Bronx-born, interdisciplinary artist and curator Yelaine Rodriguez (b.1990) presents photographs of Afro-Dominican performers Kaila Bule, Mawon Zahir Ajam, and Saso dressed in costume handwoven pieces with African textiles as backdrops anchor the African roots of Hispaniola. These images ask the question of why some communities are viewed as sacred while other cultures get erased from history. This is an on-going series.

Yelaine Rodriguez (She/ Her)

Artist

If You Can Make It

Image

Afro-Sagrada Familia plays on The Basílica de la Sagrada Família, also known as the Sagrada Família, a large unfinished Roman Catholic minor basilica in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. These photographs of Afro-Dominican performers Kaila Bule, Mawon Zahir Ajam, and Saso dressed in costume handwoven pieces with African textiles as backdrops anchor the African roots of Hispaniola. These images ask the question of why some communities are view as sacred while other cultures get erased from history. This is an on-going series.

Rodriguez received a BFA fromThe New School (2013), and her MA from NYU (2021). Rodriguez's curatorial portfolio includes Afro Syncretic at NYU (2019), Resistance, Roots, and Truth at the Caribbean CulturalCenter African Diaspora Institute (2018), and (under)REPRESENT(ed) (2017) at The NewSchool. Rodriguez participated in the Bronx Museum of the Arts, AIM Fellowship Program(2020), The Latinx Project Curatorial Fellowship (2019), Wave Hill Van Lier Fellowship (2018),and ICA Fellowship from the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (2017). She has exhibited at El Museo del Barrio, IPCNY, Wave Hill, American Museum of Natural History,Rush Art Gallery, El Centro Cultural de España, and Centro León Biennial in the DominicanRepublic. Her works have been featured in Elle, Artsy, Hyperallergic, Vogue, and Aperture Magazine.Rodriguez is an Adjunct Instructor at The New School and New York University. Afro-Sagrada Familia plays on The Basílica de la Sagrada Família, also known as the Sagrada Família, a large unfinished Roman Catholic minor basilica in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.