In the Twin Cities art scene this weekend, more than 65 local Black, Indigenous and artists of color share narratives of migration at the Solidarity Street Gallery during St. Paul’s Fall Art Crawl. In Minneapolis, Lela Pierce draws from West African folk traditions to explore the cycles of life at Soo Visual Arts Center, while a new play at Pillsbury House and Theatre invites audiences to discover the divine in Black femininity. 

65 artists explore the intersection of identity and displacement

The Solidarity Street Gallery on St. Paul’s East Side will host “Migration & Memories,” showcasing the work of more than 65 Twin Cities artists — some with deep ties to their homeland and others who have yet to visit. They all use visual storytelling to explore their cultural heritage and the challenges of displacement.

Among them is Ziba Rajabi, who uses muslin fabric and acrylics to reconstruct memories of her life in Iran while navigating the perceptions of being seen as “the other” in the United States. 

“When I was in Iran, I was middle class, living in the capital and speaking the same official language of the country,” Rajabi said. “I was living a very privileged life but as soon as I came here, I’m perceived as ‘the other’ – a dark-skinned woman whose second language was English and living on a temporary artist visa.”

Her large-scale fabric installation, “Misordered Story,” reflects the fragmented experiences of living between two worlds, with a painted canvas torn and reassembled into a massive tapestry.

The 10-by-12-foot piece was created in 2019 as Rajabi began exploring what it means to occupy space in an art gallery. “When I was in grad school, I felt that there was still a barrier between what I’m experiencing and trying to convey in my art and what is expected in institutions,” she said. “I wanted to see what it means to make a painting as ‘the other.’”

Xee Reiter, a first-generation Hmong American artist, uses acrylics, watercolors and spray paint to address the underrepresentation of Hmong people in art.

“In high school, I was told by an art teacher ‘Don’t make selfish art,’ and I’ve often asked myself, what is selfish art?” Reiter said. “Even in my first year of college, when I would use references to draw portraits, it was always white women and I began to think ‘Wait, what about Hmong women? What about other women of color? Don’t we deserve the same representation?” 

Food illustrations are also a recurring motif in Reiter’s work. In her acrylic painting “Homesick,” a restaurant bill bears a handwritten note in pink ink: “was good but I wanted Hmong food.” Another piece, “Poor Gourmet,” features a can of sardines mixed with onions, cilantro and lime, a nod to how her father elevated simple ingredients into gourmet dishes.

“I didn’t even realize we were poor because my parents always made sure we were fed,” Reiter said. Her connection to food is tied to childhood memories of growing up in North Carolina’s housing projects, stirring nostalgia and a longing for traditional Hmong cuisine.

Her standout piece, “Fresno ’86,” draws on her family’s history as Hmong refugees who migrated to Fresno, California in 1981. 

“I’ve never been to my home country. I’ve never been to Laos, never been to Thailand,” Reiter said. “But what inspired me was that, no matter what, my grandparents would always put on our traditional clothes no matter where they went.”

“The only backdrops for our photos were the gas station down the street, the car dealership, or our garage with graffiti,” she said. “I thought that was really representative of being displaced — where your clothing doesn’t match your surroundings.” The poppy flowers in the painting, blooming defiantly through the concrete, emphasize her family’s resilience in the face of displacement.

Exhibit inspired by West African folk art traditions

Artist Lela Pierce’s exhibit “The Unknown Thing that Frees You” at Soo Visual Arts Center explores Black ancestral displacement, estrangement from family history and self-discovery through a series of geometric paintings, ceramic sculptures and installations made from glass beads, synthetic hair and thread. 

Pierce’s work moves through dualities — light and dark, joy and grief, life and death — to examine how these contrasting forces coexist and contribute to personal growth. Pierce draws on West African and East European folk art traditions, particularly those created by women, in search of personal and artistic freedom.

Play celebrates the sacred nature of Black womanhood

The Pillsbury House and Theatre is premiering “A Walless Church: The Black Woman’s Guide to Making God,” a play by AriDy Nox that weaves together narratives centered on Black womanhood, spirituality and divinity.

The production features a cast of three Black women — Aimee K. Bryant, Nubia Monks and Essence Renae — who portray the divine figures Oru, Nona and Moe while alternating roles as narrators, protagonists, teachers, students, and priestesses. The play presents a series of vignettes showcasing the experiences of Black women, including two sisters conversing with the spirit of their mother, three friends at a wedding shower and two newlyweds encountering a disapproving aunt. The characters navigate these scenarios, attempting to facilitate healing through spiritual rituals while struggling to recognize the divine within themselves.

“Nox’s godlings have heard the longings of Black women who deeply want to see God and return to knowing of the God within,” director Signe V. Harriday said in a news release. “Their rituals invite us into contemplation and how we navigate healing in our relationships when hurt, pain and misunderstanding drive us apart.”