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Maya Raquel

@mayapen

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Magical Realist • Co-op Doula @coopneworleans | @studiolalalanola

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We had a powerful conversation last Wednesday at the Abolition In Action panel discussion by our friends at Spring Up. Communities everywhere are experience the harmful impacts of government over reach and corporate extraction.

I was on panel with our friends from Freedom to Grow, Nziki Wilts from the Rise Collective and Vote, Lila Arnaud from Cooperation New Orleans who is also a part of the Spring Up’s Liberatory Mediation Training Cohort, as well as members of Spring up Stas Smiedt and Leander Roth.

It was so good to hear how abolition look in action from the perspective of folks who are boots on the ground. Truly grateful for the conversation.

#takinitback #abolitioninaction #CooperationisLiberation #tavmemhey #collectiveliberation

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This spring, Cooperation Gumbo - @cooperationgumbonola - visited the grounds of the Woodland Plantation Museum and Cultural Center in LaPlace, LA. This historic plantation was the site of the 1811 Slave Rebellion, as well as the Birthplace of Jazz Trombonist Kid Ory. The plantation is now under Black stewardship for the first time in its history by The Descendants Project. @thedescendantsproject

Museum Director, Sultana Harris, invited members of the Cooperation Gumbo team to take what she calls a psychogeographic walk of the land to feel our way - mentally, physically, psychically, and spiritually - through this site of violence and oppression of people and land that is now being reoriented to embody its history of resistance.

Gumbo’s Nick Holmes - @uptowngatekeeper - reflected: “Lining up like the radical revolutionaries [of the 1811 rebellion] I instantly felt encouraged [like we were] people mustering up the internal strength to rebel and lead the revolution. This helped me from feeling overwhelmed by the pressure of the space to a more triumphing feeling.”

And Gumbo’s Maya Pen - @mayapen - echoed: “[The walk invites us to be at] the intersection of Imagination and History. I was reflecting on the genocide of people and land, and how the body and the land remember the things that happen, even when they try to erase the history of what happened.”

After the walk, we debriefed with the Woodland staff over lunch about our experiences and then interviewed Sultana and the Senior Coordinator for Programming and Exhibitions more about the language that they are using to “recode the plantation logic” from one of extraction, monocropping, and surveillance to one of care. Gumbo will be sharing video excerpts of our walk and interviews later this summer.

Photo stills from video by @mayapen and @cooperationgumbonola

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He was not born on the bayou. #bayou #neworleans #bywater #dogwalk #cardiganwelshcorgi

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Gente / Peoole: OPEN STUDIO: SAT, MAY 9, 2026 from 6-10pm @ 1329 SAINT ROCH AVE. In the visual arts, the works created speak for themselves. No artist in New Orleans has dedicated such many years, like 14 and counting to be exact, to documenting and honoring our Latin American immigrant community that has been vital to the REBIRTH of New Orleans post-Katrina. These are some of the works that have won a recent ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION Award. The traveling exhibitions of some 20 artworks is being planned to university museums and galleries in the South. A book is also in the makings. See these works at my art studio this SATURDAt and be moved. Many of the large pairings were begun at a Joan Mitchell Center four-month studio residency that I was awarded. At 8pm, I’m offering an “ARTIST”S TALK” on this series. Drop by fur some wine and an intimate look at these figurative expressionistic works. Ashé y Adelante!

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Gente / People: OPEN STUDIO: SAT, MAY 9, 2026 from 6-10pm @ 1329 SAINT ROCH AVE in Downtown New Orleans. See the series that WON an ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION Award. These works were developed as part of 4-month residency at the regal studios of the JOAN MITCHELL CENTER on Bayou Road in New Orleans. A touring art exhibitions is in the makings for this series of 20 artworks to travel to university museums and galleries in the South. At 8pm, I’m offering an “ARTIST’S TALK” on the dozen years of total time development of this series addressing the anti-immigrant hysteria gripping GrinGoLandia. Ashé y Adelante!

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Gente / People: OPEN STUDIO, SAT, MAY 9, 2026 from 6-10pm. I’m hosting an Open Studio to view this painting and others that were part of the series that Won an ANDY WRHOL FOUNDATION Award. You can view these works and others at 1329 Saint Roch Ave. This is a post-Katrina painting titled “DREAMT I WAS FORCED TO EVACUATE.” Ashé y Adelante!

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Gente / people: OPEN STUDIO DATE CHANGE to SUNDAY, APRIL 19 from 4-8PM. If you are at the French Quarter Fesival, I’m a 15min walk from the Quarter. Drop by from 4-8pm. My STUDIO is at 1329 SAINT ROCH AVE. See these new portraits that WON a New Orleans Jazz & Herirage Foundation Award for its further development. I e for portrait done of Jelly Roll Morton, Mahalia Jackson, Buddy Bolden, and Louis Armstrong. Working on other portraits of Danny and Lulu Barker. Ashé & Adelantea!

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Gente People: OPEN STUDIO DATE CHANGE to SUNDAY, APRIL 19, from 4-8pm. I double booked myself, and am actually headed to Lafayette this morning for an event at the Acadiana Arts Center in Lafayette. If you’re ar the French Quarter Festival tomorrow, my art studio is a 15-min walk from the Quarter at 1329 SAINT ROCH AVE. You can see the new series of portraits that WON a New Orleans JAZZ & HERITAGE FOUNDATION Award for its development. See you all mañana. Ashé y Adelante!

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Gente / People: My “COLOR OF MUSIC” Series has WON a New Orleans JAZZ & HERITAGE FOUNDATION Grant Award for its further development. I’ve created portraits in pastels of “Jelly Roll Morton, Mahalia Jackson, and Louis Armstrong” to highlight local musical giants that forged these iconic genres such as Jazz, Blues, and Gospel during the Jim Crow Era. I’m hosting an OPEN STUDIO this SAT, APRIL 18 from 6-10pm. You can view these portraits in the sacred studio space where they were created at 1329 SAINT ROCH AVE. Drop by for wine and engaging art. torrestama.com. Ashé y Adelante!

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Gente / People: TONIGHT, OPEN STUDIO from 6-10pm at 1329 SAINT ROCH AVE in Downtown New Orleans. Drop by to view the series of works that WON an ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION Award. At 8pm, I’m offering an “ARTIST’S TALK” on the development of this series over a dozen years. Some of these paintings were recently featured at the Ashé Cultural Arts Center for ther 30th Annual MLK, Jr. 2026 Social Justice Group Show. The large acrylics on canvas diptychs were begun at the JOAN MITCHELL CENTER during a 4-month residency I was awarded to work at their regal studios in New Orleans. Drop by for wine and engaging art. Ashé y Adelante!

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Gente / People: OPEN STUDIO on SAT, APRIL 11, 2026 @ 1329 SAINT ROCH AVE in Downtown New Orleans from 6-10pm. See artworks that won an ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION Award, and address the “anti-immigrant hysteria”
gripping GrinGoLandia. At 8pm, I’m offering an “ARTIST’S TALK” on the development of this series over a dozen years. Drop by for wine and art. Ashé y Adelante!

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Gente / People: OPEN STUDIO this SAT, APRIL 11, 2026 see the artworks that WON an ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION Award, and series that addresses the raging “anti-immigrant hysteria” gripping GrinGoLandia. Recent works from this series were featured at the Ashé Cultural Arts Center 2026 MLK, Jr. Social Justice Exhibition, CANOA Community Center, and the ANTENNA Gallery’s Louisiana Group Show 2025. See the large diptych paintings in acrylics at my Downtown STUDIO at 1329 SAINT ROCH AVE from 6-10pm. At 8pm, I’m offering an “ARTIST’S TALK” on the dozen years of developing these mixed media works-on-paper and paintings in oils and acrylics. Ashé y Adelante!

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