SPOCKA SUMMA INTERVIEW WITH DS KINSEL

Our October - November Storefront Window artist is Spocka Summa!!

Spocka Summa is a Nigerian / African American artist born, raised and currently resides in

Providence RI. Spocka a musician, multi- media artist and curator. He is also the creator

of Anti- Robot Club & co - owner of Public Shop & gallery. Using his skill set as a way

for self expression and as a platform for other creatives.

@ispocka

Spockasumma.com

Below is a conversation between Storefront Window Artist Spocka Summa and

multidisciplinary Artist and cultural agitator DS Kinsel

DS Kinsel: Do you see being “anti-robot” as the same as being “anti-technology”?

Spocka Summa: Being Anti- Robot is a reflection of many things and primarily an analogy

of how we navigate through life as humans. The ability to create and decide on what your

own personal program will be is essential. 

DS Kinsel: How does a pro-human movement reconcile with technological advancements,

especially when so much of contemporary life exists in digital space?

Spocka Summa: Being pro- human made is all about supporting creatives that are making

things and occupying physical space with their works. I am all for a variety of mediums

including digital formats. But will question artists using AI to generate a piece. 

DS Kinsel: What role does the Spocka character play across the ARC Universe, and how

has the character evolved between The Live Wire: Valley of Wires 2 and the

Dirt Palace window display?

Spocka Summa:Spocka is a pivotal role as he is the antagonist traveling between this imaginary realm

where Anti- Robot Club exists and the physical realm where we are currently. My window

display shows a small glimpse of Spocka (me) on the journey through this realm where ARC

exists, as well as the pieces taking up physical space where we exist.

DS Kinsel: The ARC scenes on display present three distinct moments within the ARC universe.

Do these comic panels exist within the same timeline and storyline? Could you share the

narrative behind the window display prints and the recurring tentacle imagery?

Spocka Summa: The scenes are drawn from one continuous story. Similar to how our story starts

when we are born and ends when we die. Things are  just happening all the time.

These images are snapshots. 

DS Kinsel: Can you describe your art-making process? What technologies or tools are

essential in producing the final works?

Spocka Summa: I have no exact process when coming up with these snapshots. I think of the

scene like movies and write out a script and from there I make thumbnails and either paint,

Rap, or make a digital version of what the script is trying to convey. I also collaborate

with other artists depending on the goal of each piece. 

DS Kinsel: Who have been your key mentors, and in what ways have they influenced the

shaping of the ARC Universe? 

Spocka Summa: No one individual has influenced me. These ideas come to me from life, friends,

interactions, dreams and the need to offload thoughts and feelings. I will say I am deeply

inspired by anime and anything sci- fi, poetry and riddles. 

DS Kinsel: What illustrated worlds in comics and cartoons most inspired and informed the

development of the ARC Universe? 

Spocka Summa: None that I can think of.

DS Kinsel: How are you having fun outside and away from your role as an artists and founder? 

Spocka Summa: Spending time with my family. 

DS Kinsel: What has been the most difficult part of balancing your role as both a founder

and an individual practitioner/artist? 

Spocka Summa: Balancing my time between curating and creating. Finding time to

make the thing and then finding time to make people aware that the thing that I

created exists.

DS Kinsel is an award-winning creative entrepreneur, artist, and cultural agitator. His multidisciplinary practice spans painting, collage, performance, street art, and curatorial work, exploring themes of space-keeping, hip-hop culture, informalism, and cultural re-appropriation.

His work has been featured at institutions such as the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, August Wilson African American Cultural Center, The Dirt Palace, AS220, and RedDot Miami.A former AmeriCorps Public Ally, Kinsel has received numerous accolades, including Pittsburgh Courier’s Fab 40, Pittsburgh Magazine’s PUMP 40 Under 40, Pittsburgh Tech Council’s Creative of the Year, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s “Top Ten People to Meet,” and The Incline’s “Who’s Next.” He serves on the board of the Artist Communities Alliance and has held various board roles at the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse, PearlArts, Shadylane School and more.

Kinsel is also the co-founder and Development Director of BOOM Concepts, a Pittsburgh-based creative hub that has curated over 50 exhibitions, paid more than $500,000 in artist fees, and produced 200+ national events. In 2021, BOOM Concepts was recognized as a Pittsburgh Cultural Treasure by The Heinz Endowments and The Ford Foundation and is a regional representative on the Google Arts & Culture platform.

Conversation between Storefront Window Gallery artist Naffisatou Koulibaly and interdisciplinary artist & Cultural Worker Shey 'Rí Acu' Rivera Ríos

Our September - October Storefront Window artist is Naffisatou Koulibaly!!

Naffisatou Koulibaly (she/her) is a poet and multimedia artist from Providence, RI. Naffisatou began writing professionally a decade ago at AS220 Youth where she was introduced to Slam poetry. Naffisatou competed on the Providence Poetry Slam’s youth Slam team in 2018 at international poetry festival, Brave New Voices. She currently serves as co-director for ProvSlam; writing grants, managing programming, and teaching poetry workshops. Naffisatou received a BA in English Literature from Salve Regina University in 2021. Naffisatou is also a resident at the Dirt Palace in Olneyville. From September 2023-June 2024, she was a part of the Emerging Artist Fellowship (now the Creative Leadership Program) at AS220 with a focus in teaching and education.

Below is a conversation between Storefront Window Artist Naffisatou Koulibaly and Interdisciplinary Artist and Cultural Worker Shey 'Rí Acu' Rivera Ríos

Shey: What was the first image that emerged for you when creating this piece and what was your process to deepen it into a completed work?

Naffi: This work is born from my original poem “Dog Days,” which is ultimately about birthdays and aging. There’s a line that reads “It’s not your birthday if you don’t cry / If you don’t wish to be someone else when the candles go out.” This image of a girl (me), sitting in front of a lit birthday cake, crying, sobbing, with her make-up running, has been living in my brain since I wrote those lines. Revisiting “Dog Days” got me thinking about birthdays again and how they evolve over time. When you’re a kid, everybody’s so excited and happy to celebrate, even yourself. Then, somehow, the celebration doesn’t feel like a celebration anymore, and you look around and realize how everything has changed since you were a kid. There’s no more cake, or singing, or balloons. Sometimes, it’s just you and a bottle of tequila, wondering how you even got this old in this first place. (I know I’m not “old”, but indulge me for a moment). I wanted to convey this transformation of birthdays. I wanted to convey how we make birthdays our own as we age.

S: How does the clownesque persona come to you?

N: It’s funny because I hate clowns. If I saw one coming at me down the street, I’d lose it! I think the first time I imagined myself as this clown persona was after I saw a sad clown. What a juxtaposition: a sad (birthday) clown.

S: Performance and writing come together seamlessly in your work. Does your process begin with writing? How does connecting these forms help you shape what you wish to convey?

N: This specific work began with the writing. I wrote “Dog Days” when I was 22 (maaaaybe 21?). I’m 26 now, so, it’s grown over the last few years with me. I did not have a visual concept for the poem until earlier this year (2025). Sometimes the process begins with an image in my head that gets translated into words, but for the most part it always begins with writing. Blending performance and writing allows me to make more meaning out of my art. It makes me really consider what I’m saying in my writing. 

S: What do you find compelling in performance as a medium to express yourself?

N: I find performance compelling because I can be me without being me. It’s me, but not really. Going back to that line “If you don’t wish to be someone else when the candles go out,” there's always been and I think always will be a part of me that wants to be someone else. Not forever, but just for the experience. I’ve always been me, sometimes that gets really tiring. Sometimes I want a break from my own small scope of reality and existence. This performance specifically is about me, but in this extended almost subverted way. I find that freeing. It reminds me I can always be different, I can always grow, I can always change.

S: The installation conveys the aesthetic and feeling of a memory, flashback, home recorded birthday videos played in VHS tapes on old televisions. Perhaps a longing of self, domestic space, and family. Although family is not present in the work, its absence becomes a presence. What role does family play in this work? Are we as viewers the family of this persona?

N: As a child, your life is not your own. In a way it belongs to your caregivers. Your entire existence and any kind of experience in the world is typically filtered through what your parents provide (i.e. birthday parties). And then one day, they hand your life over to you and say “Here! Go live!” And my response was “What??? You just did all my living for me. You told me how to engage with the world and now I’m supposed to be in charge?” It’s jarring once the reins of your own life are passed over to yourself. Now, you’re in charge of your own birthday. Your mom isn’t planning your parties anymore. She’s not making a cake for you. There’s no singing. Maybe you get a phone call. So, in addition to creating my own meaning out of birthdays, I’ve had to create my own meaning of family. Right now, this persona has no family. Yes, maybe the audience is their family. I hadn’t considered that.

S: You chose video performance for this work, which is perfect for a very visible storefront installation. In your broader creative work, what does video performance offer you that is different from live performance?

N: It’s very similar to live performance in which video allows me to breathe different angles of meaning into my work. It creates multiple layers of images stacked on top of one another that enhance and push the work to new places. It creates more opening points for audience members to connect with. Different from live performance, it gives me the chance for more precision and access to other aspects of meaning that live performance can’t. The VHS style that evoked a sense of longing for family would otherwise be inaccessible without the video medium. That longing for family is a big part of this piece that isn’t explicitly stated but shown through the video.

This particular body of work shows a glimpse of an emotionally charged and angst filled experience of girlhood. What do you desire from the audiences that witness your work? What do you wish they take with them from this piece, and what can they offer you with their witnessing?

N: This is honestly a question I’m still figuring out for myself. An aspect of this clown persona is the idea that I hate being a form of entertainment for others. Especially as a woman. There’s something inherently off about parading yourself and your deepest secrets for strangers. In typical angsty, girly fashion, sometimes I hate sharing my work with audiences because it’s mine. It’s like letting a stranger read your diary. Now that you’ve heard my poetry, I have to k*ll you…kidding…maybe. But seriously, it doesn’t get easier to share this kind of stuff, you just grow around the uncomfortability. A lot of the time, I don’t wish for audiences to see me. Being a girl can feel like you're begging for a witness a lot of the time. I am my own witness and if you’re there to see it, well then, I hope you can keep a secret.

*****************************

Shey 'Rí Acu' Rivera Ríos (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural worker who uses storytelling across mediums to create immersive worlds of magic and liberation. Born and raised in Borikén (Puerto Rico), Rivera has created home and set deep roots in Providence, RI, land of Narragansett and Wampanoag peoples. Rivera is founder of Studio Loba, a storytelling lab for art and culture projects that support social change. They have 15 years of experience in the arts and culture sector, interweaving artistic practice with community development, cultural equity, and gender justice. Their work is rooted in partnerships with place-based, cultural and advocacy organizations like SISTAFire and Puerto Rican Institute for Arts and Advocacy. In 2024, Rivera was selected for Providence Commemoration Lab (2024), a one year residency of social practice art to engage residents of Providence in reimagining commemoration. Notable projects include: 'Everything Living Fights Back' art and cultural practice exhibit at Aunty's House Studio in Providence (2024) and 'PORTALES Reimagining the Future' exhibit at Waterfire Arts Center (2022); theatrical productions Antigonx (2022) and Fire Flowers and a Time Machine (2021); transmedia artworks: MoralDocs (2020-21) and FANTASY ISLAND (2017); lead curator for El Corazón de Holyoke public art project (2020-21); and founder of LUNA LOBA performance series (2014+).

 

celebrating 25 years since we've cleaned behind the refrigerator!

⚜ July 2025 NEWSLETTER ⚜ UPCOMING EVENTS! HOLY SHIT, WE’RE TWENTY FIVE!!! The Dirt Palace is turning 25! Time flies when you’re living amongst feminist friends! Not that we’re counting but we’re probably nearing the 1,300th house meeting. By our estimates we probably have about that many items in our library collection. Our dream for this milestone year is to look into the past and future at once by organizing and energizing our library/archive! So with that in mind, here’s the celebration that we’re planning.  Brunch, Dirt Palace Fake Restaurant style, but on the lawn of the Wedding Cake House. Suggested donation $25. BUT if you donate to our library come for free. Save the date: Sunday August 24th 11am - 3pm Further details: $25 = order anything you want from the food menu - cocktails separate (yes it is a fundraiser! Yes, we’ll also have fun non-alcs!) There will be guest chefs and there will be some weird delicious stuff to blow your mouth’s mind! To come for free, donate to the library - here’s the catch, it has to be something that we want. If it is a book or zine written or made by you, a member of the local arts community, then we 100% want it (if we don’t already have it), though we do ask that you sign it! If it’s made by someone else who is a member of the local arts community and we don’t have it, then we also probably want it. If it’s made by someone who was local for a time or is very connected to the local community, there’s a pretty good chance that we want it. If you have something you’re interested in donating for a free ticket fill out this form. ALL OF THE LINKS IN ONE PLACE To buy tickets To donate print materials To volunteer FAMILY RESIDENCY AND YOUTH  WORKSHOPS AT WEDDING CAKE HOUSE We've got our summer Family Residency coming up, which also means SUMMER YOUTH WORKSHOPS at Wedding Cake House. More details soon!  But save the dates:  workshops: July 22nd - 25th 1:30-4pm RSVP to weddingcakehouseresidencies@gmail.com Family Picnic on the lawn: Sat June 26th INTERLACE PROJECT GRANTS OPEN JULY  14TH Interlace Project Grants open July 14th. Want to get a jump on things before the portal even opens? You can review guidelines HERE - Grants due September 14th WINDOW GALLERY June - July Window Artists: School One Students - Bjorn Emerson, Elizabeth Golaski and Finn Mertes These students are part of School One's new program, the Art Pathway.  The Art Pathway recognizes students as leaders in the Arts at School One: participants develop a portfolio for college applications, engage with the Arts community, and enhance their artistic and critical understanding of the Arts. In this window display, School One students and staff have assembled the personal possessions and objects of Brigido Cavassos, known in short as Bree. This installation is a tribute to one of Providence’s most beloved local characters— a familiar face in Providence for decades. Bree was a director in Texas theater, an actor at Trinity, a graphic designer, a magician, a court jester, a shape shifter, a custodian, and a ‘man about town.’ Chances are that if you lived in Providence in the 1970’s to the early aughts you crossed his path. Bree was a local legend.  The objects in this window explore the power of everyday objects to tell stories—stories about the people who owned them, the places they lived, and the times they lived through. When displayed together, these items begin to speak to one another, forming new connections and revealing layered narratives that reflect both individual lives and shared histories. School One is an arts-focused independent high school in Providence. Our hallmarks include a creative curriculum, a nurturing, inclusive culture, and a personalized academic program.  Special thanks to Dirt Palace, Anthony Champa, School One students: Finn Mertes Bjorn, Emerson, Elizabeth Golaski. To see scanned drawings and writing from Bree’s notebooks use this QR Code WORD SHELTER July - August Word Shelter artists Ali Van and Miranda Zhen-Yao Van-Boswell Ali Van and Miranda ZYVB are cousins and collaborators. They share roots in Hong Kong, overlapping briefly in New York City; Ali’s birth place, and Miranda’s present base. In 2023, Miranda joined Ali in nurturing a.f.t. Cooperative, all for time in dedication to living and breathing values. Here, Ali joins Miranda to celebrate her home once lived, and the spirits of being in transit together. UPDATES!!! Ziggy Smith Hey, I’m Ziggy Smith. I’m new to the Dirt Palace. Right now I’m really enjoying reading “Mules and Men” by Zora Neale Hurston. I just moved in so I’m excited to get back into the flow of things. Natalie Robertson Hiii, it’s summertime!! I have been research and process-oriented in gaining new skills in sound, composition, and woodworking, in a phase of organizing personal goals and goals around planning events, and am chasing a day job that can sustain me enough to be able to prioritize what I want to be making. I’ve found myself splitting my attention in how whatever task in-creation I enjoy is almost definitely procrastination on my immediate survival until I have an income locked-in better. Thus far, it's selling my personal record collection, and clothes are next! So… A bit of a chasing-my-tail, Sisyphean situation, but I’m getting there. It seems the most lasting area of my work is mapping the internal. When I lost my mother in March, it felt like my brain broke along with my ability to process a conversation in real-time, and my autism has become really hilariously (sometimes painfully) apparent to me. Of course, this attitude of curiosity around challenges of feeling disconnected in my body and the feeling absurd with it informs the lens I create through. I feel like a really silly guy but am having fun with it! :-) Flow state activities have been a great break from feeling frantic! I’ve been shedding new fingerpicking exercises on guitar and in the left-right and bellows coordination on accordion, shedding the voices of opinions in my head that don’t serve me, and getting back into footwork inspired by running ladder drills at soccer practice- but now it's on dance floors or the Dirt Palace floors. I’m out observing what plants are growing, placing the chorus of what birds are around me, and stopping to look at that cool shiny bug. Some days, I feel intimidated by socializing and can only comfortably function to look up at the birds and bugs. And I guess that’s why I’ve been getting a lot out of playing music with others; speaking an abstract language of grooves and painting a picture in the colors of different harmonic movements with a sprinkle of a new modal melodic element or simply leaning into a nice texture. In the last couple months, I’ve jammed with a handful of different players and am getting a sense about what I like about others’ styles or the range of their instruments when they are non-standard to my prior rock repertoire. I’m looking to get a band together to flesh out arrangements for music I write! (hit my line, let’s jam!) Work has been happening in the home studio department, and I have started my journey in learning things about live sound and instrument repair. I’m a one man band out here playing with drum machines, tinkering with a little FM synthesis, and trying to wrap my head around concepts in voltage control, once again. How to record acoustic instruments is a complete challenge, as of now. The accordion choir has officially expanded into composition club territory, and we are attempting electroacoustic elements for the latest piece Kristina put forward. I’m working to learn how we can have 7-9 accordions mic’d and processed by a synthesizer without feeding back. A goal of this work is to run sound for events at Dirt Palace. I’ve been going to shows with the intention of getting to know what is going on in the region between music and performance art. I’ve also been playing shows with the Bicentennial Memorial Accordion Choir. We played 3 Boston dates last month (wow!). We’ll be playing Allston’s Pissmas July 20th and on July 19th at the New Bedford Roots and Branches Folk Festival. There will be Cape Verdean traditional music, Caribbean steel drum music, Appalachian folk, West African drumming, and a performance by the Wicked Queer Puppet Theater! The festival is July 18th and 19th, and you don’t want to miss it! I’ll be volunteering, and they are looking for more volunteers. Sign up here!: https://signup.com/mobileweb/2.0/vspot.html?activitykey=981698462061#choose_event_page Festival information: https://www.nbrootsandbranches.com/special-events P.S. I am looking for guitar/songwriting students! P.P.S. or just $$! Be well, friends! Q (John-Francis Quiñonez) Oh - Dear Dirt Palace Readers, It is Summer. The Days are Long. The Crops of Asparaguses & Strawberries are quickly Waning. I am spending most of my waking hours making & serving so much Ice Cream, but at Night I dream of fashioning an Impossibly Long Duvet to stuff my Body & Commute into. I love these months for all the plants & be-cutoffed creatures of Earth, but it is simply not my time to shine. This year I have committed to simplifying my Sunny Season. Less Booking. No Touring. Mostly focusing on researching, resting, and locking in for our first Summer over at Big Feeling Ice Cream. I hope you will come visit us at 769 Westminster in PVD. Weds-Sunday 12 to 9 (til 10 on Fridays and Saturdays). It has been busy and it has been s w e e t ! If I don’t see you in the shop for a cone, might I suggest: 🍓Open Library Hours at Queer.Archive.Work./Binch Press on select Sundays. It’s been my pleasure to be a New Board Member with this organization I so deeply love, and it feels that even amidst the debilitating chaos we are making good changes towards growing and thriving. 🍓Lost Bag for Figure Drawing on Mondays. Doors at 7:15, Starts at 7:30. I’d also like to plug my next Middle Distance Presents show on August 11th with More Eaze & Thor + Friends (more details and flyer soon). Hope you are holding up as well as can be out there, Best, Q Naffisatou Koulibaly It’s official—I’m the next DP housemate getting voted off the island!! lol, no, but seriously, I have been living at DP the longest out of this current group. That means I’ll be moving out soon. That also means I’ll be 26 soon. July 6th to be exact! I LOVE CANCER SEASON (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ AND I LOVE SUMMER (◡‿◡✿) here’s my June 2025 recap ———> First up, an honorable Senoj mention. I am nothing without my fluffy girl. currently reading <——— in preparation for the classes I’m teaching at AS220 Youth this summer! Below on the left is the poem “Affirmation,” by Assata Shakur. On the right, is my poem after Assata. sneak peak of an up & coming project: I will have more to say about this come July! Farewell friends. Next time we speak, I’ll be in the later half of my twenties. Cheers! ses hello! so nice to see you again? continuing to be painfully tired! trying my best to work through it. my focus has been tattooing and hanging out. the summer makes me feel strange… i’ve gotten to use my coping skills toolbox more than ever. making art about sex! reading coming to power (i don’t know how i’m only just now reading) and it is inspiring. working on tattoo projects that feel inspiring. getting to make art with people that are so trusting of my ability and it feels so sweet. i have two very pregnant cousins (dear autumn and liz) and i have learned a tip i want to share! you’re supposed to wear kind of nice outfits to baby showers!! kinda fancy brunch attire!! don’t make my mistake and look drab while everyone is going Hard and looking beautiful! officially renewed for my third year of DP and i’ve moved rooms! the change of scenery has been a kick in the butt to get working on stuff. the heat has slowed this down… but maybe going to the beach will solve my never ending fatigue and get sand on my feet and butt…. just maybe Xander Marro I’m still typing away into the substack void. The last one (DEEP HOLE) is here. Subscribe for free here. Does all of this substack stuff sound like a broken record? Well on the topic of broken audio, there’s a voice recording on this one, cause I myself am an audio book listener - but you know, it's a little bit rickety, like no editing style. Siren’s and a couple of coughs. Do you have any audio book rec’s - please lmk! (contact info here on my website).  BIG THANKS Last winter I got to work on a cover for Megan Milks’ new book MEGA MILK: Essays on Family, Fluidity, Whiteness and Cows. Its a great read and I had a blast working on it. Its not out yet, but its up for pre-order! Pippi Zornoza ·̩̩̥͙＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚ BULLETIN BOARD ˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙ LIBRARY HI_LITE!!!!! Hi everyone! My name is Mikayla, and I’m digging through the Dirt Palace archives this Summer, having a blast :) The plan is to update all you lovely readers with some of my personal favorite finds every Friday over on the @dirtplace instagram account. This is one of my favorites so far! It’s a Kinofist Imageworks zine sporting a manifesto calling for the creation of amateur film. I don’t call myself an artist (which is very hard because I’m surrounded by lovely artists at Dirt Palace, but I’ve worked with oodles of oodles of film and always find myself procrastinating for fear of not being good enough. Thanks David Kinofist for that inspiration push to just go make! venus in blue jeans//venus in furs/// forward to a friend