Theda Sandiford

\

Emotional Baggage Cart Parade

Theda Sandiford

Friday

12–2pm

Roaming / 14th Street from Avenue A to Third Avenue

Saturday

12–2pm

Roaming / 14th Street from University Place to Seventh Avenue

Sunday

12–2pm

Roaming / 14th Street from Seventh to Eleventh Avenues

This public art initiative transforms mundane shopping carts into mobile art installations, highlighting and alleviating the psychological burdens individuals carry in their daily lives. The project offers a visual and interactive metaphor for the emotional baggage we all accumulate. Participants are invited to confront and symbolically release their emotional burdens, fostering a sense of communal healing and empathy. Theda Sandiford, who carries a lifetime of racial trauma, uses this project to address how such baggage can become overwhelming. The work emphasizes the choice between letting emotional baggage define us or moving forward with growth and openness.

thedasandiford.com

Theda Sandiford is a celebrated fiber and installation artist known for her innovative use of materials to explore racial trauma and collective memory. Her work involves weaving, coiling, and knotting fibers and found objects into “social fabric,” blending personal narratives with contemporary issues. Her art is included in the collections of the Guggenheim and Pittsburgh Children’s Museum. She has exhibited at World of Threads, Expo Chicago, and the American Contemporary Craft Exhibition. Sandiford’s accolades include the 2020 Jersey City Arts Visual Artist Award, a 2021 NJ StateCraft Fellowship, and the 2022 Jersey City Arts Council Fellowship. She is a 2023-24 National Leaders of Color Fellow.