WORKSHOP ARTISTS / Clockwise, start top left
Renee Cloud, de’Angelo Dia, Julio Gonzalez, and Héctor Vaca
What does it mean to be a part of a project that inspires positive social change? To live in a community where everyone’s voice is heard and valued? How do we inspire change in Charlotte? We invite you to join TLF and The School of Good Citizenship for a free, three-part workshop designed to shift the narrative of the Queen City and celebrate the diverse and meaningful stories that make us who we are.
Seeing Voices: Community (Un)heard is led by four local artists that will use photography and words to share the stories of Charlotte’s communities, exploring peoples’ similarities and differences, strengths and weaknesses, justice, and injustice.
Enrollment is free. Participants must be 18 years or older and commit to all three workshops. Cameras or cell phones are necessary
. . .
. . .
WORKSHOP BREAKDOWN
Three-Part Workshop
. . .
PART 1:
Photographic Storytelling and Community Voices
Dates: June 20, 27 & July 11 / 11 am to noon
Artists: Hector Vaca and Julio Gonzalez
What is your community’s story, and how do you tell it through photographs? You are valued and seen, and your voice is connected to a broader Charlotte community. How can you use your camera as a tool to tell a story in an impactful way? Participants will explore themes that inspire positive social change. The time between classes will be used to photograph and share your work with the class.
PART 2:
Construction/Deconstruction: The Power of Words
Dates: July 18 & 25 / 11 am to noon
Artists: Renee Cloud and de’ Angelo Dia
You’ve worked to create a series of compelling photographs that tell your story, but how can text and image work together to say something unseen. How can that impact what we want to say? This workshop will explore how written language can be used in, on, and around your images to enhance your message’s power.
PART 3:
Synthesis: Sewing the City
Dates: August 1 & 22 / 11 am to noon
Let’s make an impact! The third and final session of this workshop series will focus on sharing your stories with the city. What does that look like now, given our current realities? How do we share our stories through text and images? This final workshop will explore methods for creating and sharing your projects, such as Zines, postcards, projections, and more.
We propose as a community; we work together in these uncertain times to create impactful ways of sharing our collective stories. What will it look like, and how can we create something together? Our collective voices will be shared all over the city, resulting in what we believe will start with a more aware, inclusive, and creative Charlotte.
. . .
WORKSHOP ARTISTS
. . .
Renee Cloud
@nathanknowsbetter
Renee Cloud is a Charlotte native and received her BFA in Studio Art from Appalachian State University in 2015. Using a combination of text art and mixed media, she creates work that focuses on the personal narrative, the black experience, and the power of the written word. The text she incorporates into her pieces provides only a fraction of the narrative, leaving the viewer to create the rest. Cloud resides in Charlotte, North Carolina and is currently serving as the Director and Curator of the Bb Gallery.
de’Angelo Dia is a poet, theologian, and doctoral student at Union Presbyterian Seminary. Dia investigates public opinion and contemporary beliefs on cultural, social-political, and theological issues through poetry, visual art, and performance. He has studied art in Athens, Greece, Guadalajara, Mexico, and Nairobi, Kenya. He received a Bachelor of Science in Applied Communication and Sociology from Appalachian State University, a Master of Arts in Literature from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and a Master of Divinity from Union Presbyterian Seminary. His artistic influences include photographer Martha Cooper, ethno-gothic literature, comic books and graphic novels, and neo-Appalachian art. Dia is an alumni artist-in-residence of the McColl Center for Art + Innovation, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture (Artist Roundtable), and a Cave Canem Fellow. He is also a member of the Goodyear Arts collective and the artist/activist collaborative Loss for Words, both based in Charlotte, NC. Dia’s current collection of poetry, WE ONLY SEE EACH OTHER AT FUNERALS AND WEDDINGS, is a fusion of liberation theology and comic book culture.
Héctor Vaca is a Latino street photographer who has lived in Charlotte since 2008. Born in New York and raised in South Carolina, he is of Ecuadorian and Puerto Rican heritage. He grew up in the skateboarding and punk rock scene through which he discovered activism and published his own zine in college to make his and others voices hears. For his day job, Héctor is a community organizer who empowers immigrants and tenants to lead the movement against unjust policies that affect their families. Héctor is also a member of the Charlotte-based Latinx-led Obra Collective.
Julio Gonzalez is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist. His work stems from the exploration of his mixed heritage. Born of a Honduran mother and Mexican father while growing up in the South during the ’80s, his experience is one of being from somewhere else. His practice relies on constantly asking “what if?” and embracing the random.
I create art because it is meditative and it helps me think through my observations of the world. What I am most interested in is looking at the present and future through the lens of my history and culture. I utilize Mexican and Mayan design aesthetics to create works that explore our modern human experiences. I aim to create visually pleasing work as a way to introduce a discussion of ideas and concepts that can be uncomfortable for most.
WORKSHOP ARTISTS
Clockwise, start top left
Renee Cloud, de’Angelo Dia,
Julio Gonzalez, and Héctor Vaca
What does it mean to be a part of a project that inspires positive social change? To live in a community where everyone’s voice is heard and valued? How do we inspire change in Charlotte? We invite you to join TLF and The School of Good Citizenship for a free, three-part workshop designed to shift the narrative of the Queen City and celebrate the diverse and meaningful stories that make us who we are.
Seeing Voices: Community (Un)heard is led by four local artists that will use photography and words to share the stories of Charlotte’s communities, exploring peoples’ similarities and differences, strengths and weaknesses, justice, and injustice.
. . .
WORKSHOP BREAKDOWN
Three-Part Workshop
. . .
PART 1:
Photographic Storytelling and Community Voices
Dates: June 20, 27 & July 11 / 11 am to noon
Artists: Hector Vaca and Julio Gonzalez
What is your community’s story, and how do you tell it through photographs? You are valued and seen, and your voice is connected to a broader Charlotte community. How can you use your camera as a tool to tell a story in an impactful way? Participants will explore themes that inspire positive social change. The time between classes will be used to photograph and share your work with the class.
PART 2:
Construction/Deconstruction: The Power of Words
Dates: July 18 & 25 / 11 am to noon
Artists: Renee Cloud and de’ Angelo Dia
You’ve worked to create a series of compelling photographs that tell your story, but how can text and image work together to say something unseen. How can that impact what we want to say? This workshop will explore how written language can be used in, on, and around your images to enhance your message’s power.
PART 3:
Synthesis: Sewing the City
Dates: August 1 & 22 / 11 am to noon
Let’s make an impact! The third and final session of this workshop series will focus on sharing your stories with the city. What does that look like now, given our current realities? How do we share our stories through text and images? This final workshop will explore methods for creating and sharing your projects, such as Zines, postcards, projections, and more.
We propose as a community; we work together in these uncertain times to create impactful ways of sharing our collective stories. What will it look like, and how can we create something together? Our collective voices will be shared all over the city, resulting in what we believe will start with a more aware, inclusive, and creative Charlotte.
. . .
WORKSHOP ARTISTS
. . .
Renee Cloud
@nathanknowsbetter
Renee Cloud is a Charlotte native and received her BFA in Studio Art from Appalachian State University in 2015. Using a combination of text art and mixed media, she creates work that focuses on the personal narrative, the black experience, and the power of the written word. The text she incorporates into her pieces provides only a fraction of the narrative, leaving the viewer to create the rest. Cloud resides in Charlotte, North Carolina and is currently serving as the Director and Curator of the Bb Gallery.
de’Angelo Dia is a poet, theologian, and doctoral student at Union Presbyterian Seminary. Dia investigates public opinion and contemporary beliefs on cultural, social-political, and theological issues through poetry, visual art, and performance. He has studied art in Athens, Greece, Guadalajara, Mexico, and Nairobi, Kenya. He received a Bachelor of Science in Applied Communication and Sociology from Appalachian State University, a Master of Arts in Literature from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and a Master of Divinity from Union Presbyterian Seminary. His artistic influences include photographer Martha Cooper, ethno-gothic literature, comic books and graphic novels, and neo-Appalachian art. Dia is an alumni artist-in-residence of the McColl Center for Art + Innovation, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture (Artist Roundtable), and a Cave Canem Fellow. He is also a member of the Goodyear Arts collective and the artist/activist collaborative Loss for Words, both based in Charlotte, NC. Dia’s current collection of poetry, WE ONLY SEE EACH OTHER AT FUNERALS AND WEDDINGS, is a fusion of liberation theology and comic book culture.
Héctor Vaca is a Latino street photographer who has lived in Charlotte since 2008. Born in New York and raised in South Carolina, he is of Ecuadorian and Puerto Rican heritage. He grew up in the skateboarding and punk rock scene through which he discovered activism and published his own zine in college to make his and others voices hears. For his day job, Héctor is a community organizer who empowers immigrants and tenants to lead the movement against unjust policies that affect their families. Héctor is also a member of the Charlotte-based Latinx-led Obra Collective.
Julio Gonzalez is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist. His work stems from the exploration of his mixed heritage. Born of a Honduran mother and Mexican father while growing up in the South during the ’80s, his experience is one of being from somewhere else. His practice relies on constantly asking “what if?” and embracing the random.
I create art because it is meditative and it helps me think through my observations of the world. What I am most interested in is looking at the present and future through the lens of my history and culture. I utilize Mexican and Mayan design aesthetics to create works that explore our modern human experiences. I aim to create visually pleasing work as a way to introduce a discussion of ideas and concepts that can be uncomfortable for most.
