Writing and painting arts workshop with local artist/mentor D. Colin and community
“A Sturgeon with a Purpose” is a community written generative storytelling mural project with a block-wide series of painted panels along the “Sanctuary Eco-Art Trail.” Local artist D. Colin will lead neighborhood youth and community members in writing/painting workshops, brightening the block with art, depicting struggles alongside toxic shores and hopes sharing hopes for justice and a sustainable future. The story panels along with multimedia listening stations will feature stories of the Mahicantuck (Hudson River,) Indigenous perspective and engage audiences in deep listening along the urban walk.
D Colin
Performer. Author. Host. Writing Coach. Moderator.
D Colin is a multidisciplinary artist of Haitian descent.
Her work has appeared in Trolley, Ink & Nebula, Jaded Ibis Press and Porter Gulch Review. She is the author of Dreaming in Kreyol and Said the Swing to the Hoop. She has been featured on PBS, Write About Now, NPR and has performed throughout the United States and internationally.
Beyond poetry, D. Colin has navigated the stage as an actor performing in productions with Black Theater Troupe of Upstate NY and Creative Action Unlimited. Her one woman show Simone appeared at Capital Rep Theater and she has spent years performing reenactments most often as Sojourner Truth. As an emerging artist, she has shown art at the Underground Railroad Education Center, Albany Center Gallery and the Arts Center of the Capital Region.
Although she grew up in Connecticut, she has called New York’s capital region home since 2007. With an educational background in English and Africana Studies, her work, no matter the medium, discusses the human condition, aims to create visibility and uses history and activism as its foundation. She is the 2022 Excellence in Arts & Letters Award recipient for UAlbany’s Alumni Association.
She is also a Cave Canem, VONA and New York State Writers Institute fellow. She currently sits on the board for The Sanctuary for Independent Media, Black Dimensions in Art and is a founding member of the Social Justice Artist Collective. She believes in Nina Simone’s words that “an artist’s duty is to reflect the times” and often says, “if the art didn’t move you, then I didn’t do my job.”
