TOUR JOURNAL

COMING BACK TO THE CITY - DELAYS AND REFLECTION - APRIL 13, 2026

It’s time to go. My time in Mobile and New Orleans was honestly too short. But it’s okay — I’m already planning to go back in July! Everyone says it’s gonna be too hot to be trying to do anything near the gulf. Summer’s in Seale, AL got hot too. 100% humidity and 90+ degree weather will make anyone think they are trudging through a swamp. I’m curious if my childhood has prepared me to handle the weather that folks are warning me about. We will see, cause I’m coming!

I was hoping my flight back would be as easy as the flight here. But a mechanical issue led to an over hour delay on a full flight. I was actually already on the plane when we were told we had to deboard. I don’t mind a delay though in the airport (as long as it’s under a couple hours). Airports are these liminal, transient spaces — much like shores. Their terminals are perfect spaces for reflection, meditation or release. I know I can’t be the only one who has cried in an airport: It’s like a perfect place to discretely process what you’ve done and where you’re going. As I sat at this random bar, sipping on an overpriced glass of white wine, I took my moment to reflect — practicing my favorite ritual in this place. My 5 days in Mobile were so full. When I think about the time I spent here, actually, my last moment at the Quality Inn holds all the feelings defining this amazing visit. One of the hosts working the front desk (whose name I didn’t catch) wished me a genuine safe travel back to New York. “I hope your time in Mobile was beautiful. We loved having you here. Have a safe and quick trip back to NYC. New York! And you bedda come back here and see us.” Oh yes Ma’am. I’m coming back. Everyone I met in Mobile cares about community and wants to share its stories. They see me. They want to support me. They want me to succeed.

I made it back on the plane and was on my way. After another quick flight to Charlotte, and one to LGA, I was back in NYC.

(Btw the Ub*r Shuttle is the fastest cheapest way back home from the airport. Look into it.)

NEW ORLEANS - CITY OF ART, MUSIC, AND COMMUNITY - APRIL 12, 2026

I woke up at 5:45am to catch the 6:30 Mardi Gras Line Amtrak. I’m so happy the Quality Inn was only 9 mins away. Walking down Church Ave that early in the morning toward the river felt magical. Dense fog hung out in the street, so thick I couldn’t see down half a block. It was creepy. No lie. I knew I only had to walk 4 blocks to Water st. So I wasn’t that far. I just had to trust that the road in front of me was going where it was supposed to go. I definitely couldn’t see where it led. Out of the clouds appeared statues marking buildings no longer present but a history felt today. Palm trees, parking lots, and hotels emerged until I saw the train. We passed through 5 cities to get to New Orleans. Each stop is defined by its proximity to the water. I forgot that we have to pass through the entire state of Mississippi before reaching New Orleans. I imagined how many people have traveled this route to reach the beautiful and charming jewel in the gulf.

I met Noni Clemens from Arts New Orleans - we originally met via zoom after I cold-emailed her asking for advice about bringing my work to communities in New Orleans. I am so grateful that she responded. One of the first places we discussed was the Contemporary Art Center of New Orleans, directed by Raelle Myrick-Hodges and curated by DiQuan Forcell. They had a brand new exhibit titled FESTIVAL/NEW/WORKS featuring 18 Louisiana based artists. One of my favorites were pieces by Ron Bechet, a series of charcoal drawings. It was so nice to meet Noni, talk through my work, while reflecting on the art in front of us.

I made my way down the meandering streets until I found myself in the French Quarter and the river bank. Every block had a live musician playing original and cover songs complete with full drumkits and microphones. The energy in New Orleans matched New York – loud, strong, and deep. Yet, a playfulness and mystery colored the vibe. Several art galleries, historical monuments, and squares later it was time to get back to Mobile.

AFRICATOWN - WHERE HISTORY AND LEGACY ARE REMEMBERED - APRIL 11, 2026

I have been looking forward to coming to Africatown since I heard about its history. Founded by 32 West Africans brought to the United States on the illegal slave ship Clotilda in 1860, Africatown's once thriving Black community was nearly destroyed by the development of a highway splitting the plateau in half. Many people might be familiar with this neighborhood less than 4 miles away from Downtown Mobile through Zora Neale Hurston’s book Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo". In 1927 she interviewed Oluale Kossola (also known as Cudjoe Lewis) about his forced passage from West Africa to New Orleans via this ship. He was thought to be the last known survivor of this original community. With research and time the last actual known survivor’s name was Matilda McCrear (also known as Àbáké) who died in Selma, Alabama in 1940 at the age of 83. The Africatown Heritage House holds their names and histories.

I was so grateful to walk through the Africatown Heritage House. While photography was not allowed in this exhibition due to respect for the solemnity of this history and land, the images and words that filled the walls of the galleries stayed with me. I was absolutely struck by the amount of first person accounts and stories about the illegal voyage across the Atlantic and their arrival to this unfamiliar world. Many of the quotes enshrined on the walls describe the difficulty and violence of enslavement, the yearning to return home, and the realities of establishing a new community and families in a harsh land.

The inherited oral histories about the Clotilda ship were dismissed as gossip and myths rather than actual historical accounts. This all changed through the efforts of historians, preservationists and the community itself – they know their history even if the books don’t reflect their truth. In 2019, pieces of the actual Clotilda were found in the Mobile River near 12 Mile Island. These exhibited artifacts confirm and affirm a local history that most tried to ignore.

As I was leaving I asked one of the docents about any stories or histories they could share about the water in the region. Pritchard, a community on the outskirts of Mobile doesn’t have consistent, drinkable water. She continued, Big Creek Lake, a common fishing ground for community members, isn’t accessible to folks anymore. The city has co-opted it for water and sanitation management. People can’t fish anymore. Our access to water is our access to life and the community we inhabit. Our habits, hobbies, traditions and even rituals rely on its consistent availability. As I rode back to my hotel, her words sat with me.

I have never shucked an oyster before. And after a quick nap, I soon wouldn’t be able to say that again. I met Elizabet and her husband Duane back in Mobile and we drove an hour to Gulf Shores to hang out with their best friends. I asked what brought everyone together that day. “Nothing special, although it is the first day we’ve done fresh oysters this season.” Shucking oysters ain’t easy, let me just say. I was told you have “to do it from the back.” So I grabbed a flat knife and dug in the back of the shell. “You’re looking for a small gap to slide your knife into.” Can I find the hole? I looked again. Finally my knife feels caught between the lips. One slide and a flick later, I see the meat. It took me three times to get the hang of it. By oyster seven I felt accomplished — I can shuck an oyster. But I was tired. Seven times was enough for me.

After a beautiful sunset drive over the waters that fill the bay, we made it back to Mobile. And I swiftly found myself back in my bed.

MEETING ONE OF MOBILE’S LOCAL HISTORIANS - APRIL 10, 2026

I had the great pleasure of meeting the Mobile native Sheila Flanagan, a local historian who worked for the Mobile Historical Museum and is now the lead docent at the Historical Avenue Cultural Center. At 71 years young, she beautifully weaved her own memories and personal narratives with the over 100 years of history about this important Black neighborhood. The Historical Avenue Cultural Center started out as the segregated (separate and unequal) library for Black residents in this community’s heyday. After decades of systemic extraction and underfunding, the once booming economic and social center of Black life in this part of Mobile disappeared. Many preservationists, historians and artists are working everyday to memorialize and revitalize this community.

One of the places on the spaces in this area that will be restored is the Ace theater. From the Alabama Contemporary Art Center website “Located on “the Avenue,” the Ace Theatre is one of the last surviving movie theaters that served all-Black audiences in Mobile. It was built in 1943 by James Huestis King, who operated King, Inc. and Southern Theaters, Inc. which also operated Pike and Crown Theaters.” This theater reminds me of the Liberty Theater in the Historic Downtown district in Columbus, Ga. Down the street from Ma Rainy’s preserved home, this theater over the last few years has been the focus of preservationists in Columbus. I remember as a kid having band camp with Mr. Handy on this historic stage. Not much was remodeled at that time, but it was safe and secure enough for us to perform for our parents who sat patiently in the audience. It is so important to revitalize these pieces of our local histories. They hold the legacies of all those who worked hard to transform land into community spaces.

After the best braised pork sandwich I’ve had in a while, I took a nap in preparation for what would be a long night – Art Walk Mobile. This art festival happens on every second Friday of the month and features local artists/artisans, businesses, and restaurants. Booths line up and down Dauphin St. and shops stay open late. Art Walk Mobile can attract crowds of 10,000 people on peak days.

I was able to check out Alabama’s Contemporary Art’s satellite space exhibition, Homestead Extinction by Tony Rodrigues. As I walked in the galleries (fake) cash money littered the floor, as if currency no longer matters in this world. Each room is filled with apocalyptic tents. From the ACAC website, “Rodrigues tackles the growing housing crisis... A series of new tent sculptures create an ad-hoc neighborhood, dowsed in the same pastiche, a superficial crust of wealth and decay… Through this fictional “neighborhood”, Rodrigues explores not only what we desire from our lived spaces, but the dilapidation, entropy and rot that riddle a broken system.”

Nikki (ACAC curator), her boyfriend, Alex (a local Black alt drag queen) and I walked the streets of Dauphin and passed a few booths on our way back to my hotel, very close by. As we walked past the door leading to the front desk, Trece greeted us, “Okay New York, how you have a crew already. You just got here. You got more friends than me. What are yall doing tonight?” We all laughed and said we are going dancing. In response she started dancing and of course I can’t let anyone dance alone, so I started dancing. She wished us a safe night out and we were on our way.

I’ve never been to a gay club in Alabama before. But one step into Flip-Side changed that. Why does every gay bar smell the same: it’s like a mixture of liquor and beer, cigarettes, and groomed clean bodies. I quickly relaxed. Gay bars have always been strong community spaces for me. If your city has a gay bar, I’m gonna go. One can understand so much by dropping by the local watering hole. Of course, I met so many people in the bar who were excited about the project that brought me down. I even met Jerry who owns multiple gay bars in town. I was reminded through several conversations about Zora Neale Hurston’s book Baracoon. I learned about organizations in town that preserve the shore's history but also monitor changes in environmental conditions like the Mobile Bay Keepers. Allie, a local real estate agent and her partner really had so many great suggestions on places to go, and who to talk to. Another great night in a gay bar.

MOBILE BOUND - April 9, 2026

I’m so excited about my first site visit on the Southern Shores Hair Painting Tour.  I can’t wait to begin my journey across the south meeting amazing folks, artists, and organizations. Flying to NYC to Mobile is so easy. After a familiar boarding at LGA and a short layover in Charlotte plus a 90 mins flight, I made it to Mobile. I am trying to remember the last time I was here. I think it had to be high school with the football team. Of course, I wasn’t on the team. I played flute in the pep band (first chair I might add). 

Once landed, I hopped in a Lyft and rode directly to the Mobile Museum of Art for the opening of “Handle with Care” curated by Micah Mermilliod of Alabama Contemporary Art Center, featuring the artists Calder Kamin and Jacob Reptile. ACAC is the arts org supporting and facilitating my coming to Mobile. While we’ve had multiple calls over zoom, showing up at the museum was the first time I met the whole team  - Nikki, Elizabet, Micah, and Allison.

The show was great. It’s rare in a museum space that visitors are encouraged to touch the work. As I walked into this exhibition, children laughing and playing struck me first. They were running around and touching all the sculptures made from recycled trash (plastic bags and bottles) and upcycled materials. Familiar animals, landscapes, plants and foods from the region hung from the walls and sat larger-than-life sized on the floor. As stated on the ACAC website, “Everything has been touched by human hands, and can be touched. Everything can find purpose with a little imagination, and the work of making a sustainable planet can also happen through play.”

Elizabet, the executive director and lead curator, dropped me off at my new home for the next 5 days, the Quality Inn in Downtown’s Historic District. As I walked in, two hosts greeted me from the desk, “Welcome to Quality Inn, checkin’ in?” As I approached the desk, “Yes I am.” Maybe noticing my accent, one woman (Trice) said, “Oh where are you from?” NYC. I smiled. “New York City! What brings you all the way to Mobile?” I’m an artist and I am doing a project asking locals about the history, myths, and oral stories about the rivers and waters that define and surround Mobile. That was enough context for them – they both immediately offered stories about a grandfather who started a popular hang out spot next to a river outside of town, or a story about the completely destroyed and replaced community of Down The Bay on the river front in Mobile. I asked if I could come back and record them sharing these stories and they excitedly agreed. 

It seems like this trip is starting out right. I’m grateful to have already met two folks who are excited about my work and want to participate. I can’t wait for the next few days to unfold.