Samantha Galarza is tending to “Late Shift” by Tim Seibles.
I was drawn to this project because I’m always looking for little ways to escape the concrete jungle and connect with the earth. Anytime I’m planting or dealing with soil, it grounds me and helps me remember that always “being on the go” is not what is most important. The cherry on top was that the plant options will be mostly ones from Puerto Rico. As a Puerto Rican artist, it makes me sentimental and proud to engage with a creative project that is connected to my home.
I love the idea of treating the earth like a lover who we nearly lost ..
She is wild and gorgeous and deserving of love that isn’t possessive.
She should be nourished and cherished
And yet blood has been shed in her name
families have been separated
people have been imprisoned
over a goddess that can never be anyone’s property.
I think we are close to losing her
but like the optimism of being able to bring her back.
Samantha Galarza is a queer, mixed-race, Puerto Rican, SAG-AFTRA actress/writer/singer/performance artist/educator/director/professional ranter. As an art-ivist, her work explores queer identity politics, the policing of bodies, systemic and internalized racism, love, substance abuse, migration, xenophobia, and the U.S. prison industrial complex. Ultimately a storyteller, her dream is to bridge the gap between mainstream media and “de-colonial” art. Her original work has been published in award-winning anthologies and performed internationally and throughout the U.S. Samantha is alum of Rutgers University, the Hemispheric Institute’s EmergeNYC program, and fellow of La Pocha Nostra and EmergeLab residency at BAX. She is co-founder of the performance collective A Beautiful Desperation and a member of Alternate Roots.
Ghost Fishing: Eco-Justice Poetry and the Diasporic City 