Africana.
Mission:
The CultSTATUS Arts Haven is a multidisciplinary cultural & creative petri-dish which seeks to provide a safe space for the connection {and intersection} of writers, artists, wanderers, social instigators, scientists, activists, educators, and other critical thinkers rooted in a desire to elevate African Diaspora and uplift Communities of Color.
This radical arts clinic works to foster an holistic environment of Immersion & Experimentation with a commitment to achieving social equity from the chaos.
The Stars |
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Eclipse |
Full Moon |
Fantasy Landscape |
Crab Nebula |
Chaos Theory_edited_edited_edited |
Earth |
Relativity_edited |
Star Cluster |
Star Formation |
Black Sky |
Fiery Sun |
Multiverse |
Cosmic Swirl |
The Stars |
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Eclipse |
Full Moon |
Fantasy Landscape |
Crab Nebula |
Chaos Theory_edited_edited_edited |
Earth |
Relativity_edited |
Star Cluster |
Star Formation |
Black Sky |
Fiery Sun |
Multiverse |
Cosmic Swirl |
The Stars |
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Eclipse |
Full Moon |
Fantasy Landscape |
Crab Nebula |
Chaos Theory_edited_edited_edited |
Earth |
Relativity_edited |
Star Cluster |
Star Formation |
Black Sky |
Fiery Sun |
The Stars |
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Eclipse |
Full Moon |
Fantasy Landscape |
Crab Nebula |
Chaos Theory_edited_edited_edited |
Earth |
Relativity_edited |
Star Cluster |
Star Formation |
Black Sky |
Fiery Sun |
Welcome to Your World
Welcome to your world.
Conceived in confusion
searching for a place to be
starving for FRESH, DOPE ...
Beauty
... Conceived in confusion
fasting on "get a real job"
choking on mediocrity
just trying to be
trying to breathe
in the space between air
and Insanity
trying to breathe, trying to see
in a world void of sight
for the likes of WE ...
paint splatter on a blank canvas
inhale before the graceful leap
shades of Coltrane blurring with
CRAZY
but what do they know of
Genious Madness Love
of Painful Creativity?
perhaps the Voices, Colours, Twisted Bodies
are muse for misery
or maybe, just maybe, they are
Van Gogh, Savion, Frida, Basquiat, and Rumi
whispering softly ...
Welcome.
~ Constance SHERESE, February 2011
Meet The Founder:
Constance Collier-Mercado
is an experimental writer, artist, and Black culture worker living in Atlanta. Born in Chicago and raised in the Bronx, her work examines the nuanced layers found within Black dialectical, multilingual, and equivocal spaces - those literal and imagined intersections between sensory, mystic, and social identity - to include cultures of abuse, empowerment, and dis/ABILITY.
Consumed by notions of global Blackness as polyamorous Church, she weaves this aesthetic into her practice in the form of an irreverent Black feminine divine.
Recently named the Jack Jones
Octavia Butler Fellow in Fiction, she is also an alumnus of the Hurston/Wright Foundation Writer's Week, the VQR Poetry Writer's Conference, and the Homeschool Claremont Poetry Conference.
Her words and visual art have been published in FIYAH Literary Magazine, Linden Avenue Literary Journal, The Auburn Avenue, Kweli Journal, The Believer, and elsewhere.
An excerpt from her grief play,
Chelsea's Dream: Embracing Yellow, premiered as a unanimous selection at the 2015 Atlanta Black Theater Festival and she produced a one-woman spoken word homage to The Last Poets at the 2016 Festival. Her mixed-media work has been exhibited at the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library's central branch, among other spaces.
Constance has further curated two AfroFutures Syllabus events:
Hoo-Doula/Voo-Doula,
which was hosted at the
Auburn Avenue Research Library,
and Black Sun/Black Son
as a live Twitter chat meant to coincide with the 2017 North American Solar Eclipse.
Hoo-Doula/Voo-Doula has since become a monthly AfroFutures book club at The Movement Lab in Southwest Atlanta.
Constance is currently writing a first book of poetry and a novel which depicts the divinity and kinetic energy of The Kinfolk. In her free time, she can be found obsessing over the fact that she has no free time.
The Stars |
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Eclipse |
Full Moon |
Fantasy Landscape |
Crab Nebula |
Chaos Theory_edited_edited_edited |
Earth |
Relativity_edited |
Star Cluster |
Star Formation |
Black Sky |
Fiery Sun |
Multiverse |
Cosmic Swirl |
The Stars |
---|
Eclipse |
Full Moon |
Fantasy Landscape |
Crab Nebula |
Chaos Theory_edited_edited_edited |
Earth |
Relativity_edited |
Star Cluster |
Star Formation |
Black Sky |
Fiery Sun |
Multiverse |
Cosmic Swirl |
The Stars |
---|
Eclipse |
Full Moon |
Fantasy Landscape |
Crab Nebula |
Chaos Theory_edited_edited_edited |
Earth |
Relativity_edited |
Star Cluster |
Star Formation |
Black Sky |
Fiery Sun |
Multiverse |
Cosmic Swirl |
The Stars |
---|
Eclipse |
Full Moon |
Fantasy Landscape |
Crab Nebula |
Chaos Theory_edited_edited_edited |
Earth |
Relativity_edited |
Star Cluster |
Star Formation |
Black Sky |
Fiery Sun |