About the Exhibition

This exhibition brings together the paintings of the late Afro-Boricua artist and community organizer Gerardo Castro (1970–2024), the photography of artist and organizer Sabrina Kee, and a large-scale work by artist Raymond Vagg. Together, these three practices create a space that is at once ceremony, altar, and celebration, in which the past, present and future of queer communities of color coexist in the same room. The title begins in the middle of a sentence already in progress. The "…" is not merely punctuation. It is the weight of everything that came before: the police raids of gay bars, the legislation that threatens queer rights, the losses to AIDS, and the centuries of colonization that tried to criminalize the bodies, identities, and spiritual practices of the very communities this exhibition honors. And then, in defiance of it all …we shine.

Castro's paintings, saturated with Orisha iconography, cowrie shells, vévé symbols, and Black and Brown bodies held in their full sacred power, are presented here as altar objects: offerings from a life spent insisting on the ancientness and centrality of Black and Brown queer lives. In the Afro-Caribbean traditions from which his practice draws, the altar is not a place of remembrance but of communion. The ancestor is present. The axé, the sacred life force of Yoruba cosmology, still moves. Kee's portraits, joyful, adorned, lit from within, are the future Castro's paintings made possible: the proof, in full color, that the light did not go out. Vagg's work buries the turmoil of the present. His map of the United States does not just document this political moment but lays it to rest, so that something else can be born.

At the center of the gallery, the altar created by the curatorial team of this exhibition is a living installation in constant transformation. Visitors are invited to bring their own ofrendas; a flower, a photograph, a written word, any offering the hands know how to make, and add them to the altar during the opening reception and throughout the run of the show. The altar belongs to no single tradition. It is the oldest human act: placing something in a space and saying, “This matters, this person mattered, I was here.” Throughout the gallery, the poetry and prose of James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Kimberlé Crenshaw and Judith Butler is a lineage of thought that knows what this exhibition embodies: that the forces working against Black and Brown and queer and immigrant lives are not separate systems but the same project, and that our collective liberation, like our grief, cannot be pursued in pieces. This exhibition is one of the Community Center's 2026 contributions to our 2026 theme, Our Fight Is Love: Fierce Together, Fierce in Action.

Community Altar Installation

At the center of the gallery, an altar created by the curatorial team is a living installation in constant transformation. Visitors are invited to bring their own ofrendas — a flower, a photograph, a written word, any offering the hands know how to make. The altar belongs to no single tradition. All traditions welcome.

Exhibition Details

Opening Reception: Saturday, April 25, 2026, 4–6pm

On View: April 25–June 27, 2026

Location: Apuzzo Hall Gallery, Hudson Valley LGBTQ+ Community Center,

300 Wall Street, Kingston, NY 12401

Gallery Hours: Tuesday–Saturday 11am–7pm | Sunday 2–4pm

Admission: Free All work is for sale with a portion of proceeds benefitting the Center's programs.