Monique Verdin

Episode No. 590 features artist Monique Verdin. It was taped live at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Verdin is included in the Nasher's "Spirit in the Land," an exhibition that considers today’s ecological concerns and demonstrates how our identities and natural environments are intertwined. The show particularly focuses on the relationship between the mainland United States and the Caribbean. Curated by Trevor Schoonmaker, it will be on view through July 9. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue which, as of the show posting date, is available only at the Nasher. Verdin's work is also on view at the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans in "The Float Lab: The Heartbeat of Invisible Rivers." It is a project of Verdin's The Land Memory Bank, Mondo Bizarro and Jeff Becker that uses music, theater, visual art, and boat-building to respond to Louisiana's interconnected struggles against land loss, environmental racism, and displacement. "The Float Lab" is on view through Oct. 1. Verdin's photography, filmmaking and collages most often examine how climate change and industry are impacting traditional lifeways in a part of southwest Louisiana known to the Houma people as Yakni Chitto. Among her many exhibition credits is Prospect Four in New Orleans. Verdin is also the director of the Land Memory Bank & Seed Exchange, a former member of the United Houma Nation Tribal Council and is part of the Another Gulf Is Possible Collaborative core leadership circle of brown (indigenous, latinx and desi) women, from Texas to Florida, working to envision just economies, vibrant communities and sustainable ecologies. Instagram: Monique Verdin, Tyler Green.