I’m Louis DeVaughn Nelson (aka DeVo): a Black, queer interdisciplinary artist committed to creating space for us. My work celebrates the stories, labor, and legacy of marginalized communities through movement, theatre, and visual ritual.
I’ve been selected out of 1300+ applicants for the 150th anniversary residency at L’AiR Arts in Paris this November. Atelier 11 has hosted generations of revolutionary thinkers. Now I get to join that lineage and bring our narratives into those historic walls.
This is an incredible opportunity to develop new creative work in conversation with global artists, and in the very city where visionaries like Josephine Baker, James Baldwin, Nina Simone, and Langston Hughes found artistic freedom and forged revolutionary paths..
While there, I’ll be developing The Foyer de la Danse, a dance theatre and installation project reflecting on the Paris Opera Ballet’s often-hidden history of gendered labor and commodification. I’ll also be expanding GATHERING[S], my curatorial initiative centering emerging Black artists from NYC (including Dorchel Haqq & Marceline Mandeng Nken), with the goal of building toward an international touring platform. This work is about claiming space. Not just in New York. Everywhere our people move, create, and refuse erasure.
The residency is partially subsidized, but I must cover travel, some meals, labor costs, and materials. With the current political climate squeezing arts support, I’m turning to community. I’m raising $3,375 USD (about €3,100) to ensure I can fully participate, collaborate with Paris-based artists, and bring new work home to share with you.
xoxo DeVo
Built by artists for artists in 1875, Atelier 11 is the last preserved atelier of the historical artists community of Cité Falguière in Paris. During its 150+ years of artistic history, the Cité Falguière served as a working and living place to more than a hundred French and international artists. Once home to Amedeo Modigliani, Tsuguharu Foujita, Constantin Brancusi, Chaïm Soutine, and Paul Gauguin, it was built with connecting staircases and footbridges to foster connections among artists.
Where your support goes
*Airfare & travel insurance: $625
*Meals & small living expenses: $350
*Studio rental & materials: $300
*Local artist fees (collaboration + community engagement): $500
*Documentation (photo/video editing): $150
*Residency Fees (time & labor to build the work): $1,450
Organizer
