Posted: April 22, 2021

Live Zoom Event! April 22, 5pm PST. Register here!

Join us for the tenth installation of our Laboratory Series, a conversation series with Black-identified artists in collaboration with R.A.C.E. Matters SLO.

On April 22nd at 5 PM PST, we will be joined by artist Jessica Valoris in conversation with Regan Smith, Cal Poly student and activist. 

Jessica Valoris is a Washington DC based interdisciplinary installation artist. Inspired by Afrofuturism, metaphysics, and historical memory, Jessica builds installations and experiences that are sacred, intentional, and activated. Weaving together sound collage, painting, sculpture, and facilitated events, Jessica creates portals: immersive environments through which participants are invited to reconnect and conversate with personal and universal truths.

Informed by her Black American and Jewish ancestry, Valoris holds an emphatically multidimensional worldview which is reflected in her vividly eclectic visuals and dynamic installations. Using art as a catalyst for collective healing, Valoris affirms the joy and vitality of Black people, complicating flattened histories of oppression, and creating space for affirmative celebration and re-definition. Jessica values collaboration with community-based organizations and cultural workers, and her work is a tool, resource, and space for culturally-relevant wellness and resilience. www.jessicavaloris.com

Regan Smith began Cal Poly as a Nutrition major; but is switching to double majoring in Communications Studies and Comparative Ethnic Studies, and minoring in Art History. She organizes with BLMCA (Black Lives Matter Community Action), and as herself as an Afroindigenous woman. She loves cooking; and studying the universe and spirituality. She does this for the past, present, and future Black and brown and oppressed people — those she knows and those she’ll never meet. 

To request accommodations for this event such as language interpretation or ASL please contact the event organizer at emma_saperstein@cuesta.edu