Dichotomy: a poetic response to nurturing community, self awareness, and pandemic
2021-24: As a theologian and mystic, DIA’s area of focus is theopoetics, the examination of the intersectionality of creativity and spiritual formation. DIA’s poetry and photography is the hybrid of exegetical analysis and sociological studies, which come together in the soul-piercing video installations Dichotomy. This installation examines an essential question or truth about the human condition in relation to radical tenderness and self awareness? How do we examine and embody these concepts in a hurting world? Dichotomy is part-memoir, part-sermon, part-liturgy, and part-lament as a summons to contemplation. DIA’s work is an attempt to holistically examine ourselves, the world we’ve inherited, and our behaviors by creating and documenting poetic and universal narratives of affirmation and discomfort.
DIA examines culture and moral imagination through poetry, performance art, and photography. His work is grounded in the aesthetic of neo-Appalachian art, the charismatic nature of the Black church, mythology, and theologies that inspire mysticism. He is a pastor and poet.
A joint project of the Ministry in the City HUB and Walls-Ortiz Gallery at City Seminary, the Creative Community Care Virtual Residency brought together socially-engaged Christian creatives from New York City, Indianapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles, Charlotte, and Corsicana (Tx) for peer mentor support, learning, and sharing. In 2021, residents developed local projects in their respective cities, exploring creative practices of care in the context of community. Projects engaged the concerns and questions of the pandemic period (mutual aid, care re-imagined for social distance, etc.) at the intersection of the arts, learning, faith, and the city. In 2022, the resident pairs offered public online workshops. Starting in 2024, Creative Community Care, a traveling group exhibition of the artwork will be on display with related programming in cities across North America. In 2024, the exhibition has been on view in Santa Ana, CA (March 1-5), Houston, TX (August 7-23), and will be in St. Paul, MN (November 1 - December 15). In 2025, it will go to Indianapolis, IN (March - April), Charlotte, NC (May-June), and possibly Boston, MA (November). For 2026, we anticipate a stop in Toronto, ON (Canada) before a final show in New York City.
Lord, we lift up those facing housing insecurity, uncertainty, grief, and hopelessness. Grant them comfort, strength, and the provision they need, surrounding them with love and hope in their time of need.