In December 2016, No Longer Empty Curatorial Lab (NLE Lab) presented Remix Rememory, a site-responsive exhibition that gathered and reimagined histories as a means to understand personal and collective identities. Featuring borrowed and commissioned works by artists from Jamaica, Queens, and beyond, the exhibition and related public programming explored how memories can be recaptured and preserved through actions, objects, and reframed tales.

Remix Rememory was curated by NLE Lab’s 2016 participants Zalika Azim, Tara Foster, Jordan Greenberg, Abbie Hebein, Shu Cao Mo, and Candice Strongwater.

Remix Rememory took place in an empty storefront inside The Jamaica Colosseum Mall, an active commercial center that has served as a landmark in hip-hop fashion and music culture since the 1980s. With over 100 independent vendors, including a dental office, food court, hair salons, and spaces of worship and healing, the Mall is a haven for small business owners and consumers, and serves as a site of cultural and capital exchange. The works included in Remix Rememory engaged with the blended space of the Mall – exploring, examining, and recreating local and global archival histories, creative healing, and activism.

The exhibition title was conceived in response to the rapidly changing neighborhood. It speaks to the idea of sampling and synthesizing elements of hip-hop music, and Toni Morrison’s concept of rememory – the intentional revisiting of memories. Like music, memories can be remixed to create new visions connecting the past, present, and future, while addressing the particular politics or preservation. Remix Rememory presented works that show how underrepresented or misremembered narratives can be reclaimed—interweaving personal and collective histories.

Press

New art exhibit opens in Jamaica Colosseum Mall, Times Ledger

Reviviendo tiempos de Hip-Hop en Jamaica,Queens, Ayllu Times

About NLE Curatorial Lab (NLE Lab), a socially conscious platform for experimentation in curating, is a 15-week professional development program for emerging curators/arts professionals interested in gaining hands-on experience curating in an expanded field. NLE Lab extends No Longer Empty’s mission to curate community-responsive, site-specific exhibitions, and programming in unique spaces. The NLE Lab 2016 was led by Rachel Gugelberger, NLE Curator & Director of NLE Curatorial Lab.

The NLE Curatorial Lab 2016 was supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the Dedalus Foundation.

Special thanks: Brooke Davis Anderson, Saiku Branch, Robin Cembalest, Heng-Gil Han, Richard Hourahan, Cathy Hung, Thomas Logan, Prerana Reddy, Kwamé Sorrell, Margaret Rose Vendryes, and NLE Lab partners Afrikan Poetry Theatre, Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning and Fine Arts Gallery York College CUNY.