SHINE Portrait Studio, in partnership with Project for Empty Space, proudly announces the launch of In Search of the Spirit House, a new artbook by interdisciplinary artist Adama Delphine Fawundu. The publication will debut on March 31, 2026, from 6–8 PM with a celebratory launch event at Express Newark in downtown Newark. The evening will feature a conversation with fayemi shakur, Director of the City of Newark’s Division of Arts and Cultural Affairs, highlighting the themes of the book and Fawundu’s relationship to the city.
In Search of the Spirit House reveals the spiritual unfolding of Fawundu’s artistic practice in Newark, shaped by decades of dialogue, collaboration, and cultural stewardship. Deeply inspired by the enduring energy and legacy of Amiri and Amina Baraka’s Spirit House, the book reflects on how artistic work emerges through place and community. Founded in 1966 at 33 Stirling Street, the Spirit House was a revolutionary convening space and sanctuary for Black theatre, music, poetry, and political discourse. Active through 1980, it became a vital site for cultural transformation and remains a touchstone in Newark’s artistic history.
Drawing from this lineage, Fawundu’s publication explores her evolving relationship with Newark: artist to artist, artist to community, and artist to institution. The book weaves together personal reflection with collective memory, examining how sustained engagement with a city generates creative momentum and responsibility across generations.
“Working on this book affirmed the sustaining power of ‘the village.’ The community I encountered here renewed my connection to Newark and opened the door to a deeper, ongoing engagement to the city and its people.”
Adama Delphine Fawundu, Artist
The volume features interviews and conversations with Amina Baraka, Anthony Alvarez, Dr. Antoinette Ellis-Williams, fayemi shakur, Henone Girma, Marco Hall, and Rebecca Pauline Jampol. These exchanges illuminate the layered networks of collaboration that have shaped Fawundu’s practice and continue to energize Newark’s contemporary creative ecosystem.
Alongside these dialogues, the book presents images from artist projects and exhibitions developed during her time at non-profit arts organization Project for Empty Space, as well as documentation of public art commissions, group exhibitions, bookmaking initiatives, talks, workshops, and performances. It reflects on work she began in Newark in the 1980s and traces the evolution of her relationships with Project for Empty Space, Audible’s Newark Artist Collaboration, SHINE Portrait Studio at Express Newark, and The Newark Museum of Art—institutions that have served as platforms for experimentation, partnership, and community engagement.
“Multilingualism and translation are subjects very close to our hearts as researchers and educators, but they are also an essential part of our identities and lived experience. Through this project we hope to celebrate and illuminate the central role that knowing multiple languages plays in the lives of our students and their families, as well as for many members of our communities at Rutgers and in Newark. We also hope that this exhibition serves to highlight the linguistic ingenuity, creativity, and resourcefulness that characterize our diverse, polyglot community. Through portraits and audio testimonies, we honor those who have served as language brokers, cultural mediators, and keepers of memory. We invite Newark to hear the languages of its city, and to recognize that its linguistic diversity is not incidental, but inherent to its identity.”
Jennifer Austin & Stephanie Rodríguez
Housed in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies at Rutgers University-Newark, Lives in Translation pairs multilingual students with community organizations to provide translation, interpretation, and documentation of linguistic diversity. Among other languages, the program works with Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Korean, Portuguese, Gujarati, Arabic, Polish, Haitian Creole, Russian, Hindi, Tagalog, Italian, Vietnamese, Urdu, and French—reflecting the 15 most-used languages in New Jersey. The exhibition also reflects LiT’s broader advocacy efforts, including testimony before the New Jersey State Senate in support of expanded statewide language access legislation, an initiative that positions New Jersey as a national leader in equitable access to public services for limited-English-proficient residents.
The works on view extend a longstanding partnership with RU-N’s Design Consortium, bringing visibility to LiT’s research, data, and impact. Grounded in cooperative learning and community building through communication design, the Consortium is housed at Express Newark, a center in Newark, NJ, where artists, students, and community members collaborate to advance social change.
Through collaboration, research, and public art, A Feeling of Itself affirms that translation is not merely transactional—it is relational. In giving form to voices that move fluidly across languages, the exhibition invites audiences to experience language as light: connective, radiant, and alive.
A Feeling of Itself is led by designers Chantal Fischzang and Gisela Ochoa, in collaboration with Lives in Translation director Stephanie Rodriguez and advisor Jennifer Austin, and Design Consortium designers Jhoselyn Contreras and Yulisbeth Rojas.
Produced with support from Project for Empty Space, the Newark Story Bus, SHINE Portrait Studio at Express Newark, the Rutgers Language Engagement Project Research Advisory Council, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies, the School of Arts and Sciences, and the RU-N Chancellor’s Office.