Romanistan

Sharon Svec on "Seeking Warmth," an art exhibit featuring Ceija Stojka and Daniel Baker

• Jezmina Von Thiele and Paulina Stevens • Season 5 • Episode 4

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"Seeking Warmth," an art exhibit curated by artist Sharon Svec, held at Art At The Cave in Vancouver, WA running March 4-29, 2025, aims to explore humanity's need for emotional and physical warmth, especially during times of extreme circumstances such as those caused by genocide, war, oppression and neglect. Ceija Stojka (1933-2013) was a child survivor of the Romani Holocaust (Samudaripen) who began sharing her experiences in written and painted format in 1988 at age 55. She is recognized as a bold activist of Roma, who continue to face persecution today. Sam Marroquin works in collage and paint to expose current and historical trauma within society, emphasizing systems that mask the atrocities against humanity. Daniel Baker examines the role of artistic practice as a form of social agency with a focus on Roma aesthetics. 

Read The Memoirs of Ceija Stojka, Child Survivor of the Roma Holocaust, translated by Lorely French

Follow @sharonimous, @cave.gallery.vancouver, @ceijastojka_int_association, @danielbakerarts

Our Romani crush is Susie. 

CN: from minute 42-44 we discuss a story involving suicide. Skip ahead if you don't want to listen. Reach out for support if you feel vulnerable. You are not alone. Here are Crisis Hotlines That Don't Call The Cops

Welcome to Romanistan Festival March 28-30, 2025 in New Orleans! Visit our website for tickets and events!

Thank you for listening to Romanistan podcast.

You can find us on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook @romanistanpodcast, and on Twitter @romanistanpod. To support us, Join our Patreon for extra content or donate to Ko-fi.com/romanistan, and please rate, review, and subscribe. It helps us so much. 

Follow Jez on Instagram @jezmina.vonthiele & Paulina @romaniholistic. 

You can get our book Secrets of Romani Fortune Telling, online or wherever books are sold. Visit romanistanpodcast.com for events, educational resources, merch, and more. Please support our book tour fundraiser if you can. 

Email us at romanistanpodcast@gmail.com for inquiries. 

Romanistan is hosted by Jezmina Von Thiele and Paulina Stevens

Conceived of by Paulina Stevens

Edited by Viktor Pachas

With Music by Viktor Pachas

And Artwork by Elijah Vardo


Speaker 1:

We have a content warning. At 42 minutes begins a story that makes mention of suicide. If you would prefer to skip it, fast forward to 44 minutes. If you listen and you feel triggered or in any way unsafe, please reach out to your network, your support system, your therapist. We will also have a link to some different suicide hotlines that don't call the police. And then there is, of course, 988, if you are in America. So take a look at the show notes if you need them. Take care of yourself, you are not alone along.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to Romanistan.

Speaker 1:

We're your friendly neighborhood gypsies. I'm Paulina and I'm Jez.

Speaker 2:

And today we're here with Sharon Svek. Sharon is many things, but every iteration is laid with the foundation of an artist, whether through visits to the Art Institute of Chicago or to her grandfather's workbench. She was exposed to art regularly. She framed her life with an education, career and practices centered on creativity and maintained through cultural respect. Sharon earned an MFA at the Southern Illinois University in 2000, with degrees in visual communication and professional media practice. She also studied and performed regularly with the theater department. Sharon worked in printing, publishing and communication. In 2010, she found meaning at a social justice organization where she led communication efforts for seven programs over eight years. Today, sharon manages three galleries and is contracted with the City of Vancouver to organize an exhibit for their 2025 Arts and Music Festival, for their 2025 Arts and Music Festival, shifting between performance and visual arts. Sharon has been exhibiting her works since about 1990. So, yay, thank you for being on the show. Yeah, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1:

We're so happy to have you, so tell us a little more about yourself. Where are you from? Where's your family from? What's your visa Share with?

Speaker 3:

us? Yes, okay, so I was born in Southern Illinois, which is not Chicago, but my parents are from Chicago, so they didn't know each other. They moved down there separately and then had my brother and myself down there in Southern Illinois and we would travel to Chicago regularly. I do mention visiting the Art Institute of Chicago, so my parents, my grandparents, were still up there. Let's see, that's where I'm from. My family is from Chicago. Prior to that, they're from, uh, slovakia. Well, current day Slovakia, it was Austria, hungary at the time, and, um, poland and Sweden, who is the only one that I know for sure, 100% is Romani is from what's? Current day Central Slovakia.

Speaker 2:

So I want to ask our favorite question Do you consider yourself a rebel, and why yes or no?

Speaker 3:

why yes or no? Yeah, so, uh, sometimes, sometimes I'm rebellious. Uh, I think I'm not rebellious just for the sake of being rebellious, but when, uh, it feels like the right thing to do right like when I ran away from home, I suppose that was rebellious it seemed like the right thing to do right, like when I ran away from home, I suppose that was rebellious it seemed like the right thing to do that kind of stuff. But, uh, but no, I'm not rebellious just for the sake of it. So does that capture?

Speaker 2:

that you're following your heart we have these conversations and it's like what is even like rebellious, like I guess it depends on how you were raised. You know, yeah, going to school was rebellious for me growing up right super great yeah, when it goes against the norm.

Speaker 1:

I guess I have gone against the norm a number of times, but not all the times so you are curating an art exhibit titled seeking warmth at art in the cave this march um. Seeking warmth is the name of the show, listeners, and art at the cave is the gallery. Please tell us about it and your inspiration for it. We're so excited, okay.

Speaker 3:

Well, my inspiration is in thinking about. You know, we mentioned in the introduction that you read my time at the social justice group. So that was YWCA Clark County justice age group. So that was a YWCA Clark County and the. You know their mission is eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice and freedom and dignity for all. They have YWCA's CAs are different everywhere in what programs they have, and this one had multiple different programs, but they were all under that mission, right?

Speaker 3:

So, as the communications person I was, everything was going under that mission and I learned a lot about social justice and about institutional racism and all of that good stuff. And I learned how important it is to diversify people in places of power, right, because when you diversify people in places of power, you diversify the results that come out of those places. So, after years of trying to get a position of power through traditional work methods, I decided screw it, I'm going to follow my heart and go to the art side of things. And then I ended up in a position of power and that was weird, so, um. So I thought, well, I want to use my unique perspectives to help shape the outcomes of this, these spaces that I'm working in and uh, so I have. You know, we all have unique perspectives. Mine are really stemming from my family influence and, like my just personal experience, and one of those many, many aspects is my interest in the Roma history of my family on my dad's side, and I wanted to share the voice of Roma. Share the voice of Roma.

Speaker 3:

In my personal experience, I experienced a lot of the things that I've heard other of your guests experience, like othering and assumptions about who you are and what your race or ethnicity is, and and it wasn't necessarily related to me being Roma, because they didn't know that, that was in my background, because I wouldn't share that information, but it still influenced me and internally, I was experiencing that um and that conflict between, like oh well, well, grandpa said I shouldn't talk about this. I mean I could if I wanted to. It's gonna make life more difficult, and so, like, all these things are going in my head. But then, yeah, when I became, when I came into the art world and I felt comfortable in my career, I was like, okay, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna start doing what I always wanted to do, and one of those things that I always wanted to do was elevate the voice of Roma and let people know that we are more than more than a trope. Know that whole thing. That's what inspired uh me to it, like from the spark, right. But how am I gonna do this? I don't feel like I want to put together a show and be like, look at me, um.

Speaker 3:

So I tried to reach out to others and you guys actually helped me with that. With a post a few years ago, you shared a post and I was looking for american roma artists and I didn't get very many replies. So I'm like, okay, well, this, you know it's not time for this yet, clearly so. And then I heard your interview with Chaya Stoica International Association and I was like, oh, and there's their email address, oh. And so I emailed them and I was like, hey, just so you know, I run a few galleries and if you ever want to collaborate, just let reach out. And Laura Lee reached out and she was like so I'm just across the river from you, would you like to get together? And that was just incredible and awesome. And we started talking and it became a real possibility. So it just snowballed from there.

Speaker 2:

I pulled in a couple other artists and yeah, that's the foundation of that Cool.

Speaker 3:

What drew you to the artists you're including right now? I was drawn to. I mean, I was familiar with Chaya's work just from my research online already, so, and then the accessibility is really what secured my interest in that. Sam Morican, whose series is called the Madness of War. She started painting these images after October 7th 2023. And these, I mean they're like I don't know if you saw the website or I sent you the link, but they're pretty intense paintings.

Speaker 3:

She's on like 70 or 80 now of these drawings and paintings depicting the madness of war and, um, I was familiar with her as an artist and, um, her passion really lies in media representation and propaganda and how it's, you know, really curved and curated to that target audience. And it seemed like a good fit, because Chaya's work would not fill the whole gallery. It's a big space. What I would have access to would not fill the whole space and, uh, her work seemed like a just great modern compliment to it. And I was reading Chaya's memoirs and there's a line in there a couple times she mentions how she sought warmth in and in and amongst the dead bodies and that was like a safe place for her. Um, she could stay warm and, you know, she kind of became friends with them and she would take care of them and move their chins up when they fell and fix their whatever's their clothes and talk with them and spend time with them. And you know, she was seeking physical warmth and emotional warmth among the dead, and I was really, really drawn to that idea and so I named the show Seeking Warmth.

Speaker 3:

And the next thing that came to mind was Daniel Baker's emergency artifacts series, where he uses emergency blankets the silver blankets to weave these just beautiful pieces he also makes. He's made like a bodysuit and like a little doll looking thing from them. And it made me think of an interview I heard a long time ago I don't know if it was Katrina or what the situation was, but some interview I heard and they were like, yeah, so emergency blankets were like a new thing. And they were like, oh, yeah, they're sending us emergency blankets Like that's great, it's not what we need, it's not like this is another Band-Aid. So I just really love that.

Speaker 1:

I don't know it, just all, or listeners, actually, and readers. You can find them. You can still order it. It's not super easy to get, but it's translated by Laura Lee French if you are an English speaker. But, yeah, we are so excited to see how this show comes together. What are the exact dates of the show? March 4th through 29th Awesome. So, yeah, you have most of March to go see the show and we actually have clips from artists Daniel Baker and Sam. Is it Marroquin? Yep, yeah, and Sam Marroquin right now. So we're going to insert them due to editorial magic. So enjoy listening to their words about their work and their inspiration for the show. And just to clarify to listeners who are on the lookout for artists sam is not a romani artist dan and chaya are romani artists hello.

Speaker 5:

Hello, I'm Sam Motorkin. Thank you for taking the time to talk about this art exhibit Seeking Warmth. It is an honor to be included with Chaya Stoica and Daniel Baker in this collection of artwork, curated by Sharon Speck, that examines the need for emotional and physical warmth in times of oppression. The need for emotional and physical warmth in times of oppression. When I was a young child, my parents always watched the evening news and I would see clips of people fighting in distant countries. My mother and father would give vague answers when I asked about it. The attacks, blood and terrorized people were always illogical in my developing mind, and they still are. Why couldn't they just get along? The terrifying truth of war is the stench of burned flesh, the cries of those slowly dying under the rubble and long trenches filled with corpses. Sadly, we live in a world where morality no longer matters and historical amnesia plagues the atmosphere. Regardless of what side you are on, the results are agony Through charcoal and paint. I challenge my viewers. Can seeing the effects of violence upon innocent people change our perspective of conflict? Cutting through the opinions, noise and illusions of mass media, I focus on humanity. This body of work centers on Palestine. However, my subjects transcend a precise time and place. I choose for my paintings to represent combat from almost anywhere in the world. Deeply troubled by the current conflict, I was moved to draw and paint moments of extreme fear, pain and suffering, depicting times of endless waiting, the instant a bomb explodes, loved ones grappling with loss or sifting through the rubble that was once a home.

Speaker 5:

I seek to bear witness to the impacts of war. We are subject to the constant and sophisticated manipulation of reality and the exclusion of significant topics by the news media. The capitalistic interests of these agencies influence the stories that are told and the ways that they are framed. This distortion in the news causes people to align themselves with certain factions or politics without even knowing the facts or history of the situation. For inspiration, I look to the coverage of journalists and photographers who are actually on the ground amidst the fighting and destruction. To shape these pieces, I make quick and abstract sketches with my non-dominant hand, relying on a combination of contour and line contour drawing. Then I add detail by painting it in with acrylic colors, capturing the dusty or smoke-filled air of the combat zone or the stark mood of survivors. My blocky handwritten text adds another visual element, drawing attention to the underlying intent of my composition and perhaps a window into what these people are going through.

Speaker 5:

Creating these paintings is not easy. Researching closely, following the news and portraying the violence and destruction in my compositions is difficult work, both technically and emotionally. Reading Stoica's memoir was deeply moving for me. Learning about experiences such as hers and what they endured is vital. Whether examining the horrors of the Romani Holocaust, armenian Genocide or the ethnic cleansing of Native Americans, we must acknowledge and continually learn from our past. Currently, the occupation of Palestine, extreme violence in Haiti, war in Sudan and forced migration and deportation around the globe are just a few of the mass atrocities that we face. Revealing the truth of these and other stories through my paintings becomes a way of looking at our history as we build for future generations. I, like Stoica and many others, have hoped that someday we can live in a world free of oppression and social injustice. In one of her poems, stoica writes my wish for the world is that people pay attention and go through the world with open eyes and see that something like this never happens again. Thank you very much.

Speaker 4:

My name is Daniel Baker and I'm an artist from a Romary family in England. The works on display in Seeking Warmth are from my Emergency Artifact series, which transforms Mylar rescue blankets into objects of various forms. This set of six abstract works on show are intentionally ambiguous in their appearance but retain the possibility of functionality by echoing the size and form of placemats that you might find on a domestic dining table in the home. By bringing together materials associated with danger and crisis and juxtaposing them with forms that speak of comfort and sustenance, I am encouraging the viewer to think about the precarious nature of the safety that many of us take for granted. This series echoes some other works that are made in a similar way, called Survival Blankets, which again draw together the contrasting associations of danger found in the materiality of rescue foil and the idea of comfort conveyed by the hand crocheted blanket.

Speaker 4:

My art practice is greatly informed by my experience of growing up in a Romani family home. The ornate decor of our living space had a lasting effect on me in my journey as an artist. The ways in which the domestic interior conveyed the narratives and values of our community through objects and materials made a big impact on me from a young age, and the experiences and questions set in motion then still seem relevant to me today. I believe that the Roma aesthetic is the main site of cultural agency for Roma people. Another way of thinking about Roma aesthetics is to think in terms of Roma visual culture. This is important because, in the absence of a literary tradition, for hundreds of years, visuality became the primary vehicle of cultural communication and social exchange. Romalives have historically been narrated, informed and reflected through visual culture, and I believe that this is where our culture are crucial to communicating their values and preoccupations to the wider world.

Speaker 4:

Roman aesthetics is a useful example to other cultures because it has originated from a traditionally nomadic culture which has been essentially non-literary and therefore is perhaps more acutely honed as an instrument of social agency. In terms of aesthetics, the work I make is intended to generate an experiential response. This ties in with my own experience of Roman material culture, where objects convey meaning and narrative through their materiality and their form, much of which is rooted in Roma heritage and Roma traditions. The idea of seeking warmth is explored within my work in the exhibition through the ambiguity of the objects that I make, where the possibilities of comfort and sustenance are undercut by my use of precarious materials and the fragility of their manufacture. I hope that my work encourages viewers to think about the precarious nature of our existence and the safety and stability that we all take for granted off topic, I love the shirt that you're wearing.

Speaker 2:

I actually ordered the blue one from you, which I wear and get compliments on all the time.

Speaker 1:

Yay, yeah oh, it's your own design.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thank you it's I have the same one in blue oh my gosh um.

Speaker 1:

Can we describe it for the audio listeners?

Speaker 3:

yeah, um, I can try it's. Uh, it's like almost like claw marks. Would that be accurate?

Speaker 1:

yes, yeah, or like stripes are really cool yeah and um.

Speaker 2:

They come in different colors it's like a lavender, pink, purple, like claw marks, and it's like a white shirt. It's long sleeve, but it's also a crop top yeah, and it's really loose and comfortable and it's like a good quality cotton, um, and I've been meaning to post about it, but I wear it and then I'm like, oh, and then I just wear it, and then I change and I'm like now it's dirty, but I just washed it again, so I will post it soon yeah it's really comfortable, really nice, definitely check it out.

Speaker 1:

I love that. Actually, that segues beautifully into our next question, because you work in a lot of different mediums. I mean, we've been looking at your work for years now and what drives you to create and what do your different art forms offer you?

Speaker 3:

yeah, stress. And what do your different art forms offer you? Yeah, stress Relatable. So I tend to create a lot when I just have a lot going on and need a brain break and I need to take care of myself when I need to reflect and decompress.

Speaker 1:

Do you want to share what your mediums are, just for anyone who's not familiar with your work?

Speaker 3:

yeah, I um, since 20, shucks, 20, I don't even know 2013, since 2013, I've been working with a product called solar fast and you can use that to. It's like cyanotypes, um, where you're using the sun to expose images onto fabric. So I started doing tapestries with those and there's like a photo that is the base and then I'll do a spray paint stencil on top of it to kind of provide context for the photo. And then I started to like go into clothing, just like fiddling around with nature. So one of the last things that I did was, um, take the flowers of a smoke tree and tie them together into clouds and then I hung them so they just like drift around. They're like little natural cloudy things, but it's something that like. As I'm wrapping those, I feel like all of these elements include nature. I'll do basket weaving sometimes. Right now I'm writing onto um. It's not echinacea, it's eucalyptus leaves. It's like a um, it's like a communication. It's like a uh spell, right, it's like a.

Speaker 2:

It's a way to ask the universe questions and get answers what do you want the world to know or appreciate about romani art?

Speaker 3:

um, but I first want to say that I really love daniel's response to a similar question and whatever he said I want to echo that because I don't remember the exact words, but I remember hearing it and I was like, yes, um, he's far more eloquent in his response than I'm going to be, but I think that, uh, I think that Romani art is as diverse as its people and, um, I want people to see it as a proof, like proof of existence. Um, it's the voice that's from the people. It, uh, it can reflect the whole gamut of experience, of trauma, from somebody who is deeply ingrained in traditional culture to someone who's probably more separated, um, which I might fall more on that end of it and, uh, it's so. It's a tool. It like the more people that put it out there it's a tool to find commonalities between each other and to compare and to contrast and all the things that art does for humanity. Anyway, just in a concentrated space. Yeah, I think there's some commonalities in. I was trying to see if there was.

Speaker 3:

You know, there's this new account, roma Aesthetic, and Daniel talks a lot about the Roma Aesthetic and I was kind of thinking about what that is and what I observe. One thing that I observe, or that I like a lot, is the resourcefulness. I have all these things that my grandpa used to say right, like swimming in my head, and one is uh, if you can't, if you can't make it or trade for it, you probably don't need it or trade for it, you probably don't need it, and it's so. It's such a like to me. It's such a Roma thing to say um, and I see that in the art a lot and I want to. Actually I have a piece here I wanted to show you that was his. He made a whole village and um bridges and windmills and um a woodshed and all these pieces. Look at the little, the little blue roses in the pieces.

Speaker 1:

Look at the little, the little blue roses. And that is so sweet.

Speaker 3:

Oh my gosh it's this tiny little, tiny little structure, and he ended up making me like a giant dollhouse of this too, but it's all made from. He would walk up to the corner store and he would get the discarded fruit boxes out of the trash and take them home and make a whole new world with them that's so cool yeah, really really like beautiful and detailed, extremely detailed, yeah and there's so many other like artists today that I see doing that.

Speaker 3:

Um, I don't know if I'm saying her name right, but Gosia Mirga a genius yeah, yeah oh my gosh, yeah, we're such Selma fans totally. I mean, I use a lot of, like I said, nature, whatever's lying around, uh, some more um local artists, american artists, uh, lucy doe duncan and richards coriander heart. I just I love it. I love seeing all the, all the ways that we can come together through art.

Speaker 1:

It's a very beautiful thing. I also for listeners. I don't know if we've actually talked about this on the podcast. We did post about it, but go see. America has a a display on the oh what's it called? The High Line in New New York. So if you're in New York, please go to the High Line. It's a lovely walk and you get to see her beautiful artwork, which is such a big deal. I lost my mind when I saw that she's displayed there, because it just feels like so much progress. Like we don't usually see Roma art in public spaces Anywhere. Yeah, and it's so exciting to have a Roma exhibit at a gallery too. Like it's just like these are such wonderful markers for progress and it's also a reminder that we can support Romani culture. Like, whatever our specialties and interests are. You know, we always have a way to kind of shine a light on our community, totally.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, are you know?

Speaker 1:

we always have a way to kind of shine a light on our community. And yeah, you are also a communication specialist, which sounds really interesting. Can you share a little bit about that aspect of your career, what that entails, what you like about?

Speaker 3:

it.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, well.

Speaker 3:

I think you know, for me it encompasses all forms of communication. Hi, bobby, it's like um foundation is on observation and listening and watching. So so I went to school for visual communication. So I really wanted to do art or theater, right, and mom was like, oh well, you should do something that makes money instead. So how about design? And little did she know everybody, and by the time I became a designer would also become a designer. But so I took what I learned there and I went into printing, where I was like really focused in design work. I went into cartography, which is also very design, visual communication.

Speaker 3:

I really lean towards visual communications early in my career. I love the idea that you can just look at something and understand what it means, and not just you can look at it, but somebody from across the world who speaks a different language can look at it and understand what it means. So iconography and um signage and that sort of just like okay, quick communication. But yeah, it was heavy too, you know um, and I contracted with them for a couple of years after that. So it was essentially 10 years of every day of domestic violence, sexual assaults, low income, no income, child care, aging out of foster care court appointed special advocates, um court appointed special advocates, and then the social justice programs. So after about 10 years I was like I'm gonna step down and go towards art.

Speaker 1:

But I have this rich background from all those experiences in printing and design and communication and social justice that I can now apply those to the art field and to curation and to contracting with people really despised my mom in the beginning for keeping me away from art and making me do design, but I came around to appreciate her in the end yeah, I think it's incredible how sometimes we set out with this desire, you know, be an artist, be in the art field, you kind of take these adjacent detours which give you all this incredible skill set, life experience, perspective, and then you come back to the original dream, maybe stronger than you would have if you had set out that way to begin with.

Speaker 1:

Because, yeah, it's like you got to make a living, you got to eat and also you can do all of that and help people and diversify, and I don't know. I think it can be really helpful and inspiring sometimes for people to hear that it's okay that you didn't just start off with the same dream that you had since you were a kid and you can still, you know, have an amazing and even fuller life than you expected and do.

Speaker 3:

The dream's pretty cool yeah, I mean, I really think that, like, if the pull is strong enough, it it will come back to you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you'll come back to it either way, I think it's so interesting how, like what you're saying, like you start with one thing and then, like your you know, art is so fluid, like, how are you like also dealing with, like domestic violence and like all these other things, and then it's like circling back into like being this, I don't know like format or like outline for different types of inspiration for like art or writing, or you know what I mean, like all these things. So, really cool. We'd like to ask this um, wrap it kind of kind of at the end, wrapping it up a little bit. We'd like to know who is your romani crush. So this could be a romani person that you admire, either just because they're cool or because maybe their art, maybe their activism work, just kind of.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, someone um, so I'm gonna maybe cheat a little bit. It depends on how you should. If you decide that I'm you, tell me. If I'm cheating, I'm gonna pick my um dead great-grandmother oh.

Speaker 1:

Susie no, that's not cheating. We love family. What's about Susie?

Speaker 3:

Susie. Susie's the one that left Slovakia. Susie's the country girl that married a city boy and left and came to the United States, and every everything I know about her emits love and happiness. And it's because of her that I know how to make Jadarniki, which is a traditional Slovak food, because I know how to make breadcrumbs and noodles, which is like a food that we would, that the family would make, and it's because of her that there's uh, I mean, she was my, she was my. Uh, what did what? Did they call him, uh, imaginary friend right before I knew that she was a person in my family. Uh, it was suzy. That was there when I was alone in the grocery store, crying because my mom had wandered off again, or like, constantly leaving me alone in the grocery store oh, because this happens to all of us, I think just like standing there bawling, and Susie is like she just appears and she's like why are you crying?

Speaker 3:

And I said because I'm all alone. And she said I'm with you. And I was like, okay, you are, who are you again? And my mom came back and you know, she was all like what's going's going on? And I'm fine. Susie was with me and she's like who? And I described her. Well, she asked me to describe her. So, you know, she's just got a dress and a little apron on and she's about my size and has braids and like, okay, and then the other element of that is I'm just sharing, because I think that you guys will love this. Maybe not anyway, um, but Susie, I feel like Susie's always been with me, right, right, she's just always been there for me. She's not just there for me, but she's there for Millie, who is my great aunt, who I never met.

Speaker 3:

Millie ended her life in Lake Michigan six months before I was born and I was. We share the same birthday. So, um, that was one of the things you know when, when I had that initial conversation with my grandparents about who I was in relation to well, they didn't use the word Roma in relation to gypsies he said. They said well, you're obviously Millie reincarnated and so I. I, from that time, I've been gifted her. You know when, whenever a family member finds something that was Millie's, they give me her things. So I have her photo albums and her dress and I have her journal and I feel connected to her and I feel like I feel like who knows what goes out there in places that we can't see. But I feel like I am living Millie's second chance and that's Susie who is. I'm going to cry Because Susie, who is Millie's mom, is there watching over her every minute. So Susie's always been with me and she's my crush.

Speaker 1:

That is so powerful. Thank you so much for sharing that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thank you yeah.

Speaker 3:

Thanks for making a safe place to share it?

Speaker 1:

No, of course, I've definitely heard stories like that before of you know young kids seeing their ancestors, but also the reincarnation, and you know the features or um mannerisms that just feel so familiar to family. And we have our final question for you. That's so practical because we love to get people paid and love to get attention paid to them. What do you have coming up on the horizon and how can people support you and your work and where can they find you?

Speaker 3:

Yeah on the horizon. I would still like to do that exhibit of American Roma artists, so I would encourage any anybody who identifies as such to reach out to me on Instagram at Sharonimus, and to, yeah, just reach out and we can talk about it. I don't have any particular dates or plans or theme for the show. I just think it's a part of the puzzle that needs exploring and I'm going to help explore that and make a space for it and make a space for it Personally. I'll just continue to explore art as a form of connecting with the voiceless, the nature, the parts of the world, the, the 99 that we can't see, or whatever yeah, people, sorry, what's your website?

Speaker 3:

oh it's, it's pretty outdated, but it is is SMSVCcom, smsvccom and, yeah, I think, just supporting each other. Man, you know, like I just love that, I just love seeing people connecting. And I don't know what's going to happen with the Instagrams and the social medias and all the platforms, but don't be discouraged. I've been discouraged because I've reached out to people right, and have been flatlined or I don't know what the terminology is but no response. But don't give up, because I didn't give up and then I met Loralee, and then I got to do this great exhibit on Chayas Tuika and now I'm getting to spend this time with you. So just keep doing your thing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's good advice. It's important to be persistent, especially in the arts. But yeah, you got to be persistent.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for sharing all of that intimate information and I really just appreciate you getting so real with us, like that's why we do this, you know, and I think it takes a lot of courage and, yeah, I appreciate all the work that you're doing and all the publicity that you're bringing to like real you know, roma things, I guess.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, Can I tell you about some of the. I forgot to mention some of the events that are occurring with the March exhibit.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, please do. You have a lot of really cool events planned and also listeners. Please listen to our interview with Laura Lee about Chaya Stoica's exhibit and Karina too, they're both on that episode, but please tell us what. What will happen?

Speaker 3:

yeah, so there are a ton of events. I have a um. The first one is the opening reception. That's gonna be, uh, just a fun reception. March 7th, from 4 to 8. The artist talk is march 15th, from 1 to two, and Daniel's going to zoom in and Sam's going to be there. We're going to have panelists, dial, laura Lee will talk about Chaya's work, and on March 19th at five, a presentation and workshop called Critical Thinking on Media Information and Power, called Critical Thinking on Media Information and Power, on March 22nd I believe I'm still getting the time figured out Under the Green Green Grass Beneath, which is a documentary on Shia Stoica, will be playing at the theater that's just around the corner from the gallery Cool, I don't know if you've heard of the film From Ground Zero, but it features 22 short films, all by Palestinian directors, and it's documentaries, fiction, animation, experimental films.

Speaker 3:

It was conceived by a Palestinian director who, after october 7th, was like we need to make sure that the arts continue, and so he reached out within the community there. And, yeah, 22 short films and one after another. From ground zero. It came out last year, I believe. And then, lastly, I have a Romani Holocaust presentation by Carol Silverman on March 29th at 5. Pm.

Speaker 1:

Wow, that's a fantastic lineup. That's so great yeah.

Speaker 3:

I couldn't stop. There were so many good suggestions and I was like let's do it, let's do it.

Speaker 1:

That's good. It'll get lots of people coming in and having different types of experiences there. I think that's fantastic. Actually, we would be remiss not to mention in our last episode we announced our Welcome to Ramana Sound Festival and that is taking place March 28th to March 30th and we have all kinds of super exciting things going on. So the first one will be so it's in New Orleans. So if you're in New Orleans or if you want to be in New Orleans, you know, come see us please.

Speaker 1:

I'll just kind of run through the list of events quickly, but you can find everything on romanisanpodcastcom. We have a festival tab, but we'll start off strong on the 28th, 1130 in the morning as part of the Tennessee Williams Festival panel. The morning as part of the Tennessee Williams Festival panel, and Paulina and I will be talking about Romani tropes and contributions in pop culture with Ilva Mara Rajazhevsky, who is also known as Bimbo Yaga and is helping us produce the event. Then that night at seven we'll be hosting Tales from Romanistan at Cafe Istanbul and we'll be a live recording of the podcast. We'll have musicians and performers Zarina Hellfire, moon Bear, millie, raccoon, bimbo Yaga and Victor, our own Romanistan musician. Then the next day, on the 29th we'll be doing a Secrets of Romani Fortune Telling pop-up at Mystic by Cottage Magic.

Speaker 1:

Secrets of Romani Fortune Telling pop up at Mystic by Cottage Magic, and that will be me and Paulina reading tarot palms and Paulina giving wellness consultations as well. That night we're doing Stewarding Traditions, a literary salon hosted by Wiser sorry, sponsored by Wiser Books, with Lilith Dorsey, who's an amazing author, and me and Paulina, and we'll be talking about ancestral traditions. And then the next day, tarot and Ancestor Communication Workshop. Paulina and I have taught this before and we're teaching it again at Mystic by Cottage Magic. And then Bebe's Kitchen is our final event, a culinary ritual, and that'll also be part of the Tennessee Williams Festival and it's hosted by Ilva and Moon Bear and Paulina and I will be offering tea leaf reading. So please sign up for the festival, come to our events, spread the word. We definitely need help getting the word out. We're super excited to be offering our first festival and long story, short short.

Speaker 2:

There's nothing we won't be doing.

Speaker 1:

Okay, basically everything okay, two events a day, every day, every day, all day, every day, no sleep very, very awesome though that is so cool.

Speaker 3:

I loved hearing about that.

Speaker 1:

That's, that's happening it's gonna be so fun. We can't wait. Yeah, so y'all can sign up at romanasunpodcastcom. Send all your New Orleans friends the information too. Well, thank you so much for being here with us, sharon. We had such a lovely time talking with you. We wish we could be at the exhibit. If we could teleport to all of the cool events that people are doing all over the world, we would, um, and yeah, feel free to tag us in any posts and we're happy to share them cool, thank you.

Speaker 3:

Thank you so much for the talk.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh, our pleasure yeah, thank you so much and see you later.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to romanistan podcast you can find us on instagram, tiktok and Facebook at RamanaSan Podcast and on Twitter at RamanaSanPod. To support us, join our Patreon for extra content or just donate to our Ko-Fi fundraiser, ko-ficom backslash RamanaSan, and please rate, review and subscribe. It helps people find our show. It helps us so much.

Speaker 2:

You can follow Jez on Instagram at jasminavantila, and paulina at romaniholistic. You can get our book Secrets of Romani Fortune Telling online or wherever books are sold. Visit romanistanpodcastcom for events, educational resources and more.

Speaker 1:

Email us at romanistanpodcast at gmailcom for inquiries Romanistan is hosted by Jasmina Vontila and Paulina Stevens, conceived of by Paulina Stevens, edited by Victor Pachas, with music by Victor Pachas and artwork by Elijah Barado.