ulla von Brandenburg: It Has a Golden Sun and an Elderly Grey Moon, Firelei Báez: Bloodlines, and Carlos Motta: Histories for the Future, among others. Many of her exhibitions have traveled to prestigious institutions, including the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; El Museo de Barrio, New York; and the DePaul Art Museum, Chicago. Ortiz has also developed significant public programs, such as At the Crossroads: Critical Film and Video from the Caribbean and Latinx Art Sessions, along with other symposia related to exhibitions. Formerly, Ortiz was curator of contemporary arts at the Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros in Mexico City. She has contributed to writing platforms such as the Davidoff Art Initiative, Fluent Collaborative, Curating Now, and Terremoto. In 2014 she was awarded the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC) and Independent Curators International (ICI) Travel Award for Central America and the Caribbean, and she received the Emerging Curator Award from the Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, California, in 2012.
Nyugen Smith (USA, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago) is a first-generation Caribbean-American interdisciplinary artist based in Jersey City, NJ and Dallas, TX, where he is a Lecturer of Interdisciplinary Art in the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University. Through performance, found object sculpture, mixed media drawing, painting, video, photo and writing, Nyugen deepens his knowledge of historical and present-day conditions of Black African descendants in the diaspora. Trauma, spiritual practices, language, violence, memory, architecture, landscape and climate change are primary concerns in his practice. He holds a BA, Fine Art from Seton Hall University and an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Nyugen is the recipient of the Leonore Annenberg Performing and Visual Arts Fund, Franklin Furnace Fund, and Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant.