bloom how you must, wild until we are free

The Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) is pleased to announce its summer program, bloom how you must, wild until we are free, an invitation to the visionary organizations The Octavia Project and Voluminous Arts. Over nearly two months, CARA will become a host and shared space for these two projects, co-creating critical practices of community building.

Inspired by a lineage of queer kinship and reciprocity, bloom how you must, wild until we are free draws from trans poet and scholar Cameron Awkward-Rich’s poem “Cento Between Ending and the End,” which reminds us that who we are in solitude and who we are in shared space are fundamentally intertwined.

Voluminous Arts is a transgender liberation project and record label established by Gavilán Rayna Russom, which supports trans artists experimenting with electronic music and sound. Blending creative writing, art, science and technology, The Octavia Project is an educational non-profit and summer camp for women, non-binary, and trans youth to build new worlds, inspired by the work of science fiction author Octavia E. Butler. Both organizations cultivate environments of joyful speculation, building supportive infrastructures for dreaming.

In bloom how you must, CARA will transform into an experimental study program for the two organizations. Co-developed by Voluminous Arts’ Director and the CARA team, the residency will nurture the practices of six artists from Voluminous Arts’ roster: Mercury Symbol, Anka Raczynska, Omari Love, Rat Porridge, Ris Gumpert, and Yvonne Lebien. These artists will use the building’s second floor as a studio and practice space to experiment individually and collectively, and as an area for conversation and “breathing room.” The physical space will be activated by regular seminars with a small “Visiting Faculty” of musicians, scholars, queer historians, and interdisciplinary artists, including Isadora Neves Marques, Victoria Cruz, An Duplan, McKenzie Wark, Che Gossett, and SJ Norman. On Fridays during the residency the second floor space will be open for visitors and casual conversations. 

On Monday evenings, CARA will host The Cooler Nights, inspired by Russom’s memories of the free artist curated “Monday Nite” series which took place between 1993 and 2001 at The Cooler, a club in the pre-gentrification meatpacking district and an important site for artists and musicians like Amiri Baraka, Debbie Harry, Peaches, Christian Marclay, and Russom herself. The Cooler Nights at CARA will be experimental sonic programs co-curated by Russom, the artists-in-residence, and CARA’s Curator of Public Programs, Emmy Catedral, which will work to complement the research elements of Voluminous Arts’ study program. These programs aim to revitalize the legacy of this celebrated West Village institution while inviting in the voices of contemporary experimental artists including Gyna Bootleg, Naija Couture, Maya Berman, Coi_n, Rico de la Fuente (Sodomahigamorra), Lucy York, and more.

In parallel, students in The Octavia Project’s annual Summer Institute, partially financially supported by CARA, will spend the month of July in Brooklyn learning and making art across disciplines including stem, writing, art, digital media, and more. The free Summer program for youth in grades 9-12 will culminate in a Showcase hosted at CARA on August 3, where students will organize an exhibition presenting their work and discuss their creative projects. 

For additional details, please visit cara-nyc.org.

Summer opening hours
CARA will be open to the public on Monday nights for “The Cooler Nights” and will host “Open House” on Fridays.

Following the end of the residencies on August 15, CARA’s second floor space will remain open to the public for two weeks, charged with the material traces of the artists’ studies that will provide insights into the artists’ research processes.