Lucky Art Fair & Southern Solidarity

Lucky Art Fair & Southern Solidarity

Uptown Laundry

Photo courtesy of the artist.

The inaugural Lucky Art Fair took place in New Orleans, Louisiana in June of 2019. Occupying a hotel property under development in Mid City, 18+ guest rooms were filled with installations and exhibitions by 35 New Orleans-based artists. The space was occupied over the course of two weekends, hosting over 40 local performers and programmers and welcoming over 2,000 visitors. All artists were paid for their contributions, facilitating for some the first financial transaction for their work. New Orleans has a rich history that is plagued with systemic racism and wealth disparity; Lucky Art Fair built its 2019 fair on a philosophy that attempted to address the manifestations of those inequities in our local art scene.

Southern Solidarity was founded in March 2020 in response to the consequences faced by unhoused New Orleanians due to covid-19. We have organized protests, started food sovereignty projects, connected folks with permanent housing, medicaid and SNAP benefits, as well as provided vital healthcare through our team of street medics. What started as a group of four people making sandwiches in a kitchen has over the last eighteen months has blossomed into a large team of organizers and volunteers providing people with food, medical supplies, clothing, tents and bedding on a daily basis. We have also connected with organizers and activists from around the country, participating in a national network of people who see the same potential we do for real, permanent change. Our purpose is to connect people with the resources they need with the goal of building solidarity and trust. We realize that only through revolutionary community building will it be possible to organize and demand housing as a right, and to envision a social system which respects, values, and protects all of our lives and dignity.

In the spirit of Prospect.5: Yesterday we said tomorrow, Lucky is choosing to embrace the hope that direct action and structural change affords. For their Prospect.5 Satellite project, Lucky and Southern Solidarity will establish a new space called Uptown Laundry, which will be part art gallery, part organizing space, part revolutionary library, as well as a functioning laundromat providing free laundry and employment to unhoused and under-housed people.