When movement and school and steadfast and study become one long chant

An end of Spring Newsletter

The first part of this newsletter is a BULLETIN BOARD with upcoming and current shows, projects, book releases and events, that I hope you will come to and share with your communities.

And the second part is ROOTS, WEBS, NETS, and BRANCHES. A written offering, sharing of work, expansion & footnotes of what’s going on in my studio, practice and brain. This part is paid and I invite you to support my work for $5 a month, $50 a year or become a founding member for $150 a year.

ROOTS WEBS NETS BRANCHES BULLETIN BOARDS is my practice, is labor, is my work.

1. BULLETIN BOARD

Steadfast Study

May 2- June 28, 2026, Special Events: Letter writing to political prisoners: June 19, Steadfast Study Book Release: June 25 & Banner drop: June 27 (full info below)

September Gallery, 4 Hudson Street #3, Kinderhook, NY 12106, Gallery hours: Thursday 11am-4pm, Friday-Sunday 11am-5pm

In the words of my dear comrade and friend, Katie Giritlian,

“Steadfast” a word of discernment, of clarity, of precision achieved through a “lifelong voice to fight.” “Study” a word of abundance, of expansion, of porous possibilities made through collective learning and exchange. These two words together make room for living with, and within, collective struggle and liberation. These two words together both make clear and expansively hold what artist, abolitionist, educator, storyteller and cultural worker Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo extends to us: a series of multidisciplinary works that broadcast the life of language and its inevitable transformation when we take part in Steadfast Study together. Sandwich board paintings, murals, prints, broadsides, a book, an ecosystem—Branfman-Verissimo’s works are made of the language, material and breath of what it means to gather together inside of each and every pulse that makes liberation.

STEADFAST STUDY announces. In the entrance of September Gallery lives the artist’s collection of sandwich board paintings, announcing and welcoming us to gather here. Amassing multiple signs together, Branfman-Verissimo reroutes the rules of signage to choreograph new cues and new views, readying our breath for the openness needed to speak to and with collective care.

STEADFAST STUDY chants. In the largest room of the gallery, big enough to hold us all within, lives the mural series and a site specific mural on the walls. Together, these works transform the many voices and teachers of STEADFAST STUDY into a tapestry where language is made larger together, where words break free to return to each other, where “different strategies are fighting for the same goal.”

STEADFAST STUDY dwells. On the other side of the gallery is a room to study within. Here lives the artist’s debut publication, ‘Steadfast Study’, published by Cripple and produced by September Gallery, that archives and disperses Branfman-Verissimo’s writings around the artist’s role within liberation movements. This publication, alongside a series of prints and painted broadsides, disperses language for hosting our study. As we dwell in the intimacy of book and prints, we hear an audio piece that gives a sonic voice to the language in and across the works of the show.

STEADFAST STUDY exchanges. A conversation between Branfman-Verissimo and their friend and collaborator, Katie Giritlian, takes form through letters, back and forth as they talk through the themes of Branfman-Verissimo’s show and practice at large. Copies of this conversation are available within the show.

All together, STEADFAST STUDY offers us windows, ways, words that invite us to speak, breathe, and hum with the life (and lifelong) work of collective struggle and liberation.

Special Events:

Struggle until you achieve the goal: letter writing to political prisoners

June 19, 5-8pm

Steadfast Study is a space to learn, skill up and take action together, join us for a night of letter writing to political prisoners across turtle island. Letter writing is one of the most accessible ways to bridge connection, support, and learning between those incarcerated and folks on the outside. We will write to a selection of current political prisoners and learn about the long legacy of abolitionist organizing. All supplies will be provided.

Steadfast Study Book Release and Reading

June 25, 5-7pm

“Twenty eight chapters like the number of letters when movement and school and steadfast and study become one long chant. From twenty eight different days throughout the past three years... Each written work is a broadcast, some louder than others, some with assignments included and homework/continued study and some to be read quietly on your porch...”

We gather to welcome and celebrate the release of, Steadfast Study, published by Cripple and produced by September Gallery. Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo and a selection of local collaborators and friends will be reading excerpts from the collection to call the words into the world! Books will be for sale onsite and are also available for pre-order, here.

Real time legacy building: a banner drop

June 27, all day

A banner broadcasts and announces demands, disseminates voices and invites the public into the understanding of the voices that raised it. In honor of Kinderhook Pride, which takes place on the afternoon/evening of June 27, we will be dropping a banner on the outside wall of September Gallery. For the duration of the Pride gathering/ closing of the show weekend, September Gallery will be open and invites all attendees to spend time within our current show!

Access Notes about September Gallery:

To enter use the entrance located at the Northside of The Knitting Mill Building via the parking lot. At the Northside entrance there is a glass door with a handle. Once in the building, turn right to follow signs pointing you towards the stairwell/ elevator to the gallery. The gallery is located on the third floor of the mixed use building. To use the elevator, please press the call button. The button will have a blue light that goes off when the elevator has arrived. To enter the elevator, open the door and let it shut behind you, the door will lock, wait for the accordion doors to close on their own and press the button for the floor that you wish to access. If you need to unlock the elevator door press the button for the floor that you are already on. If you choose to take the steps, there are three banks of stairs with hand railings. The first bank has seventeen stairs, the second bank of stairs has four steps and the third bank of stairs has twelve. The floors of the gallery are a smooth wood surface. There is one non ADA accessible gender neutral bathroom in the gallery and two ADA accessible gender neutral bathrooms on the ground floor by the elevator. For the duration of Steadfast Study, KN95 masks will be required to be worn in the gallery. We have masks provided in the space, thank you for keeping the artist and community safe!

Don’t Mind If I do

January 30- June 28, 2026, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA

Finnegan Shannon is an artist whose mischievous works challenge traditional museum practices and etiquette. For Don’t mind if I do, Shannon brings alive their longtime fantasy for an exhibition that meets their access needs. “I’m disabled,” they say, “and I need to sit. I’ve been dreaming about an exhibition where instead of having to move from artwork to artwork, I could sit somewhere comfortable and have the artwork come to me.”

Don’t mind if I do is a collaborative experiment demonstrating how temporary changes in power structures create pathways of access for visitors, artists, and staff. Anchored by a conveyor belt that brings artworks to visitors who are invited to sit around comfortable furniture and engage with the objects, the exhibition features artworks by a selection of artists who have influenced Shannon’s practice. The paraded objects, including plastic pill bottles, tissue box covers, and gender-affirming packers, signify illness, systems of support, and play within everyday life.

Embraced for its efficiency and mechanized transport of goods, the conveyor belt is reappropriated as a vehicle for cultivating a more relaxed museum-going experience. It welcomes informality, messiness, and unsettling the hierarchy of objects.

This text was written by Denny Mwaura for Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois at Chicago based on texts by Finnegan Shannon and Lauren Leving and is used with permission.

Artists in the show: Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Pelenakeke Brown, Sky Cubacub, Emilie L. Gossiaux, Felicia Griffin, Joselia Rebekah Hughes, Jeff Kasper and Finnegan Shannon.

As well as, Rooted, drawings from architect Phyllis Birkby’s archives.

2. ROOTS, WEBS, NETS, BRANCHES

Tacked up to my late spring studio bulletin board, in an expanded sense is: