The Bata Project Promo Video

The Bata Project uses the bata, a traditional house dress, to explore stories of Caribbean womxn and the journey of transnationalism to sustain family, culture, and community within the local-global diaspora of NYC.

This public project is an opportunity to reconnect and celebrate the bata as an urban folk piece and elevate this domestic dress evolution through an interdisciplinary exhibition of visual art, storytelling, performance, and music. The twist is how this project highlights this “at-home island fashion” into the conversation, and raises visibility for maternal lineages along with the impact of the home and community life on our public life within contemporary urban folklore. There are many cultures who have house coats as part of their home life. Focusing on the bata creates a deep connection with other folkloric histories around this day dress also known as the duster, muumuu, or housecoat - which brings the bata into a universality with many other cultures in NYC. 



I invite peers and community members of all ages, genders to participate and wear their batas to join in the interdisciplinary discourse of this project via visual art, storytelling, music, and sharing of folklore. Gatherings occur through a series of public events which highlight this house dress and creates interconnections with fashion and fusion of the isla/urban communities. With multiple creative access points, this project offers agency to multiple community members and artists as well as the general public. 

In this process of togetherness and community building, the focus is on the energy of the group that gathers, and the group grows organically through word of mouth as previous participants invite their friends and family members to join them at the next public gathering. This togetherness supports invitations to the public to join in the conversation and share stories. 

As The Bata Project unfolds, we will witness how this dress - worn outside in the public eye - subverts social expectations and celebrates the power of home and stories connected with home, care, the body, and history as something you bring with you everywhere.