Hope Station
Hope Station | Film Stills | 2026
A Black Prayer | Installation Shots | 2026
Hope Station | Film Still | 2026
Director of Photography | Director | Art Director & Costume Designer | Graphics - Yelaine Rodriguez
Editor | Audio Editing & Mixing - Daniel D’Meza
Performer | Eboni Darkenwald as Harriet Tubman
Producers | Yelaine Rodriguez & SPACES
Assistant Producer - Thea Spittle
A Black Prayer
Grounded in preserving and caring for histories of Black people, SPACES Artist-in-Residence Yelaine Rodriguez premieres A Black Prayer, a new exhibition that recontextualizes a pre-existing work alongside new work made specifically during her residency in Cleveland. Yelaine Rodriguez (b. 1990) is an Afro-DominicanYork interdisciplinary artist and scholar focused on sculpture, photography, film, and performance. Her work explores Afro-syncretism, architectural and ancestral memory, connecting the Caribbean and the U.S.
For her exhibition at SPACES, Rodriguez presents a re-imagining of her pre-existing work, Miss Doc, a video performance art piece that delves into migration patterns, race relations, and women's rights during the Reconstruction Era. It tells the story of Dr. Sarah Loguen Fraser, born in 1850, who was the fourth Black woman to become a licensed physician in the United States and the first woman doctor and pediatric specialist in the Dominican Republic. Exhibited in The Oracle Gallery, this iteration of Miss Doc features a multi-channel video, photographic works, and a sculptural installation incorporating archival materials. The presentation of Miss Doc at SPACES serves as an homage to Sarah’s grandmother, Cherry, who was born free in Ohio before being kidnapped into slavery at the age of seven. Subsequently, Cherry played a pivotal role in assisting her son (Sarah’s father), the noted abolitionist and bishop Jermain Wesley Loguen, to escape slavery by crossing the Ohio River.
In The George Gund Gallery, Rodriguez premieres Hope Station, a short film exploring Northeast Ohio’s role in the Underground Railroad, with a particular focus on Harriet Tubman’s various journeys north, portrayed by Cleveland dancer Eboni Darkenwald. Throughout the gallery, Rodriguez arranges ceramic-made lanterns alongside bricks and found objects in this site-responsive exhibition that extends Rodriguez’s dynamic, research-based practice through new making techniques and regional collaborations. The ceramic lanterns serve as signifiers of the Underground Railroad, recalling their historical deployment as covert signals for freedom seekers. By foregrounding these connections, the installation is situated within an expanded discourse on resistance, coded communication, interracial allyship, and collective liberation.
Curatorial Text by Thea Spittle
Funders & Partners
Community partners for A Black Prayer include Valerie Grossman from BRICK Ceramics + Design Studio, Orlando Caraballo from Cleveland Print Room, Jon Skrtic and Nicole McGee from Cleveland Public Library, Jessica Davis from Rebuilder’s Exchange, Sonia Bingham from Native Roots, Inc., Ann Sindelar from Western Reserve Historical Society, St. John’s Episcopal Church and The Episcopal Diocese of Ohio, Cleveland Institute of Art, and Kent State University Library - Special Collections. Additional support comes from Eboni Darkenwald, Stephen Calhoun, Danté Rodriguez, and McKinley Wiley.