Biruk Tewodros

I speak with Big Freedia thee Queen Diva while sitting on a riverbank somewhere in the Hudson Valley. My phone service is spotty until she hops on the line—word to divine timing. Her voice, strong and measured, comes through the line from New Orleans, the city she has always called home. Our conversation anticipates her new EP, Released at Last, a three-song project that she recorded ten years ago with the late SOPHIE, who passed away in 2021.

Imagine yourself, a rainbow… Honey Dijon opens her momentous DJ-Kicks mix with this invitation, a mantra challenging the listener to release the present, what is, and to imagine. DJ-Kicks: Honey Dijon is an ode to the thumping dancefloors of the past, present, and future. Dancefloors have the power to unlock our most intimate, erotic, and embodied selves.

On a Sunday morning in early September, a full moon lunar eclipse was still barely visible in the late morning sky. It was on this Sunday that Slow Factory co-founders Celine Semaan and Collis Browne were joined by Ward Gallery co-curators Gabrielle Richardson and Saam Niami in presenting Heirlooms: The Forest as Gallery.