Radical Sense is a feminist reading group running out of 28 November, a bookshop and gathering space in Tirana, Albania. The group was co-founded by Naçi, Leah Whitman-Salkin, and Doruntina Vinca. Leah Whitman-Salkin is an editor and researcher. Together with Simon Battisti, Whitman-Salkin founded 28 November. Doruntina Vinca is a writer and researcher working and living in Tirana. Born and raised in Prishtina, she studied cultural anthropology and political science in New York. Her work focuses on literature, arts, and politics. 28 November purveys texts (new, used, bootlegged) that relate to independence, anarchy, spaces of exception, desire, withdrawal, noncompliance, self-management, forms of identification, love. The group is working on publishing two volumes of translated texts into Albanian for the first time. Usually the group meets weekly at 28 November, but during the pandemic we host the meetings over zoom. Reach out if you would like to join.
our first reader, summer 2018, Tirana, Albania
BOSTON BOOK FAIR / NOVEMBER 8-10, 2019 / https://bostonbookfest.org/
STAND UP:
Womxn You Should Know
Since moving to the U.S in 2001, I have committed my creative drive to supporting artists and developing contemporary immersive experiences that enrich and bolster the discourse in contemporary art and education in various communities. My practice is motivated by a dedication to providing vigorous learning experiences in the arts and support the voices and lives of disenfranchised and ignored cultures.
Grappling with the socio-political changes and trauma of this past election, I felt a great sense of responsibility as a woman, curator, educator, and citizen to launch a platform supporting the voices of marginalized women of various background and disciplines in the creative field.
Installation view, Gallery Kayafas
STAND UP – POP-UP EXHIBITION
Gallery Kayafas, Boston, MA
JULY 10 – 13, 2019 Opening Reception 7/10 6-10pm - Facebook event here
STAND UP: Women* You Should Know is an exhibition and lecture series program where womxn* of various marginalized cultures come together to share conversations about artistic processes, education, community, and contemporary art practices. Interviews are published online [Big Red & Shiny] and lectures are held in local galleries [currently at The Mills Gallery at Boston Center for the Arts as part of Gertrude’s Salon conversation series].
Womxn*: We welcome anyone who identifies as cisgender, genderqueer, trans women, femmes, & non-binary people.
Curators: Danielle Abrams, Jimena Bermejo, Furen Dai, Tory Fair, Leah Triplett Harrington, Maggie Jensen, Silvi Naçi, Jeannie Simms, Nabeela Vega
Performances by:
ALICIA RODRIGUEZ ALVISA, BIANCA BROXTON, MAGGIE CAVALLO, ANA LOOR, SARAH PITAN, MARSHA PARRILLA, ANGELA COUNTS, LONNIE STANTON
Krysten Hill - Poetry Reading
Silvi Naçi in conversation with artist Magda Fernandez
Artists: Aparna Agrawal, Genesis Báez, Stace Brandt, Kim Blodgett, Bianca Broxton, Maggie Cavallo, Chelsea Coon, Leah Corbett, Angela Counts, Furen Dai, Magda Fernandez, Maryam Monalisa Gharavi, Dell Hamilton, Krysten Hill, Maggie Jensen, Aaditi Joshi, Woomin Kim, Isabella Koen, Teruko Kushi, Ana Loor, Jessica Lu, Azita Moradkhani, Maria Molteni, Monika Plioplyte, Cynthia Melendez Montoya, Silvi Naçi, Thi Nguyen, Alicia Rodriguez Alvisa, Marsha Parrilla, Sarah Pitan, Vivian Poey, Nisu Seder, Gianna Stewart, Sandrine Schaefer, Leslie Schomp, Lonnie Stanton, Joanna Tam, Christine Tinsley, Chanel Thervil, Zahirah Nur Truth, JR Uretsky, Anabel Vázquez Rodríguez, & 'VISA Collectiv: Aysha Al-Moayyed and Tamara Al-Mashouk'.
in conversation with artist Magda Fernandez
July 11, 2017 6-8pm
Gallery Kayafas
Full Interview on Big Red & Shiny in conversation with Fernandez.
Magda Fernández (b. 1957, Havana, Cuba) is a Boston based video artist. Blurring theater and performance, Fernández makes silent, diaristic videos that revolve around the duality of themes such as power, helplessness, fantasy, reality, memory and history. She has exhibited at the Copley Society of Art (Boston, MA), the Mills Gallery (Boston, MA), and Samsøñ (Boston, MA).
Magda Fernandez, querido cuba, 2017 | UHD video, silent, 5 min., 43 sec. | Edition of 5
in conversation with Jimena Bermejo-Black
Thursday, June 22, 2017 | 6:30–8 pm
Mills Gallery, Boston, MA
Full Interview on Big Red & Shiny in conversation with Bermejo-Black.
"I am a dancer, choreographer, performance artist, and dance educator with over 15 years of experience. Memories, music, and the body inspire my work. Identity, race, and power fuel it.
In recent years, I have created intimate relationships with audiences by setting them physically closer to the performance space and by inviting them to be physically active and therefore more emotionally engaged. The use of video and sculptural elements enhances the interaction with the audience while simultaneously deepening thematic content. I want the audience to interact and communicate with me and with each other." To learn more please visit www.jbermejo-black.com.
in conversation Dell Marie Hamilton
Mills Gallery, Boston MA
12.08.2016 6:30-8pm
STAND UP: Silvi Naci in conversation with Dell M. Hamilton
Hamilton’s work draws not only on the historical conventions of photography and performance art, but also on the history of black theater, the written and oral traditions of black and Latina women writers and the contradiction and exuberance of drag performance. Her latest series, Fallen Angels: Making Sense Out of Nothing, investigates the relationship between persona, performance and photography through the conflation of characters inspired by Central American folklore, personal memory and family history.
Fallen Angels Reina #3
Dell’s artist talks, solo performances, scholarly lectures, and collaborative performances have been presented to a wide variety of audiences in Boston and New York as well as in France, Italy and Chile. Born in Spanish Harlem (New York City), and with ancestral roots in Belize, Honduras and the Caribbean, her practice wrestles with the social and geopolitical constructions of memory, gender, race, language and history through the mediums of photography, video, drawing, installation and performance. To learn more visit www.dellmhamilton.com
Fallen Angels Reina #7
Furen Dai, Message through Generations
in conversation with Furen Dai
Thursday, March 9, 2017 | 6:30–8pm
Mills Gallery at the BCA, Boston, MA
Full Interview on Big Red & Shiny in conversation with Furen Dai.
Continuing the third season of Gertrude’s Artists Salon on the topic STAND UP: Womxn* You Should Know hosted by Silvi Naçi in conversation with video performance artist, sculptor and linguist Furen Dai. In this conversation we will be exploring the interdependent themes of language and cultural politics and class, in regards to economic conditions and performance art. With a background in linguistic study, and working as interpreter for several years in China, Dai’s practice centers on language and the culture built through it, reflecting on various forms of interpretation. In her previous work as interpreter, Dai was often in a position between two cultures attempting to examine where these two cultures met, overlap and where they differentiate. However, in her artistic practice, her voice as artist, as individual comes through in the interpretation of image making and documentation of both traditional and contemporary cultures in China, and ultimately giving voice to the women in the cultures she emphasizes in her work. To learn more visit furendai.squarespace.com.
The Joining Project
2014
knitting, crochet, yarn
Harvard Bridge, Charles River
Directed and led over 100+ artist around the States and internationally in a public art project in response to Marathon Bombing. We covered the Harvard Bridge (ground for many runners) with swaths of handmade crochet and knit pieces from members of the local community and around the country; turning the space into a communal place for everyone to make art and connecting Boston and Cambridge communities with yarn-making. The connections that knitting and crocheting artists made were beyond warmth and comfort, they were personal and joyful. I also led interactive and creative performances throughout the transformed bridge including workouts and dance performances.
Colorful Yarn Links Boston To Cambridge Over Mass. Ave. Bridge by Andrea Shea on WBUR, Boston.