New Orleans Museum of Art

From This Year’s Creative Assembly Cohort:

“As a group of artists from differing practices throughout the city, we have many ways of speaking. Artists have a role to play in nurturing and supporting cultural memory. Some, like poetry, are word-based. Some are read with the hands or eyes, as in textiles. Through our artwork, we can share stories, demystify histories, or be a conduit for ancestral connections to the next generation.

So, too, do the people of New Orleans—a port city, after all—speak with different tongues, whether literally (those who speak Spanish or Arabic, for example), or more metaphorically, speaking without words, as in gesture or action. Our assembly will explore the notions of language and literacy, which is intricately intertwined with notions of power. The literate—etymologically, “those with letters”—have traditionally been the ones who had access to education. As colonialism methodically erases indigenous languages, which helps to erase identity and force assimilation, the idea of access to education, or even to one’s own language, becomes thorny. But while violence seeks to erase language, art can seek to create and restore it.

How can we find new ways to speak to one another? How can we make sure more voices are included? How do we deepen our mindfulness in ways that connect us with community? This assembly seeks to keep stories alive and to listen to and honor voices that too-often go unheard.”

Members of the 2024–25 Creative Assembly Cohort are poet Andy Young; dancer and choreographer Caleb Dowden; filmmaker and visual artist Carl Harrison Jr.; musician, spoken word artist, and harpist Cassie Watson Francillon; painter, drawer, and ceramic artist Horton Humble; clay, metal, and fibers artist Jer’Lisa Devezin; collage artist LaVonna Varnado-Brown; and poet Nikkisha K. Napoleon.