Here are excerpts from the 2024 United States Artists Fellowship site. Here, we have selected four artists—in alphabetical order: Petra Bravo (Puerto Rico), María Magdalena Campos-Pons (Cuba/US), Sofía Gallisá Muriente (Puerto Rico), and Val Jeanty (Haiti-US)—we encourage our readers to let us know if we left out any artists related to the Caribbean / Caribbean Diaspora.Here are excerpts from the 2024 United States Artists Fellowship site. Here, we have selected four artists—we encourage our readers to let us know if we left out someone related to the Caribbean / Caribbean Diaspora.
Join us in celebrating this year’s 50 awardees hailing from 22 states and Puerto Rico. These artists and small collectives represent different regions and diverse backgrounds but share a commitment to helping us heal, connect, and thrive in community. They were selected for their artistic vision, contributions to the field, and the potential impact of the award on their practice.
COMMON TIES
This year’s Fellows expand our definitions of beauty and belonging by embracing embodied knowledge, reimagining archives, and empowering the next generation to carry this work forward. They engage us in a collective responsibility to imagine and invest in our future.
In this spirit of sustained curiosity, we encourage you to spend time getting to know them and to explore the variety of approaches and experiences that inspire their work. [. . .]
Petra Bravo
Choreographer
San Juan, PR
“In my methodologies of working with the body I look for authenticity: an exploratory dance composition that is combative, romantic, sublime, sexual, absurd, and indecipherable. For me, this achieves changes in the behavior of human thought.”
María Magdalena Campos-Pons
Multidisciplinary Artist
Nashville, TN
“I work beyond borders and linguistic boundaries, emphasizing the importance of considering historical contexts through a multitude of artistic languages, resulting in an approach that allows for a more holistic understanding of these complex narratives.”
Sofía Gallisá Muriente
Visual Artist
San Juan, PR
“I’m uninterested in the traditional hierarchical structures of filmmaking and am much more informed by experiences with collective creation and improvisation in theater, which is a practice based on mutual trust and care.”
Val Jeanty aka Val-Inc
Afro-Electronica Composer, Turntablist, and Drummer
Lowell, MA
“Vodou culture has always been my source of inspiration as it introduces abstract compositions that encapsulate new ways of thinking and creating. Each rhythm produces its own unique set of resonances, and all of these sounds have at some point influenced one another, merging into a vibrational ocean of Haitian ancestral legacy.”
For more information, see https://www.unitedstatesartists.org/2024-fellows/
Also see article by Edwin Velazquez Collazo at https://www.puertoricoartnews.com/2024/01/petra-bravo-y-sofia-gallisa-muriente.html? 8
Here are excerpts from the 2024 United States Artists Fellowship site. Here, we have selected four artists—in alphabetical order: Petra Bravo (Puerto Rico), María Magdalena Campos-Pons (Cuba/US), Sofía Gallisá Muriente (Puerto Rico), and Val Jeanty (Haiti-US)—we encourage our readers to let us know if we left out any artists related to the Caribbean / Caribbean Diaspora.Here
