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Capítulo 040: Entrevista con las artistas · Locatora Radio [A Radiophonic Novela]

0:02
Speaker 1: Radio radio radio. Come He's a myth and bullshit radio
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Speaker 1: phonic novella. Local Radio hosted by Malamo. Hello, welcome back
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Speaker 1: to local radio. This is THEOSA and this is Mala.
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Speaker 1: Welcome back. Thank you for tuning in once again to
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Speaker 1: another Capital Radio. As always, we record out of Radio
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Speaker 1: Spacio in boil Heights. Look at that. Our radio is
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Speaker 1: a podcast archiving the brilliance, geniuses and legacies of women
0:39
Speaker 1: in terms of color. Thank you for tuning into first Banglish.
0:48
Speaker 1: Here we are, here we are and good yeah, okay,
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Speaker 1: good okay, oh my god. Okay. So today we are
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Speaker 1: going to be recording um a Capitol with two mo
1:01
Speaker 1: heads that are calling or calling in from out of state.
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Speaker 1: And if you remember Joey Davis from Unraveled podcast, we
1:07
Speaker 1: had an interview with her way back when and she
1:10
Speaker 1: actually orchestrated this interview for us. And she's currently the
1:14
Speaker 1: curator and scholar of Water Gallery, which is a multi
1:18
Speaker 1: disciplinary art gallery focusing on art created by people of color.
1:21
Speaker 1: And it's based in Baltimore and they focus on programming, exhibitions, collaborations, projects,
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Speaker 1: all of these amazing things that they're doing. And currently
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Speaker 1: they're hosting their exhibiting um Nia Hampton's exhibit, which is
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Speaker 1: another the other women that will be on the call
1:39
Speaker 1: with us. And she is a writer, filmmaker, photographer, teacher,
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Speaker 1: and producer. Born and raised in Baltimore. Her videography and
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Speaker 1: production has been featured in Al Jazeera America and film
1:49
Speaker 1: festivals in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Johannesburg. Her written work has
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Speaker 1: been featured in Vice, Village Boys dot Com, City Paper, Dage, Digital, Afropunk,
1:58
Speaker 1: True Laurels Genius dot Com, Paste Magazine, Right It's Republic,
2:02
Speaker 1: and Hysteria Zine. So the current name of her exhibit
2:06
Speaker 1: is called Drape Domania, and she'll be discussing that with
2:09
Speaker 1: us today. Yes, and we're really excited to have Joy
2:12
Speaker 1: back because she was one of our first Collapse I
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Speaker 1: think ever interviews um with Unraveled podcasts. So Joy and
2:19
Speaker 1: Nia you are here with us on Look a Thought
2:22
Speaker 1: our radio. Please introduce yourselves for all of our listeners,
2:25
Speaker 1: and thank you so much for being with us today. Hi,
2:29
Speaker 1: thanks for having it back, for having me back him.
2:36
Speaker 1: I'm so excited about this. I've been listening to you
2:38
Speaker 1: all for a minute now. I think I follow you
2:40
Speaker 1: on social media, really Oh I didn't know that you
2:44
Speaker 1: had listened. Cool, well, thank you so much for joining us. So, um,
2:47
Speaker 1: you know, Joy, we've had you on the podcast once before. Um,
2:50
Speaker 1: and like we were just saying, I actually think Joy,
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Speaker 1: that unraveled that that was one of our first collapse
2:55
Speaker 1: with another podcast, like ever that we ever did. Yeah,
2:59
Speaker 1: it was our because we did. We turned around in
3:02
Speaker 1: another episode in the same day. That was like a
3:03
Speaker 1: business day, it was, And I think that's actually been
3:05
Speaker 1: our only Oh no, we did know. It was one
3:07
Speaker 1: of our one of our very few collapse with another podcast.
3:10
Speaker 1: So this is the circle year two. Thanks for being amazing.
3:14
Speaker 1: So do you want to Yeah, it's great. I was
3:17
Speaker 1: we were all in different places in our lives at
3:20
Speaker 1: that time, so like in different places now, very different places.
3:24
Speaker 1: We really were. I'm remembering now when we went to
3:26
Speaker 1: go get drinks and that goes afterwards. Yes, and we
3:30
Speaker 1: weren't very different placed times. TVT doing better now it's
3:36
Speaker 1: been since then, Joy, you've been very busy. I mean,
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Speaker 1: you opened an entire gallery. Please tell us about Waller
3:42
Speaker 1: Gallery and the journey and the exhibition and everything that
3:44
Speaker 1: our listeners need to know about the space. So okay,
3:48
Speaker 1: I'll try to do that in a way that is
3:51
Speaker 1: concised certainly. I started with an idea, actually collaborated with
3:58
Speaker 1: my mom with this idea because she wanted to do
4:00
Speaker 1: a gallery for a really long time. I wasn't necessarily
4:03
Speaker 1: like about the idea, but I was put I was
4:05
Speaker 1: kind of in a position with being out of school,
4:09
Speaker 1: in between jobs like coming up with the solution for
4:11
Speaker 1: myself to feel nourished and something I wanted to do,
4:15
Speaker 1: and this gallery idea kept getting cut coming up, and
4:18
Speaker 1: my mom kept coming up with this idea and like
4:20
Speaker 1: bringing it to my attention, and finally was like, oh, okay,
4:23
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do this gallery idea. This is a great idea. UM.
4:27
Speaker 1: And so it started there just there, and then through
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Speaker 1: just having the idea and talking with artists, especially artists
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Speaker 1: that were classically trained. Um, they really felt that they
4:37
Speaker 1: weren't supported by their institutions that they you know, but
4:41
Speaker 1: they paid hard money to you know, support them. And
4:44
Speaker 1: I thought that was really crazy. But I really came
4:47
Speaker 1: to find out that black or white or another person
4:50
Speaker 1: of color like this was very common, um, and that
4:53
Speaker 1: was like startling to me. Is a person that also,
4:55
Speaker 1: as you guys know, him an academic um, and I
4:57
Speaker 1: also hadn't really felt supportive, but some of the stories
4:59
Speaker 1: they we're telling me, it was just absolutely crazy. And
5:02
Speaker 1: I know that that's a generalization because some people have
5:04
Speaker 1: enriching experiences, but I wanted to provide a space at
5:08
Speaker 1: least that I could start to build a network of
5:11
Speaker 1: support for artists excuse me, for artists. UM. So that's
5:15
Speaker 1: that's how we started, with just an idea and just
5:19
Speaker 1: this overall mission. And so a yearly a year later,
5:23
Speaker 1: we finally found the place in Baltimore. And one of
5:26
Speaker 1: the reasons I wanted to do it do it in
5:28
Speaker 1: Baltimore versus New York, where I had been living, um,
5:32
Speaker 1: was because I felt that there was more Not only
5:34
Speaker 1: was there a need here, they're also the community, the
5:39
Speaker 1: art community here is more receptive to new ideas and
5:43
Speaker 1: making things work in a way that New York is
5:45
Speaker 1: more rigid and they're more conservatives. Yeah, and when because
5:50
Speaker 1: of New York we think of New York as like
5:51
Speaker 1: a progressive ashtion but not isn't necessarily that, especially if
5:55
Speaker 1: you live there, you know, um, But like you're listeners
5:58
Speaker 1: from New York are like yeah, yeah, Yet it's not
6:00
Speaker 1: as progressive UM as it is on the serface, as
6:03
Speaker 1: we see on the surface, but I saw an opportunity there. Also.
6:07
Speaker 1: I also took a lot from the art community in Baltimore, UM,
6:10
Speaker 1: so I felt like I needed to give back in
6:11
Speaker 1: that way also because I had taken so much and
6:14
Speaker 1: UM have been creatively and mentally nourished by the arts
6:18
Speaker 1: community here. So I felt like I needed to get back.
6:21
Speaker 1: And that's just to give back to white artists, to
6:22
Speaker 1: give black back to black and brown artists. We found
6:26
Speaker 1: a place and in two weeks, in two two weeks, wow,
6:29
Speaker 1: I wish, I don't know. In two months, we basically
6:34
Speaker 1: renovated our space without the help of contractors but our
6:38
Speaker 1: own you know, power and muscle, and we were able
6:41
Speaker 1: to put up me a show. So that all happened
6:43
Speaker 1: in two months. And we closed on the place a
6:46
Speaker 1: month before we started working on the space. So the
6:50
Speaker 1: process from basically like conception to concrete was over a year. Yeah,
6:57
Speaker 1: I would say conception it was about two years. Okay,
7:00
Speaker 1: it's a long process, yeah, because I mean just finding
7:04
Speaker 1: a space alone for a few years, like for us
7:06
Speaker 1: to really concretely like figure out what we needed because
7:09
Speaker 1: we live in the space offso so we like live upstairs,
7:12
Speaker 1: so there's like a lot of we had a lot
7:14
Speaker 1: of needs that needed to be met in the part
7:16
Speaker 1: of the process. UM. But also I really wanted to
7:19
Speaker 1: figure out like what kind of space I wanted to create,
7:21
Speaker 1: because I didn't necessarily want to do the traditional gallery
7:26
Speaker 1: thing where people are put off, where there's like an
7:28
Speaker 1: elitist kind of doormat, where like you can't cross this
7:32
Speaker 1: threshold unless you have a certain understanding about how art
7:35
Speaker 1: the art world works. Of course, we want to art,
7:38
Speaker 1: but I also want people to It's a free space
7:40
Speaker 1: for people to enjoy. So I want to make sure
7:43
Speaker 1: as many people are getting that UM and can interact
7:45
Speaker 1: with the artist, can interact with me a UM when
7:48
Speaker 1: when I'm more on the level than just like you
7:50
Speaker 1: have to buy a ticket to a gala where you
7:53
Speaker 1: have to like know someone to know someone to go
7:55
Speaker 1: to an event. I wanted to break that. Yeah, like
7:59
Speaker 1: galas and dinners and events like those are costly, like
8:02
Speaker 1: unless you're like a featured guest, and even then, like
8:06
Speaker 1: the plates and the cost of entry or having had
8:09
Speaker 1: done a certain amount of work to be in those spaces,
8:12
Speaker 1: like they're super exclusively absolutely and so Nia Nia Hampton.
8:18
Speaker 1: Nia's work is the first exhibition that the space is holding. Correct. Yeah,
8:26
Speaker 1: she took a chance with us because I feel like
8:29
Speaker 1: chance in her. It was like a mutual weep with
8:31
Speaker 1: face like I would say, we like truly like jump
8:33
Speaker 1: off the ledge together and made it, made it happen.
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Speaker 1: So Nia, can you can you introduce yourself please for
8:40
Speaker 1: all of our listeners and who you are and um,
8:42
Speaker 1: you know your story and the exhibition that is that
8:46
Speaker 1: is being shown now at Waller Gallery? Can so me
8:52
Speaker 1: and Hampton? And I am an artist and a writer
8:57
Speaker 1: and a filmmaker and just like a multimedia person. And
9:02
Speaker 1: I am from West Baltimore, born and raised, lived here
9:06
Speaker 1: for most of my life, but after graduating in two
9:10
Speaker 1: and fourteen, I moved to Brazil and that was where
9:14
Speaker 1: my life just changed. Um. And a lot of the
9:17
Speaker 1: work is about the time I spent in South America.
9:22
Speaker 1: So I studied abroad in Ecuador in two semesters before
9:26
Speaker 1: I graduated, and then after graduation, I was like, oh,
9:29
Speaker 1: I gotta get back out. This work is like literally
9:35
Speaker 1: like six years almost like six years of stuff kind
9:40
Speaker 1: of like combed through and distilled to like give people
9:44
Speaker 1: the experience that I had as much as we possibly
9:47
Speaker 1: could before. Can you can you share with us in
9:50
Speaker 1: our listeners, um, what your experience was traveling through South
9:54
Speaker 1: America and how that inspired you to, you know, create
9:58
Speaker 1: this project. Um, I mean I created the I wanted
10:04
Speaker 1: to share the work because of that question. Like the
10:06
Speaker 1: people are like, what was it like? And it's just
10:09
Speaker 1: not something that you can like, you know, explain, especially
10:12
Speaker 1: because it wasn't it wasn't a vacation. It wasn't even
10:16
Speaker 1: necessarily a gap year. Like I was really like, I'm
10:18
Speaker 1: moving here, so like everything like that's that's how I
10:22
Speaker 1: lived my life while I was in that space. Um. So,
10:26
Speaker 1: I mean it was. It was affirming in some ways
10:29
Speaker 1: and disturbing in other ways. But more than anything, I
10:33
Speaker 1: came away with I went with this hypothesis that that
10:38
Speaker 1: there are more black people in the world than not
10:40
Speaker 1: and um in Baltimore City, I'm from a very like
10:44
Speaker 1: Baltimore City is extremely black. Um in a way that
10:48
Speaker 1: living outside of it, I realized it's rare, UM and
10:51
Speaker 1: a privilege. So in traveling throughout South America, my my
10:57
Speaker 1: ease around you know, black people was an advantage in
11:01
Speaker 1: a way that it may not be if I went
11:03
Speaker 1: somewhere else. Um. And the work was really about just
11:07
Speaker 1: kind of bringing this entire race of people that have
11:11
Speaker 1: continually ignored when we talk about identities and nationalities. Um.
11:18
Speaker 1: Because I my dad is from the Bronx, so an
11:21
Speaker 1: he passed when I was young. So in trying to
11:23
Speaker 1: figure out like who he was, a lot of what
11:27
Speaker 1: I was kind of building for myself in terms of
11:29
Speaker 1: an identity became, Okay, my dad's in the Bronx, so
11:32
Speaker 1: what does that mean? And a lot of that meant,
11:35
Speaker 1: like JMO and I kind of developed a bit of
11:40
Speaker 1: like a complex around you know, what it means to
11:43
Speaker 1: be Latina. And you know, for a lot of people
11:46
Speaker 1: in the States have never traveled, a Latina is not
11:49
Speaker 1: necessarily black. Um. So in my travel, that's when I realized, like,
11:55
Speaker 1: that's a lie. So that's what the work reflects. And
12:00
Speaker 1: can you tell us a little bit more about the
12:02
Speaker 1: exhibition itself. So it's called Draped Romania, and on here
12:06
Speaker 1: the website there's a description of it, and in your
12:08
Speaker 1: own words, you know, how would you describe the description
12:11
Speaker 1: and the exhibition itself? Um to our listeners, I mean
12:16
Speaker 1: it's a lot of photos and video work and m
12:19
Speaker 1: interacting space where people can add their words and memories. Um.
12:23
Speaker 1: But it's basically three different countries, um portraiture and um
12:29
Speaker 1: some written words, but basically just a lot of black
12:33
Speaker 1: black faces that coming into the space. People don't necessarily
12:38
Speaker 1: know that this is Aquador, this is Columbia or that.
12:42
Speaker 1: And that's really interesting. Do you, um like identify photo
12:46
Speaker 1: by photo like which country that it was taken in
12:48
Speaker 1: or do you kind of just leave that to it
12:50
Speaker 1: in a to a more ambiguous sort of interpretation. Um,
12:55
Speaker 1: it's a little complicated. UM okay, so hi, I can
13:02
Speaker 1: speak to it as far as like how um it's organized.
13:05
Speaker 1: So we actually don't do that. And one of the
13:07
Speaker 1: reasons why is because I wanted people to going back
13:11
Speaker 1: to drake Dmania, somnia has like this weird dual definition.
13:14
Speaker 1: There's the real definition, which is the medical the full
13:18
Speaker 1: medical diagnosis that um slaves had a medical condition because
13:22
Speaker 1: they wanted to be free from slavery and enslaved, Yeah, enslaved,
13:26
Speaker 1: enslaved Africans, enslaved people um that they like for some
13:32
Speaker 1: reason would have some sort of like mental illness because
13:35
Speaker 1: they wanted to be free from slavery, which is like,
13:38
Speaker 1: which is completely erroneous, It's totally false. But then there's
13:42
Speaker 1: this other in talking with me and as we were
13:44
Speaker 1: going through you know, naming the exhibitionists, there's there's a
13:48
Speaker 1: weird new definition that is like that's come to kind
13:53
Speaker 1: of define like wonder less like on like Instagram, and
13:56
Speaker 1: I feel interest, um of like, oh, I have drinks
14:00
Speaker 1: to Menia and it's like I just want to travel,
14:03
Speaker 1: I just want to be out there. Um is this
14:05
Speaker 1: something that? Is this something that you're seeing in like
14:09
Speaker 1: like a black diasporic reclamation type of way, or like
14:13
Speaker 1: in a totally misused like appropriated like white white travelers
14:17
Speaker 1: type of way. Yeah, it's it's just, it's just it's everybody. Yeah,
14:23
Speaker 1: it's literally if you google dr Domania, you'll see you'll
14:26
Speaker 1: see all of the different things that come up, and
14:28
Speaker 1: towards the end, like if you get into like the
14:31
Speaker 1: third oh or something of the like pages, then you
14:35
Speaker 1: may see more like African like center like this is
14:38
Speaker 1: actually with the diag of means and blah blah blah blah. Yeah,
14:41
Speaker 1: like and sparrently that's the idea, So me naming the
14:45
Speaker 1: type of the show that is kind of reclaiming that
14:49
Speaker 1: word and also like confronting myself and my family because
14:53
Speaker 1: so much of my family thought I was literally just
14:55
Speaker 1: running away and people didn't understaying like why would you
14:57
Speaker 1: go there? What's going on there? None of that? And
15:00
Speaker 1: and a part of travel is about escapism as well,
15:03
Speaker 1: because um I first started traveling in two thousand and
15:06
Speaker 1: thirteen and I joined like the No No Madness travel
15:10
Speaker 1: group on Facebook. So there has been like a big
15:14
Speaker 1: push in international travel for black folks, but I'm not
15:18
Speaker 1: sure that everyone understands like what that means. So it's
15:21
Speaker 1: a very like nuance conversation because the travelers a black
15:25
Speaker 1: American is totally different than to be traveling as a
15:28
Speaker 1: black Ecuadorian, to be traveling as like a Nigerian person,
15:32
Speaker 1: you know. So um I kind of just wanted to
15:34
Speaker 1: like talk about traveling a different way, like less luxury
15:39
Speaker 1: travel vacation and more like I need to leave this
15:42
Speaker 1: place and like migration got it okay? So how long
15:46
Speaker 1: would you say you were in living in South America?
15:49
Speaker 1: In total? Um it was like on and it was
15:54
Speaker 1: on and off. But if I had to do like
15:58
Speaker 1: like a solid so like two thousands. Their team was
16:01
Speaker 1: like four months two thousand and fourteen, went into two
16:04
Speaker 1: thousand and fifteen, and then I went back in two
16:07
Speaker 1: thousands sixteen, So like all together, probably closer to three years,
16:14
Speaker 1: but that was spread out over five years. So I'd
16:16
Speaker 1: like spend a month at a time in a in
16:19
Speaker 1: a given country. The longest consecutive time I spend in
16:21
Speaker 1: any country was Brazil. Okay, and where we're here, that
16:28
Speaker 1: picks up a lot of the show. Yeah, there's a
16:34
Speaker 1: whole room dedicated to Rico. So how big is the
16:39
Speaker 1: multiple rooms? Like give us a sort of gallery one
16:43
Speaker 1: and gallery to um it's a round thirty square feet Okay,
16:51
Speaker 1: I have no conception, but it sounds big. The homes
16:56
Speaker 1: in Baltimore are a pretty big. They're like kind of
17:00
Speaker 1: flag prone. It's like a big living around in a
17:03
Speaker 1: decent dip what you would think of like a um
17:06
Speaker 1: sitting around like house, uh built in nine. It's inside
17:11
Speaker 1: a house. It's a it's a house that you can
17:13
Speaker 1: earn it into a gallery property that we brought in
17:18
Speaker 1: the house, which is why we live Upstare. That's awesome. Yeah,
17:23
Speaker 1: I cannot wait for you all to come over. Yes,
17:27
Speaker 1: one day, one day soon collabrary and bring them the
17:34
Speaker 1: local to our family here in some coat. Could you
17:37
Speaker 1: even imagine? I love that idea. We're going to follow
17:39
Speaker 1: up with that idea because we're all about collapse and
17:41
Speaker 1: we're trying to travel more. We would want to stay
17:43
Speaker 1: a little more for the podcast. We want to do
17:45
Speaker 1: an East Coast tour or something or other. So let's
17:47
Speaker 1: let's put a pin in that. So the exhibition is
17:51
Speaker 1: on until when and can you give all of our
17:53
Speaker 1: listeners all the information they need to know about, you know,
17:56
Speaker 1: where to visit the art, where to visit the gallery,
17:59
Speaker 1: how to support each of you on your work. Sure.
18:03
Speaker 1: So we have a website that's first and foremost, like
18:05
Speaker 1: if you want to shoot over to water gallery dot
18:08
Speaker 1: com and they'll have some photos from the show, but
18:11
Speaker 1: it will really give you an understanding more of the work.
18:14
Speaker 1: UM Introstruction texts there. There's even a great the leography
18:18
Speaker 1: that Nia put together of UM one of the sections
18:21
Speaker 1: of the exhibition addressing semiside in the US and road
18:25
Speaker 1: UH in the future. Once the show comes down, I'm
18:28
Speaker 1: hoping that we'll have some pieces for sale actually on site,
18:31
Speaker 1: so that's a way for you to interact and purchase
18:33
Speaker 1: and support me as where you're located. Yeah, Um, we're
18:38
Speaker 1: located in Baltimore at North Calvert Streets. Uh yeah, we're
18:43
Speaker 1: pretty close to the train station. So tend station in
18:46
Speaker 1: Baltimore as a frame of reference for those in the
18:49
Speaker 1: area that might be fability. And yeah, and then look
18:53
Speaker 1: forward to any of MEA's new adventures that I'm sure
18:56
Speaker 1: we will keep posting about one of our Facebook and
18:59
Speaker 1: on our Instagram which is all Waller gallery. Yea, where
19:04
Speaker 1: can where can people follow your work and support you
19:07
Speaker 1: even after the exhibition is over? So I um have
19:12
Speaker 1: a website near Hampton dot com. I have a lot
19:14
Speaker 1: of things, uh have like a travel blog Blowing pain
19:19
Speaker 1: dot com. You can follow Blowing Pain dot com on Instagram,
19:23
Speaker 1: but it's underscore g L O W I N G
19:27
Speaker 1: P A I N you know, so search those hal
19:31
Speaker 1: hashtags or hashtag droop themania hashtag, blowing Fame hashtag while
19:35
Speaker 1: a gallery it will come up. Um and then my
19:38
Speaker 1: personal I G is underscore Neanderthal so underscore and I
19:43
Speaker 1: A in the R T H A L beautiful. Well,
19:49
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you so much for being here, the
19:51
Speaker 1: both of you for chatting with us, for telling us
19:54
Speaker 1: about the exhibit and telling us all about your work
19:59
Speaker 1: than you so look on motus. Thank you once again
20:02
Speaker 1: for tuning in. We'll catch you next time. Bessie bos