DSXSO "Better Must Come" Review

Much of the narrative surrounding New Orleans’ post- Katrina demographic changes has focused on the “newer” “whiter” city left in wake of displacement and gentrification. DSXSO: “Better Must Come”, an exhibition curated by Dr. Fari Nzinga attempts to shift focus toward the ways in which the current political moment in the American south is drawing Black and Brown communities into closer relationship and proximity. Intentionally featuring artists with personal, professional and familial relationships to both communities, “Better Must Come”  in some ways challenges the notion of a border at all between peoples, their political challenges, and desired outcomes. "Better Must Come" asks us to examine and consider that both Black and Latino  communities share questions of place and dislocation; transience and indigeneity--share ancestors, bloodlines and the very real threat to collective survival in a rapidly changing southern landscape.

Personal highlights include the evocative untitled photographs of Rolando Palacio whose images speak to movement, work, rest, transgression and what it takes to continue traveling. Amina Desselle’s "Sem Terra (Landless)", Sean G. Clark “Meeting Notes”, and Ayo Scott's "A Dream of Justice" form a nice trinity exploring and combining notions of ancestry, aesthetics and political sentiment. These pieces are juxtaposed quite nicely with the explicit exploration of capitalism and our entanglement with the system in the photography and digital print work of Chriselda Pacheco's “Pussy Reparations" and Nik Richard's "Oval Office: A new nation under old flags."

The indigenous people of the American south have shared this region, fought against and with one another in resistance to the encounter with European colonialism and continue to negotiate the borders of our lives and bodies."Better Must Come" is not loud, it does not offer a solution to a problem. What it does do is present a portrait of moment in time, a conversation that is in some ways just beginning and in others many millennia old.

Based in New Orleans and working across the deep south, Deep South by Suroeste (DSXSO), an initiative of The Charitable Film Network. DSXSO seeks to connect, support, and promote the work of Black and Latino artists. The show completes its run at the Arts Council of New Orleans’ Exchange Gallery on May 30th.

Sean G. Clark, "Meeting Notes 20"

Ayo Scott, "A Dream of Justice"

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Kristina Kay Robinson is a writer born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her written and visual work centers the intellectual and spiritual geographies and  of Black, Afro-Indigenous, and diasporic peoples. She is the coeditor of Mixed Company, a collection of short fiction and visual narratives by women of color. Her writing in various genres has appeared in the Xavier Review, Guernica, The Baffler, The Nation and Elle.com among other outlets.

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Exchange Centre Gallery, 935 Gravier Street, New Orleans, LA 70112.
Gallery Hours: Weekdays from 8:00am to 6:00pm - Admission Free.