Rooms for Thinking; Fly by The Studio with Doriana Diaz

Rooms for Thinking; Fly by The Studio is a monthly recurring open studio series by Soul Fly Club that highlights one artist, musician, or creative visionary each gathering. Guests are invited to stop by the studio for an evening of light music, communal making, and creative exploration inspired by the featured artist’s world, process, and genre. Each session transforms the studio into a soft listening room and hands-on creative space where attendees can experiment using materials connected to the evening’s featured artist and artistic language. Attendees are given the opportunity to engage directly with the featured artist — learning more about their creative practice, asking questions, hearing about their process, and spending time in genuine dialogue and exchange. Part open studio, part listening session, and part creative study hall, the series offers a place to slow down, gather, and create alongside one another. This months featured is Soul Fly Club's founder Doriana Diaz! Doriana Diaz is an Afro-Caribbean multidimensional artist, archivist, and memory worker deeply connected to the vibrant cultural landscape of Philadelphia. Her artistic practice spans a variety of mediums, primarily focusing on collage, cardboard cutouts, cyanotypes and bookmaking, which she uses to engage with themes of loss, memory, fantasy, utopia, formation, and identity. By documenting visual images and narratives, Doriana invites viewers to reflect on their own relationships with memory and cultural heritage. Her work gathers personal and found ephemera to create new archives that blend space, time and location. Throughout her career, she has hosted a diverse range of workshops in notable spaces across the city, including The African American Museum, Brandywine Museum of Art, United States Botanical Gardens, Mural Arts, and Fleisher Art Memorial. She has also collaborated with educational institutions such as Penn Charter, Delaware Valley Friends School, and Green Street Friends, as well as community hubs like Express Newark, Ipade, and Bok Bar. These workshops not only showcase her dedication to teaching and sharing her craft but also foster community engagement and collective creativity.