See You Next Sunday (S.U.N.S.) | 2021

wood, mirrors, inkjet prints, 55” w x 78” h /ea.

This piece celebrates and pays homage to the holy trinity of Sunday activities we can witness across New Orleans — Second lines, Super Sunday, & worship — and how they speak to and inform one another. Walking around Central City specifically, it’s impossible to not feel the spiritual and cultural legacies of these traditions grounding the human spirit. They are the roots and threads that grew and sustain an atmosphere of community in the neighborhood. 

Central City now sits at a pivotal moment in its history — those roots and threads have been feeling the ripple effects of what Nic Brierre Aziz, a Haitian-New Orleanian interdisciplinary artist and curator, has termed “White barbarist” policies and actions. For example, The long-term impacts of the redlining that took place in the 1930s, suppressing neighborhood property values, is now an asset to gentrification — with the White population of the neighborhood doubling in the last ten years as housing prices in nearby neighborhoods have skyrocketed. Through this “growth,” the demolition of neighborhood public housing, displacement, and an economy that doesn’t sustainably support neighborhood cultural traditions, the strong sense of community that once existed has frayed — raising questions about what we sacrifice in the pursuit of altering our built environments. 

The mirrors in the piece serve as moments of reflection and encourage viewers to consider how they see themselves within the changing landscapes of New Orleans and consider what roles they can or do play in the preservation of culture and social infrastructure.