Artists and cultural workers play a crucial role in meaning-making and storytelling that help shape the lenses from which we see our world(s) and ultimately, our lived experiences. This pod will explore historical practices of shaping culture and social movements as participants create their own (audio/visual) propaganda to name their visions of creative, caring worlds.

Pod Schedule

Every other Tuesday, 6:00 PM Pacific 

April 19 - July 12th, 2022

Our Context (Why is NAVEL taking this on?)  
Like academia, the Non-Profit Industrial Complex, and most infrastructures in our current whiteness world-design, the “capital-A Art world” has a legacy of extracting and harming QT Black and Indigenous cultural workers. Rather than “being a voice for the voiceless,” we are committed to co-creating creative infrastructures that enable all of us to pass the mic.

Purpose 
As part of our commitment to co-creating creative, caring worlds, we are committed to studying and advancing the legacy of radical and grassroots cultural producers committed to our collective liberation. 

Pod Long Term Visions & Intentions

As artists and cultural workers, how might we…

1. Cut through the (colonial/whiteness) noise as we build towards our collective liberation within an information overload digital age?  

2. Harness our storytelling and meaning-making skills to advance the co-creation of the caring worlds we want to see? 

3. Produce cultures that center the health and dignity of QT Black & Indigenous communities, especially within our overloaded information environment?

Who should sign up?

This pod is designed for artists and cultural workers wanting to integrate community-centered design strategies into their current practices.

Key Dates & Timelines

We imagine a hybrid in-person/zoom format for this pod, but will make a decision based on participants’ availability, location, and comfort with covid safety.

Every other Tuesday, 6 - 8 PM Pacific
Zoom/Virtual
Max # of participants: 10 people

Session 1 — [April 19, 6 PM]

Session 2 — [May 3, 6 PM]

Session 3 — [May 17, 6 PM]

Session 4 — [May 31, 6 PM]

Session 5 — [June 14, 6PM]

Session 6 — [June 28, 6 PM]

Session 7 — [July 12, 6 PM]

Pod Co-Facilitators

Cesia Domínguez López is an UX designer, educator, & cultural worker striving for our collective liberation. Through many modalities, they explore historical legacies of healing to cultivate and nourish ecologies of care that center the health and dignity of Black and Indigenous communities. Rooted in an embodied and pleasure-based approach, they primarily work with organizers, movement-based organizations, and other frontline communities impacted by prison and border violence.

Jay Are is an artist, designer, and producer living and working in Los Angeles, CA.

Esther Meroño Baro