Reports from New Orleans | Unncovering Truths

Three artists who have been picking apart long accepted narratives by excavating first-hand accounts of the past challenge what we think we know. Jeffery Darenbourg uses single word activism to repopularize New Orleans’ real name. Nic Aziz discusses dismantling institutions, industries, and racism symbolism. Gabrielle Garcia Steib seeks to make an expansive and accessible archive of the Nicaraguan dictatorship and her families subsequent forced immigration to New Orleans. Marta Rodriguez Maleck rounds out the episode with a sample from her ongoing project of archiving the stories of New Orleanians through the pandemic. 

Guests: Jeffery Darensbourg, Nic Brierre Aziz, Gabrielle Garcia Steib

Jeffery Darensbourg is an Atakapa-Ishak and Louisiana Creole storyteller, artist, and writer who lives in Bulbancha and is coeditor of the zine Bulbancha Is Still a Place: Indigenous Culture from New Orleans. He has recently been a writer in residence at Tulane University's A Studio in the Woods and currently has works on display at the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans. Nic Brierre Aziz is an interdisciplinary artist and curator born and raised in New Orleans. His practice centers around the assemblage of historical and pop cultural narratives. Gabrielle Garcia Steib is an artist and educator based between New Orleans and Mexico City. She works in archives and moving image specifically focusing on the ways in which Latin America connects to the Deep South.Deja Jones descends from a lone lineage of New Orleanian artisans and carpenters. After studying at the New Orleans Charter of Science and Mathematics and NOCCA, she began teaching herself to work with a variety of mediums to depict the many stories of New Orleans natives and their struggle to maintain their way of life.     Xavier Juarez is an artist working currently in theater, music, and film. He lives in New Orleans and is finishing up his first full length play.     Cristina Molina is a visual artist who hails from the subtropics of Miami and currently lives and works in New Orleans—two precarious and vulnerable terrains that have majorly influenced her practice. Spanning performance, video installation, photography, and textile design, Molina’s artwork is set amongst landscapes both real and imagined—using the language of magical realism, her artworks centralize women’s stories to upend dominant histories.     Theodora Eliezer is a New Orleans-based multimedia artist and futurist. Their practice is characterized by interconnected narratives in installation, lens-based media, digital and physical artifacts, and related critical theory.     
     
 Images from Gabrielle Garcia Steib’s series New Orleans