Even with his death, Assotto Saint wanted to provoke.
While dying of AIDS in the early ’90s, Saint made detailed plans for his funeral: lining up speakers, dictating which of his poems he wanted read and specifying which outfit he would wear. Having previously protested the government’s indifference to what was happening to gay men of his generation, Saint also requested that his funeral include a procession in Lower Manhattan, blocking traffic as his casket was carried through the streets by an honor guard of members from anti-AIDS political group AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP.
Born in Haiti in 1957 as Yves François Lubin, Saint moved to New York City in his youth; his adopted name came from a drum used in Haitian Vodou ceremonial rituals combined with a reference to Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture. A poet, publisher, performance artist and AIDS activist, Saint was an important figure in the Black and gay writers’ movement of the 1980s. He published his own poetry, edited that of others, and served as a mentor to other important queer Black cultural figures of his era, including Essex Hemphill, Marlon Riggs and Melvin Dixon.
Saint is the inspiration behind “Ayida,” a new exhibition at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University that opens this Friday. Organized by guest curator Serubiri Moses with support from ICA assistant curator Egbert Vongmalaithong, the exhibition explores artists’ relationships with Haitian Vodou and other African diasporic religions. The exhibition takes its name from Ayida-Weddo, a Haitian Vodou spirit of fertility, rainbows, wind, water, fire, wealth, thunder and snakes.
The idea for the exhibition came about through Moses’ visits to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. There, in the center’s archives, Moses immersed himself in Saint’s oeuvre. Between this immersion and meeting with various artists at their studios, the exhibition grew to include themes of spiritual and material complexities of the Caribbean diaspora in America.
“Assotto’s life provides some way to understand how American art relates to the Caribbean, specifically through questions of syncretism and ideas of the construction and meaning of different faiths and spiritual practices,” says Moses, who is also a visiting faculty member at New York’s Bard College and part-time faculty at Hunter College.
In the Caribbean it’s common for African and European faith traditions to meld, creating practices like Vodou and Santeria. The mixing of faith practices is central to the show, which includes works from Oletha DeVane, Thomas Allen Harris, Lizania Cruz, mujero and Didier William.
“They’re rooted in the United States [but] they have this really strong understanding of different faiths,” says Moses of the artists.
New York-based Dominican artist Lizania Cruz’ work often concerns human migration and the Dominican Republic. Her previous work includes floral arrangement protests of Donald Trump’s immigration policies that were designed by undocumented workers and signs printed on rice sacks that ask Dominicans and Dominican Americans to text responses to questions about their shared history.
“She prints onto them, and she names the different locations where you can find the kind of research that she’s done, or different sources of archives [and] repositories for her research on the Dominican racial imaginary,” Moses explains.
Oletha DeVane, a Baltimore-based multidisciplinary artist, will display sculptures made from materials that speak to the complexities of migration. Her work often explores political identities, social identities and cultural interpretations.
“Some of the materials and symbols that are seen in Oletha’s work are a mix of western technologies like cell phones and bullets,” Vongmalaithong says. “Also woven in are shells and beadwork. This theme of syncretism is especially evident in this collage of materials.”
A multidisciplinary artist who came of age in the 1980s, Thomas Allen Harris engaged with other queer filmmakers of color early in his career, including Marlon Riggs. His personal and experimental films have received numerous awards; “Ayida” showcases some of his photography and film work, including the first ever showing of footage that focuses on Saint.
Moses says that mujero, an American-born artist with Dominican parents, is “highly articulate, and in some ways, one of the most educated artists in the show.” A series of life crises — including converting to evangelicalism, then being forced to leave because of their sexuality — has shaped their work; “through those series’ of life circumstances, [mujero] found their way back to the Caribbean and specifically their family,” Moses adds.
Didier William is a Haitian-born American artist who Moses calls a “master of printmaking.”
“The paintings, as we call them, are sculptural because he’s also carving into the paint,” Moses says. “His work is very much a reflection of these faith traditions. It’s a lot about perception. It’s a lot about memory. His larger body of work is a reflection of where he grew up, which is Florida.”
The exhibition will kick off with a gallery talk with Serubiri Moses on Friday at 5:30 p.m. in the ICA’s Gallery 2.
“Ayida” is on display from June 27 through March 8, 2026 at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, 601 W. Broad St. A gallery talk with curator Serubiri Moses will take place Friday, June 27 at 5:30 p.m. at the ICA. For more information visit icavcu.org.
