By Laura Neal | Dec. 17 – Jan. 29, 2022 | South Dallas Cultural Center Lobby
“When I walk into the world, I consider how language conditions our experience. I wonder what histories and community cultures have been leveled by time and high-rises.”
Poet Laura Neal
The South Dallas Cultural Center is pleased to present, The South Dallas Cento, an installation featuring poet Laura Neal, a Juanita J. Craft Artist-in-Residence.
The South Dallas Cento is a collaborative project between poet Laura Neal and the community of South Dallas. A cento is a poetic form comprised of quotations quilted from various sources and individuals. This installation documents the language of South Dallas residents and the voice of the late civil rights leader Juanita J. Craft to build an archive of the present and a collective narrative toward the future. Engaged in “documentary poetics,” Neal calls attention to changes that go numb to us, the everyday erasures that blur a new history.
Laura and SDCC invites you in joining her to build a collective narrative and discover how your voice constructs an archive.
Can’t make it in-person? No problem! Fill out the digital form to have your answers be part of the installation.
This gallery is free and open to the public. Come be part of The South Dallas Cento narrative!
