Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful treads an elusive route that manifests itself performatively or through experiences where the quotidian and art overlap. Concurrently, this path has been informed by a strong personal interest in immigration, cultural hybridization, and Estévez Raful’s understanding of identity as a process always in flux. He hence approaches the concepts of home and belonging to the US American context from the perspective of a Lebanese-Dominican, Dominican York who was recently baptized as a Bronxite: a citizen of the Bronx. While ephemeral by nature, Estévez Raful’s work gains permanence through audios, photographs, props, drawings, rumors, embodied memories, costumes, websites, videos, and publications. He has exhibited and performed extensively in the United States, as well as internationally at venues such as Madrid Abierto/ARCO, The IX Havana Biennial, PERFORMA 05 and 07, IDENSITAT, Prague Quadrennial, NYU Cantor Film Center, The Pontevedra Biennial, The Queens Museum, MoMA, Printed Matter, P.S. 122, Hemispheric Institute of Performance Art and Politics, Princeton University, Rutgers University, Anthology Film Archives, The Institute for Art, Religion, and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary, Casita Maria, The MacDowell Colony, Provisions Library, El Museo del Barrio, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, The Center for Book Arts, Longwood Art Gallery/BCA, The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Franklin Furnace, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, among others. During the past seven years Estévez has received mentorship in art in everyday life from Linda Mary Montano, a historic figure in the performance art field. Montano and Estévez Raful have also collaborated on several performances. Residencies attended include P.S. 1/MoMA, Yaddo, and the MacDowell Colony. He has received grants from Art Matters, Lambent Foundation, National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, Printed Matter, and Puffin Foundation. Estévez Raful holds an MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he studied with Coco Fusco, and an MA from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. Estévez Raful has curated exhibitions and programs for El Museo del Barrio, the Institute for Art, Religion and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary, Cuchifritos, and Longwood Art Gallery/Bronx Council on the Arts, New York, and for the Filmoteca de Andalucía, Córdoba, Spain. Publications include Pleased to Meet You, Life as Material for Art and Vice Versa (editor) and For Art’s Sake. Born in Santiago de los Treinta Caballeros, Dominican Republic, Estévez Raful lives and works in the Bronx.
Derrick W. McQueen earned his B.A. in Theater Arts from Drew University in 1987 and is currently a Ph. D. Candidate in Homiletics and New New Testament at Union Theological Seminary. He entered the Ph. D. program after completing his M.Div., in 2009, with a focus on Theology and the Arts, also at Union. During his time at Union, Derrick has been integrally involved in the community and worship life. As a middler, he was earned the Hudnut Award, which is awarded to a middler who has made the best preparation for the preaching ministry. Upon graduation he was honored to receive the Maxwell Fellowship from Auburn Seminary, awarded to the graduating senior who shows the most promise of excellence for future service in parish ministry.
During his studies for his doctorate Derrick’s exams were heralded by examiners as solid and critical work in the area of New Testament and Homiletics; especially his work on early preaching in the church and his investigation of early church formation through the lens of marronage, signification and African American authors. He is in the process of writing his dissertation.
Currently, Derrick is also working as the Assistant Director of Community Partnerships for a new center at Columbia University, the Center On African American Religion and Sexual Politics (CARSS). CARSS is a research project that advances research, education and public engagement at the nexus of religion, race and sexuality, in general, but with a particular focus on black communities, both in the United States and the wider African Diaspora. He has been with the project since its inception as it tries to navigate and promote conversations around sexuality with a focus on historic black churches.
Derrick is involved in the life of the Presbyterian church on many levels. He worked tirelessly and successfully within the denomination for the full inclusion of LGBT persons to be ministers and for redefinition of marriage as “between two persons” in the constitution of the PC USA. A same gender loving man, he is now the interim pastor of the historic St. James Presbyterian Church, a Black church, in Harlem. He preaches at churches in the New York City area and beyond and serves as the Moderator of the Presbytery of New York City. He has also served as Vice Moderator for the General Assembly committee on Theological Issues and Education.
Derrick’s interests include practical theology; integrating current academic theologies and empire-critical biblical studies into congregational and community life; classical dramatic structures and their influence on Christianity; and early Christian community models of social justice and their modern applications on issues such as poverty, sexuality, race and gender. Derrick has worked as a community activist and social worker, and is currently a Poverty Scholar with Union’s Poverty Initiative, where he focuses on the intersection of arts and movement building as well as preaching from a poverty perspective. Derrick is also a spiritual multi-media artist and for over a decade has toured a one-man production on the life of Paul Robeson for the East Lynne Theater Company.