BLACK GIRL DADA

Black Girl Dada is about finding and maintaining your true essence amidst the noise and chaos of a society that deems you unworthy of all that is good. It is about rooting out and destroying (from within ourselves and the wider world) the systems that oppress us. The Black Girl Dada workshop was created specifically for Black girls and women . The aim of the workshop is to provide a space for respite from and the healing of wounds encountered while navigating the oppressive power structures present in American society. It is also a space for the celebration of Black girls and women through the examination of the self and the telling of our stories. Workshop participants learn from the wisdom of others through poetry, song, and essays. They engage in discussion, spend time journaling, and create their own textile art piece as an artifact of the workshop experience.

MEET THE ARTIST:

NICOLE DAVIS is a visual artist based in Iowa working primarily in textile, photography, and painting. Her work evokes personal, ancestral, and cultural memory as a form of sustenance and resistance within societal structures that choose to elevate whiteness, maleness, and greed. Drawing attention to that which has been marginalized and challenging harmful power structures allows her to tell a story that is different than the one larger society declares as truth. It is through this practice that Cole sustains her humanness and resists and transforms the forces that wish to deny it. She served as a public school teacher for twenty-one years before pivoting to an art career. Davis received an MFA degree with honors from the University of Iowa in 2020.