2026 Arts Center Residency
Open Studios Saturday April 18th
Darla Migan presents Artist Zella Vanié & Experimental School for Black Imagination
How have we learned to make a way out of no way? In my curatorial practice at the 2026 LMCC Residency, I understand the theme of ‘climate change’ as another pathway to learning the arts of flourishing from my Black ancestors.
Empire after empire, we have lived through poly-catastrophe and were taught to be ashamed of identifying with our Mother Earth. Kith and kin! Now Indigenous and Black peoples of the global majority will save you from the civilizations we were once told were beyond our ken.
How might learning expand beyond our current imperial institutions in support of engaging civic life and tuning in to make and nourish the networks of trust we will need to survive?
As a teacher of philosophy and curator of exhibitions led by collaborating with artists, I am deeply drawn to the cultural producer Zella Vanié’s Zella.vanie community-activation practices. As one of the founding organizers of the Experimental School for Black Imagination @experimental.schoool (and a fellow queer Southerner meandering on the loving path of Black migrations) an ethos of ease guides the way.
Join us at Open Studios on Governors Island to learn about ESBI’s contributions to Black creators, including a rotating library of “revolutionary print, critical theory, poetry, and moving pictures spanning Black feminist thought, ” as well as invite-only workshops and the open call zine series We Be Comin’ Free.
Art Direction & Digital Assets Designed by Zella Vanié
RSVP @ darlanyc.com
Dr. Darla Migan, Curator
2026 Scholar-in-Residence
The Arts Center Residency
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
Earth Day Celebrations on Governors Island
Open Studios | Saturday April 18th | 12:00 - 5:00
The Arts Center at Governors Island
110 Andes Rd New York, New York, 10004
@lmcc_nyc@stonybrooku@nyclimateexchange@governorsisland
ESBI has gone digital with our new site launch 🐣🪩
It includes our manifesto / reimagined ‘paint’ space, a digital library curated with @blackzinearchive , and a page for We Be Coming Free, an experimental zine and workshop series happening around NYC.
.. high key a whole world to explore.
Come thru to create, explore, read, take some selfies in our digital booth, journal, leave an offering, get tapped in with our upcoming happenings, etccc
🔗 link in bio
weeeeee backkkkk! how yall feeling?
next sunday early afternoon (!) pull up on us at the kaleidoscopic pull up for some parallel play.
this will be an open space to share what you’re asking, creating, and imagining.
space is limited .. request your spot through the link in bio.
💘💖✨✨✨
The ancestors were right, because deadline who?? 🌀 We’re keeping submissions open till next ‘next’ Monday, November 17th. Link in bio
Also we appreciate all the submissions so far, we’ll be in touch with everyone in the coming weeks.
We’re back with sumn’ special for the fall flow! Somatic Vibes is an experiment in collective energy movement and play.
The workshop will be indoors in Bedstuy, with one stairway leading to the site. This gathering centers Black folks while welcoming all who enter with respect and openness. Exact location + details will be shared ahead of the event. Link in bio for RSVP 🙂↔️Capacity is limited, see you there!
🗣️🎤OPEN CALL 🚨🔔🥁✨
We Be Coming Free is a zine and workshop series made by and for Black queer and trans artists, organizers, and kin practicing liberation in everyday life. It draws on Black imagination, somatic wisdom, and teachings carried by our poets, artists, truth tellers, and dreamers. From the initial workshop series held in winter 2025, what emerged was a container for exploring rememory, becoming, and undoing time™
For the 2nd edition, we’re opening the frame to your submissions .. we welcome you to bend the framing or offer something entirely different.
Submit via the link in bio before Monday November 3rd. Please share this post. Thank you and big bless!
to all who pulled up to our first imagining sense experiment, we just wanna say thanks & we had so much fun “wit u.” we spent time learning each others’ favorite stretches, listening w/ and w/o seeing, learned how to circle breathe, and translated our senses of smell into soundbites.
there was so much laughter and good feeling, we can’t wait for what’s next 😜 hope you’ll be there xx z+t
RSVP LIST FULL ~ DM FOR WAITLIST
Sunset Service is back this Friday // 5-8pm for a special screening and writing circle in partnership with @experimental.schoool DM for address!
We’ll be watching Neptune Frost and writing in conversation with the fugitive strategies explored in the film
.No prior writing experience needed ~ just bring something to write in/with
.We’ll be meeting on a rooftop, two flights up w/ no elevator ~ if you need physical assistance up the stairs please let us know
.If we need to move inside, masks will be provided
.Space is limited so DM to RSVP and get address
More about NEPTUNE FROST: A sci-fi romantic musical following a group of escaped coltan miners that form an anti-colonialist computer hacker collective in the hilltops of Burundi. They soon attempt a takeover of the authoritarian regime that’s exploiting the region’s natural resources — and its people
More about @experimental.schoool : The Experimental School for Black Imagination is a collective offering led by artists tending to the ways we come together to create, feel, and grow through radical imagination, experimentation, and embodied practice. They convene workshops, retreats, and shared spaces rooted in craft, embodiment, and the land.
Wait a min! Y’all thought we was finished?? It’s only just begun. Our three-part series begins July 19th, 1pm at Prospect Park.
Drawing inspiration from the happenings of Fluxus movement and activities presented in the documentary Tjintu Pakani: Sunrise Awakening, the Imagining Sense series will immerse us in sensory deconstruction and investigate imaginative reconstruction to draw a collective map of shared perception—toying with music/silence, stillness/gesture, language/fragrance, all within relational presence.
This gathering is free, outdoors, and will be accessible for all. Young people accompanied by an adult are welcome. RSVP is required for location + details. Use the link in bio to sign up.
So boom. After many voice notes, a few G*ogle Docs, and one (1) upward spiral, Experimental has entered the chat!
We’ve been working on this space for Black artists to create and try things out together.
Check the link in bio to stay in the email loop and share your thoughts as we shape future programming. Come thru. Bring your kin.
