Somos OtraCosa

May 5 from 5–7 pm
May 6  from 1–6 pm
May 7  from 1–3 pm

Tara Rodríguez Besosa Lead Artist
Tian/Christian Hansen Appel Collaborator
Darshan Elena Campos Collaborator
Yaya Collaborator
Aya Rebai Audience Guide

Tara Rodríguez Besosa, Lead Artist (she/they/ellx/bellx), born, raised, and based in Borikén (Puerto Rico), lives and works at the powerful intersection of queer community, ecosystem restoration, and food sovereignty. Tara shares how queer agroecological practices are essential for the transition from extractive to restorative food systems and how collective models and shared resources empower decolonized land and bodies. Tara is an interdisciplinary designer, organizer, entrepreneur, and living resource within various groups involving farming, food systems, and the arts. They have co-founded projects ranging from a DIY architect-run gallery in Brooklyn to Puerto Rico’s Departmento de la Comida, arts venues like El Local en Santurce, and the collective queer land project OtraCosa. Their time is spent on a beautiful spectrum: some days they work with the land, meditate in the forest, swim in the warm waters of the Caribbean, and exchange plant knowledge; other days are quite different: they are found on the computer writing federal grants, co-running a non-profit organization, guest lecturing for a design school or public speaking event. It is with these tools that Tara is able to collaborate with her communities of humans, activists, plants, and forests. They have recently been deepening their practice on land with non-human ecosystems, learning about the Rights of Nature and our role as human healers. They co-exist within a web of consumers, cooks, restaurants, environmental organizations, policymakers, farms, community gardens, artists, medicine makers, and elders that together are decolonizing Borikén’s communities through food. @BITCHIMMANOLO @ELDEPARTAMENTODELAFOOD

Tian/Christian Hansen Appel, Collaborator is a white, anarchist, queer, non-binary trans femme arts activist, farmer, and performance artist born on occupied Lenape lands. OtraCosa gave them the chance to heal and reconnect with the earth after many years in various cities. They are honored to still be part of the land’s stewardship and grateful to be able to share the space’s healing power with other queer and trans people. Tian will be moving to Berlin this summer and will be returning to OtraCosa each winter to support its growth and its magic through song, ritual, and solidarity.

Darshan Elena Campos, PhD, Collaborator (they/elle/twospirit) is a transfeminist Boricua seed keeper based in Cabo Rojo, Borikén. Born in the diaspora on ancestral Ohlone territory, they returned to the Caribbean in 2018 to help grow food, housing options, community-supported medicine, and beloved communities for survivors of violence. Currently, they lead Somos Semillas Antillanas, a mobile seed library and community seed bank specializing in seeds of the Indigenous Black Caribbean. At OtraCosa, an off-grid DIY queer and trans homestead in the mountains of Caguas, Borikén, they help care for Xicana Freedom Forest, an edible archive of trees aimed at helping to create a future without femicide, forced migration, slavery, and settler colonialism.

Yaya, Collaborator is a language justice practitioner, anthropologist, herbalist, multidisciplinary artist, sound and spiritual healer, and land/water steward born and raised in Borikén (Puerto Rico). They identify as a mixed race, two-spirited, and gender fluid being committed to reclaiming their Indigenous and Afro-Caribbean roots by embracing and embodying their worldviews, culture, wisdom, and teachings. Her work centers on disrupting colonial narratives/practices and supporting the weaving of spaces that bring communities and movements together to claim a liberated and sustainable world. Otra Cosa is the latest space they have had the honor to be a part of, and they are in the process of building their own QTBIPOC land stewarding/community space.