Dear Tisch Community,
Join us in celebrating Latinx & Hispanic Heritage Month, a time to honor the diverse cultures of communities with roots in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Spain. Observed annually from September 15 to October 15, this month-long celebration aligns with the independence days of several Latin American countries. This observance highlights the shared historical connections among Latina/e/o/x communities while also recognizing their unique traditions and contemporary expressions. Check out the National Museum of the American Latino’s online exhibition, “ ¡Presente! A Latino History of the United States”, which offers a wide-ranging view of Latina/e/o/x contributions and cultural heritage throughout U.S. history. The work should serve as a reminder that, while these experiences are interconnected, they form a dynamic mosaic rather than a single, uniform identity. To deepen our appreciation and understanding of these diverse cultures, we are thrilled to reconnect with The Latinx Project (TLP) at NYU. TLP is dedicated to advancing U.S. Latina/e/o/x art, culture, and scholarship through a variety of interdisciplinary initiatives, including their artist-in-residence program (AIR). The 2024-25 AIR, Dalila Sanabria, is a Chilean-Colombian-American artist presenting work in the exhibition titled, “This will pass”, opening tomorrow, Saturday, September 14th. Sanabria will also be offering guided tours of the exhibition during La Feria: Print Media Fair next Saturday, September 21st. The all-day event at NYU will feature more than thirty creators exhibiting zines, books, and prints in addition to an academic book showcase. Below is an excerpt from TLP’s Q&A between the artist and the curator, which explores the nuanced and multifaceted nature of cultural identity.
Warmly, Christina Salgado
Assistant Dean of Diversity
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"This will pass" Exhibition Dates: September 14 - December 6
We invite you to attend the opening reception tomorrow at 20 Cooper Square, 4th floor.
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Images: "This will pass" features works by The Latinx Project's artist-in-residence Dalila Sanabria. Photographs by Argenis Apolinario.
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 | Carrier (detail)
White oak, pine, earth, spanish moss, palm leaves, mirror, glass, aluminum, fiberglass, wood glue silicone, sawdust, LED lights, 2024
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An excerpt from the Q&A conducted by Curator, Laura G. Gutiérrez, of The Latinx Project’s 2024-25 artist-in-residence (AIR), Dalila Sanabria.
G: Your aesthetic process is grounded in your geographical multi-sitedness, which doesn’t mean that you are able to be in multiple spaces at once, but of your own being as a dual national of Chile and Colombia, and having grown up in Central Florida, can you speak to the importance of these geographies in your art?
S: My homes have been sites of both love and isolation, and my recollections of these places are full of contrasting experiences. The multi-sightedness you mention I think is inevitable as I genuinely can’t forget my background. My mother’s Chilenez, por ejemplo, has always been relayed to me as distinctively different than my father’s Colombianidad. My mother and her quick, sharp wit, her taste for pan in the morning and in the evening para la once, and the way she’ll only eat porotos as a soup or salad, never as the daily accompaniment that my dad knows as frijoles con arroz. I mean, these may be superficial distinctions, but defending the specifics of my background has been something I’ve done since a very young age. I mostly grew up in a rural, white-majority area. Central Florida’s demographics have grown exponentially since 1996, with more and more Latin Americans making their way north in a gentrified expulsion from Miami. My parents had found each other through the LDS/Mormon church in south Florida, both converted via missionaries and later moved to Lakeland to build their home and family.
Then, when I was twelve years old, my parents were deported. I was the one who answered the door to the ICE officers. We were forced to sell our house. We moved to Bogotá, spent a year close to Valparaíso in Chile, and then moved back to Colombia during many of the formative years of my adolescence. I didn’t know Spanish at the time and was homeschooled. I moved back to Florida at sixteen, as my parents waited out their penalty of ten years before being able to reenter the United States.
Those were difficult years. In a very literal way, I’m a reverse kind of immigrant and emigrant, a diasporee, an exile, a dreamer and beneficiary, and a transnational vagrant. I see these geographies as simultaneous points of emergence and departure and hearths that my work orbits around. They were introduced to me as alien lands, prisons I initially resented, and foreign planets on which we were outcasts. But they became my inheritance, and eventually, my loves and comforts. I learned that fantasy is bred in isolation.
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Check Out These Events Around Tisch & NYU
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the film's director, cinematographer, editor and co-producer Khalik Allah, and filmmakers and NYU Undergraduate Film and TV professors Shevaun Mizrahi and Alfonso Morgan-Terrero.
You'll find a range of zines, print media, works on paper, and artist prints by Latinx creators selected via open call at this one-day event. Alongside the participating artists and small publishers at La Feria, there will also be an academic book showcase with recent works. The event closes with a reception celebrating Intervenxions Vol. 3, a publication featuring original arts writing and criticism. La Feria is free and open to the public.
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