For Project Luz Workers Studio, artist Sol Aramendi will invite women of the Muslim community in Jamaica, Latino residents of Jamaica, and small shop owners in the neighborhood to define their own community narratives through portraiture. Utilizing their existing skill-sets and expertise, participants will conduct research and exchange to identify an issue or question relevant to Jamaica. In collaboration with Aramendi, they will use this research to create a public project about and for the community. 

More information: solaramendi.com

Project Luz Workers Studio is held in conjunction with Once Upon A Place, a five-part program that presents an arts-based oral history model expanding upon panel and town hall formats. To remove barriers that would otherwise prevent many community members from engaging in modes of humanities-based research, three forms of public engagement are arranged at the intersection of diverse audiences and everyday places. The programming and exhibition will work in tandem to create conversations around themes of movement, migration, and communication. Local participants will employ humanities and arts methodologies to interpret, analyze and represent neighborhood issues important to them, within the context of a larger dialogue about a moment of social change sweeping across Jamaica and New York City. Once Upon a Place is supported by the New York Council for the Humanities.

The series will culminate with Panel II on Saturday, July 9, in which artists Sol Aramendi, Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani and Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful will present research gathered and projects created in collaboration with community participants. For details and updates, click here.