Under a Plantain Tree: Notes on Liberation Opening Reception

Join us for our Visual Voices Exhibit

Beneath the broad, sheltering leaves of the plantain tree—a diasporic archive rooted across the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Black Atlantic—liberation is neither singular nor complete. It is iterative, fugitive, and unfinished. Juneteenth marks not a moment of arrival, but a delayed recognition: freedom announced after its supposed decree, conditions that remain beyond emancipation.

In this space, the works of Ronald “EFE” Ramirez, Jeffrey Merris, Zion Estrada, Laurena Finéus, and Luis Gutierrez gather as notes—partial, resonant, and ongoing. Under the plantain tree, we to sit with the incompleteness of emancipation—to understand freedom as something lived in the shadow of its delay, and still, insisted upon.

MEDIUMS:

Ronald “EFE” Ramirez: Sculpture

Jeffrey Merris: Sculpture

Zion Estrada: SCREEN

Luis Gutierrez: Wall painting

Laurena Finéus: Wall painting