The Rasanblaj Symposium, May/June 2025

Dates: May 30-31
June 7 – Arts & Crafts Health Fair
For: Free and open to all.

Join West Harlem Arts for The Rasanblaj Symposium, a powerful week of art, performance, and community rooted in decolonial practice and diasporic resilience, with program details to be announced soon. What is Rasanblaj? The term is from Haitian Kreyòl for “assembly” or “re-gathering”, which calls us to remember, resist, and reimagine.

Symposium highlights include site-specific art installations, panels, discussions, ethnography, and performance. There will also be an Arts & Crafts Health Fair, highlights include blending indigenous healing, preventative care, creative community action.

Register for free tickets

 

EVENT SCHEDULE 

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FRIDAY, MAY 30

OPENING NIGHT – 3-VENUE TOUR
🕕 6:00–9:00 PM | 📍 CCCD → Hamilton Landmark Galleries → CAC

• 6:00–6:15 PM – Welcome & Grounding: Live music, check-in, light bites @ CCCD
• 6:15–6:25 PM – Land Acknowledgment & Introduction to Rasanblaj
• 6:25–6:55 PM – Keynote Performance: Gina Athena Ulysse – Diaspora in Vibration
• 6:55–7:05 PM – Reflection & Intention Card Activity
• 7:05–7:20 PM – Live Music Procession, El Enjambre Folclorico : CCCD → Hamilton Landmark Galleries
• 7:20–7:35 PM – Pop-Up Artist Stop @ Hamilton Landmark Galleries
• 7:35–7:55 PM – Live Music Procession, El Enjambre Folclorico : Hamilton → Children’s Art Carnival
• 7:55–8:00 PM – Gallery Reveal & Toast
• 8:00–8:30 PM – Community Mic: Artist Lightning Shares
• 8:30–8:35 PM – Vocal Blessing & Closing Announcements

SATURDAY, MAY 31

THE RASANBLAJ SYMPOSIUM
🕕 12:00–8:30 PM | 📍 The Children’s Art Carnival, Centro Civico Cultural Dominicano and Hamilton Landmark Galleries

12:00–12:45 PM Children’s Art Carnival

• Welcome, Keynote Conversation & Libations
  • Dr. Gina Athena Ulysse with Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles and Vanessa Valdez

1:00–3:00 PM Children’s Art Carnival

• Self-guided Exhibition Tours & Installations
  • Reflections of WEUSI (Parts 1)
  • Brewing Dreams, Sifting Realities
  • I AM PRE-COLONIAL POWER
  • Making Home
  • Decolonizing Menstruation

1:00–3:00 PM Hamilton Landmark Galleries

• Reflections of WEUSI (Part 2)

1:00–3:00 PM Centro Civico Cultural Dominicano

• Living Winds: Oya’s Altar
• Secret City

1:00–3:00 PM 

• Workshop: I AM PRE-COLONIAL POWER Textile Activation @ CAC
• Workshop: Cold Process Soap-Making @ CAC

3:30–3:40 PM Children’s Arts Carnival

• Live Performance: Germono Toussaint – The Last Gatekeeper @ CAC

3:45–4:30 PM

• Panel: The Last Gatekeeper – Talkback with Germono Toussaint

4:30–5:00 PM

• Closing Reception: Community Music & Closing Remarks 

SATURDAY, JUNE 7

CCCD 21st ANNUAL ARTS, CRAFTS & HEALTH FAIR
🕙 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM | 📍 West 145th St (Broadway to Riverside)

10:00 AM

• DJ Set, Community Tabling Begins (Columbia Medical Center, Manhattan Cancer Services, the Change makers and much much more)

10:30 AM

• Artist Meet & Greets w/ Rasanblaj Participants

11:00 AM

• Main Stage: Artist Community Presentations (Lightning shares)
  • Dillon Gardner – Oya’s Altar for Decolonization
  • Germono Toussaint – The Last Gatekeeper
  • Meissane Kouassi – Marking Home
  • Domingo Cruz – Brewing Dreams, Sifting Realities
  • Milica Paranosic – Secret City
  • Julia Justo – I AM PRE-COLONIAL POWER
  • Patrice Solomon – Menstruation & Intersectionality

11:30 AM Soap-Making Workshop w/ Madelyn Rivera

12:00 PM Remarks from Elected Officials

12:30 PM Music Performance

1:00 PM Dance Performance #1 (Main Stage)

1:30 PM Dance Performance #2 (Pop-up Style Throughout Fairgrounds)

2:00 PM Event Ends

 

EVENT MAP

Opening Reception: Friday, May 30 – Walking Procession 

• Procession will start at CCCD and then travel to HLG and finish at The CAC 

Symposium Saturday, May 31 – Venues

• Centro Civico Cultural Dominicano, 619 W 145th St, NY 10031 
• Hamilton Landmark Galleries, 467 W 144th St, NY 10031
• The Children’s Art Carnival, 62 Hamilton Terrace, NY 10031

Arts & Crafts Health Fair: Saturday, June 7 – Health Fair Site

• W 145th Street, Btw Broadway & Riverside Drive

 

ARTIST PRESENTERS

Milica Paranosic’s “Secret City” is an interactive, collaborative art installation that transforms discarded and broken objects into imaginative cityscapes.

 

Dillon Gardner’s “Living Winds” is an interactive installation honoring Oya, the Yoruba Orisha of transformation.

 

Germono Toussaint’s “The Last Gatekeeper” is an immersive performance blending live acting, 3D projections, and a West African-inspired score.

 

Méïssane Kouassi’s “Marking Home” is an interactive illustration that explores the layered histories of West Harlem through the lens of migration, memory, and belonging.

 

Domingo Cruz’s “Brewing Dreams, Sifting Realities” is an interactive installation rooted in Dominican culture that explores the immigrant experience through ritual, resilience, and collective reflection.

 

Julia Justo’s “I AM PRE-COLONIAL POWER” is two all-ages Textile Art workshops and exhibition featuring embroidered portraits of Latin American immigrant workers in New York.

 

Patrice Solomon’s “Sacred Cycles: Menstruation, Faith, and Intersectionality” is an expanded exhibition and panel discussion that explores the intersection of menstruation, religion, and period poverty within Christianity, Islam, and Judaism in the U.S.

 

Madelyn Rivera’s “The Art of Cold Process Soap Making” workshop invites participants to connect, create, and reclaim cultural wellness through the art of cold process soap making, rooted in African and Caribbean traditions.