Day Dreaming / Soñando despierta, from the portfolio Manifestaciones: Expressions of Dominicanidad in Nueva York

Scherezade García’s print depicts a dreaming female figure at the bottom of image, projecting Dominican island motifs onto the concrete and industrialized spaces of Manhattan. Planting the plantain branch into iconic Central Park, Garcia claims New York City as an “outer borough” of the Dominican Republic (DR). This spectral figure also marks the reconfiguration of DR racial identity, where Dominicans are considered non-Black in neighboring Haiti, but upon entering the US are wedged into the Black/White binary.

Unlike García’s aerial view, the foundational image within Alex Guerrero’s Vista Psicotrópica is a New York cityscape, a black-and-white photograph taken from the artist’s apartment. In this imaginative depiction of Dominican York living, Guerrero superimposes a small blue house surrounded by tall sprouting grasses, accompanied by a raincloud. Although the image is playful, Guerrero’s image of the humility of a Caribbean home disrupts the iconic skyline and subverts the rigidity of New York’s architecture.

These prints were produced through the inaugural project of the Dominican York Proyecto GRÁFICA (DYPG) a project focused on expressions of dominicanidad and the lived experience of diaspora in New York.