Image: Experimental School for Black Imagination, 2026.

Noticing Zine Activation is a co-created ceremony of paying attention, solo and together, hosted by Experimental School for Black Imagination. We’ll practice noticing what repeats, what we’ve inherited, and what’s still becoming, in the room and, weather permitting, out along the waterfront. Expect to play, be asked questions, and try out ways of looking at each other. Wear comfortable clothing. No prep needed, and reading the zine beforehand is optional though encouraged.

This event is programmed in conjunction with the exhibition, A Thousand Answers: Rhizome Fellowship Artists 2025/26.

About the Artist

Zella is an artist, cultural organizer, and designer whose work spans painting, performance, zines, and portal-making; and a founding organizer with the Experimental School for Black Imagination, a collective offering led by artists tending to the ways we come together to create, feel, and grow. Zella’s work aims to ask new questions about what it means to be free, while being a mirror for Black queer folks; visualizing our beauty, divinity, and boundless new worlds that have always been ours to take up spiritual residence in. Zella earned an MFA in Interaction Design from the School of Visual Arts; and they split their time between New York City and Côte d’Ivoire. They are also a board member and design lead with the Black Veterans Project. They live in Brooklyn with their turtle, MJ.