Seeing Voices
Community (UN)Heard
The Light Factory
Charlotte, NC 28205
June 20, 27, July 11, 2020 11AM - 12 Noon
Photographic Storytelling and Community Voices Workshop
July 18, 25, 2020 11AM - 12 Noon
Construction/Deconstruction: The Power of Words
August 1, 22, 2020 11AM - 12 Noon
Synthesis: Sewing The City
What does it mean to be a part of a project that inspires positive social change? To live in a community where everyone’s voice is heard and valued? How do we inspire change in Charlotte? We invite you to join TLF and The School of Good Citizenship for a free, three-part workshop designed to shift the narrative of the Queen City and celebrate the diverse and meaningful stories that make us who we are.
Seeing Voices: (Un)heard Communities is led by four local artists that will use photography and words to share the stories of Charlotte’s communities, exploring peoples’ similarities and differences, strengths and weaknesses, justice, and injustice.
The first weekend session Photographic Storytelling and Community Voices focuses on creating a photographic series to tell a story.
What is your community’s story, and how do you tell it through photographs? You are valued and seen, and your voice is connected to a broader Charlotte community. How can you use your camera as a tool to tell a story in an impactful way? Participants will explore themes that inspire positive social change. The time between classes will be used to photograph and share your work with the class. Photographers Hector Vaca Cruz and Julio Gonzalez lead this session.
The second weekend session Construction/Deconstruction: The Power of Words focuses on the power of the written word learning to incorporate text to enhance photographic narratives. You’ve worked to create a series of compelling photographs that tell your story, but how can text and image work together to say something unseen. How can that impact what we want to say? This workshop will explore how written language can be used in, on, and around your images to enhance your message’s power. Artists Angelo Dia and Renee Cloud are instructors.
In the third and final session Synthesis: Sewing The City will focus on sharing your stories with the city. What does that look like now, given our current realities? How do we share our stories through text and images? This final workshop will explore methods for creating and sharing your projects, such as Zines, postcards, projections, and more.
We propose as a community; we work together in these uncertain times to create impactful ways of sharing our collective stories. What will it look like, and how can we create something together? Our collective voices will be shared all over the city, resulting in what we believe will start with a more aware, inclusive, and creative Charlotte.
Enrollment is free. Participants must be 18 years or older and commit to all three workshops. Cameras or cell phones are necessary; some photo equipment may be available from The Light Factory.
Instructor Bios
Julio Gonzalez is is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist. Son of a Honduran mother and Mexican father, he grew up in the South during the 80's. His work explores his mixed heritage and the daily experience of what it feels like being from somewhere else.
Hector Vaca Cruz is a Latino street photographer residing in Charlotte since 2008. New York born, raised in South Carolina, he is of Ecuadorian and Puerto Rican heritage. He discovered activism growing up in the skateboarding and punk rock scenes, publishing his own zine in college to make his and others voices heard. For his day job, Héctor is a community organizer and a member of the Charlotte-based Latinx-led Obra Collective. To learn more about Hector's current photo project on the Coronavirus, click here.
de'Angelo Dia is a poet, theologian, and doctoral student at Union Presbyterian Seminary. Dia investigates public opinion and contemporary beliefs on cultural, social-political, and theological issues through poetry, visual art, and performance. He has studied art in Athens, Greece, Guadalajara, Mexico, and Nairobi, Kenya. He received a Bachelor of Science in Applied Communication and Sociology from Appalachian State University, a Master of Arts in Literature from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and a Master of Divinity from Union Presbyterian Seminary.
Renee Cloud is a Charlotte native and received her BFA in Studio Art from Appalachian State University in 2015. Using a combination of text art and mixed media, she creates work that focuses on the personal narrative, the black experience, and the power of the written word.
Participating Artists
Jack Flowers
Francisco Gonzales
Megan Driving Hawk
Susan Hillyard
Lisa Howell
Jinna Kim
Malik Norman
Eva Osuch
Michael Robinson
Dustin Shores
Molly Wilbanks
