Leader
Uhuru Moore
Location
New Orleans New Orleans, LA 70117
About the project
The Uhuru Dream House is a communal project to create an art house for disabled/QTBIPOC. It serve as a safe space to create, an artist residency program & transitional living space: owned, operated and maintained by Black trans people, for Black trans people. The Uhuru Dream House is a social justice project. Systematic racism, through housing discrimination, has forced marginalized communities to navigate predominantly inaccessible cis, white dominant and heteronorm spaces. It’s important to foster a sacred space for Black trans people. Owning the home as disabled QTBIPOC gives us autonomy to practice our subcultures and lifestyles that vary from the dominant culture. It also ensures our financial, emotional/mental, spiritual & physical safety. I am creating a residency for my people to be free.
The money raised through this fundraiser is to create an artist residency program where Black trans & intersex artists can visit The Uhuru Dream House in New Orleans, LA. for one-month, to work on a project. We will acquire all creative tools and resources necessary for artists-in-residence to create art, music and film. The residency will feature; art/music/film/tattoo studios, a digital editing room and a stage, a Black QTI library, and community garden. I will have everything an artist could dream of having in the space so there is no creative limitation!
The living space will be a short school bus, located on the property, which will be remodeled into a tiny home. The bus will offer a private space to give each artist autonomy, free of misgendering and street harassment, during their visit. Each artist will have access to a wheelchair accessible vehicle or car. They will be offered a stipend for food and recreational activities during their stay and payment for their participation at the residency.
The Steps
2021-2024: Development - Physical construction to create a wheelchair accessible home, build out studios, remodel school bus (tiny home), gather resources and tools for the artist residency. Develop infrastructure to the residency and its initial application process.
2023-2024: Organizing - Administration tasks, PR campaign development, solidify core team of volunteers and curatorial collaborators
2023-2024: Outreach - Submitting press release, media interviews, events, info sessions
2023: Applications - Assess incoming applications, correspondence with prospective applicants, interview pool of first year applicants, select final cohort, public announcement
2023: Accounting & Bookkeeping - Estimate travel budgets and stipends for artists, ensure desired equipment/materials are available for use,
December 2023: Inaugural Artists in Residence preparation - schedule and plan any public exhibitions/presentations/performances during each artist in residences stay, adjust the space as needed to accommodate access needs.
March 2024: Launch inaugural cohort of the Uhuru Dream House artist in residence program
Why we‘re doing it
The Uhuru Dream House imagines a world that is not transphobic. A safe space does not normally exist for Black trans & intersex people. Even an entirely Black space, that is cis, is not a safe space. It imagines a world that is not whorephobic and knows sex work is work. A non-ableist world, where people with disabilities have access to participate in society. An all inclusive, safe space. A world where an unsheltered trans being can own property and maintain a safe creative space forever. For it to exist, in content and form, would change the world for the better.
Limitless brilliant, original works from trans/intersex artists will come out of this space. Black trans people will be supported to achieve their highest capabilities, in an environment that supports their artistic development, process and execution. The Uhuru Dream house seeks to raise awareness of the wealth gap between cis/trans, white/Black, abled/disabled and encourage abolition of systematic discriminatory housing policies. We’ve been forced into a power dynamic - performing in nightclubs, galleries, residencies, publications that were not our own. We are coming to slay, for trans people. It’s trans people’s time to shine and live our dreams.