Although the queer and BIPOC led art space was open for “just” a year and nine months, Strange Constellation was met with the kind of sudden, galvanic, runaway horses’ success that only happens when a new venture fills a deep yearning need in a community.
The closure comes with multiple reasons. The easiest of which to grasp was the question of money, and how to maintain such an expressly anti-capitalist space for community amid the grinding requirements of late capitalism. There were gifts—oh, there were so many gifts of time, talent, art and flowers from the marginal community that they served, but too few dollars among them. Owners Dani DiAngelo and Lee Johnson were forced to work multiple other jobs amid housing insecurity, debt spending, car troubles and no safety net. And now the limit has been reached.
Still raw in their grieving process, DiAngelo and Johnson agreed to meet for an early statement on the closing, and to talk at my request about how the wider community might thank them for their unpaid work and help them through their next steps.
Cincinnatus Hibbard: Tell me about opening the space.
Dani DiAngelo: I had come from restaurant management. I was GMing and hating it. I took a year off to study herbalism and figure out what I wanted to do that wasn’t working for a millionaire white man. And I was frustrated by the lack of spaces like this that represent us—us being BIPOC and other marginalized communities that have been told a million times that this is Wine Country and it’s a happy place if you love working in wine and serving people wine … but I don’t enjoy any of those things (they laugh).
Lee Johnson: Factual.
DD: In Northern California, everyone thinks they are an ally and impervious to racism and classism…
LJ: …which we both found is so far from the truth, in so many ways (they laugh) from working in the [wine focused] restaurant where we met to walking around the streets together…
DD: Yeah, so many micro-aggressions—and macro-aggressions on the regular.
LJ: We were always in other people’s spaces, not having anywhere to feel safe. Not having anywhere to let my shoulders down and just breathe. Always walking around ready for a fight.
Tell me about co-creating the space with the community.
DD: When we opened as an art space, people were like, “What does that mean?,” and we said, “You tell us.”
LJ: What do you need it to mean? This world’s a little scary —what do you need?
You tried a lot of their ideas and there were a lot of one-offs, but you were best known for what emerged as regular—your weekly craft night hangs, your Sunday performance spotlights, your First Friday events and your annual Juneteenth block parties. Could you shout out just a few of the key collaborators that helped you build this?
DD: Cecilia Şenocak, Bianey Esquibel of Quince Project, Da Components Collective, nadia solano of Cariño Vintage, Dabid Ortega of Tacos El Gran Mac, Mathilde Amiot and Joshua Thwaites of Big Mouth Unique, BiankA AlloyN & SabreeN NaimaH of I Love Cute Coffee. Many more…
What advice do you have for those that will come after you?
LJ: It’s never going to be easy, but do it anyway, because no matter how far or long it goes, it’s going to be worth it.
Learn more. For closeout events and final sales, follow @__strangeconstellation, and help DiAngelo and Johnson continue to make art with donations at gofund.me/046b3e8d.
