IF YOU DROP IN A MUSEUM OR GALLERY OPENING in Santa Fe, it’s likely you’ll encounter a striking visage – an amazing looking woman, dressed better than anyone else in the room. You can’t really miss her. This would be Nelly Joy.
Eighteen years ago she arrived in Santa Fe from her native Burundi and, after a short career as a massage theraist, landed at Casa Nova, an African gallery that she manages and helps curate.
We sit down to talk and she starts off by admitting to a passionate love for color, style and texture. But, of course, this is obvious from the surrounding gallery – and from her outfit.
Nelly Joy is an artist herself – her work expresses the horror of the Burundi/Rwanda genocide of 1993.
She is a proud, gay, black woman. But mostly she is a human who truly sees other humans. And that’s what she wants to talk about.
When did you move to the United States?
Twenty years ago, I moved from Africa to Santa Fe to go to a massage school, The Scherer Institute of Natural Healing. They were truly amazing. Everything was paid for. The tuition, the books, even a translator, since I didn’t speak English when I arrived.
Santa Fe must have been a shock. Not really a lot Black people here.
For sure, there aren’t a lot here. If you live here, you have to not mind being alone. And that’s hard for many African Americans, because we like community.
But Santa Fe is unique — I don’t really feel like I’m treated as “Black” here. It just wasn’t a big deal.
Interestingly, the African American experience is different from where I grew up in Burundi. In my country, people were not taken and shipped overseas for slavery like people from other African countries. So in the Great Lakes Region in East Africa, we did not have to fight for our freedom in the same way. Instead, we fought for our independence from Europeans. But the subtle – and not so subtle – racism is still here.
But I feel really, really lucky to be here. Especially being a woman, a single woman, a gay woman, a Black woman.
Have you met lot of other Black people in Santa Fe?
I wouldn’t say a lot. Every so often some come into the gallery, bringing friends and families. When they do, I am delighted to get to know them better.
Actually, I just want everyone to feel welcome and comfortable when they visit the gallery. I make it easy for them to walk around, sit down and relax.
I do this in the gallery, but also everywhere in my life. With people, that first encounter is very important. It’s human-to-human. It’s like, I see you — and its not about any monetary transaction. This is what I love about Santa Fe. People actually see you here.
You don’t look at somebody and just think, How can they help me? What can I get out of this? Is it worth my time talking to them?
Every client is a new human contact and I try to make people as comfortable as possible. If it translates to a monetary result, that’s fine, but it is not about transaction.
In most towns, everybody is either born there or they move there for a job. Santa Fe is not like that. People move here to create a unique life around the things they care about. Maybe that’s why they’re good at seeing each other?
I think so. People in Santa Fe really do pay attention to each other. They truly see each other, because the person they’re looking at has also made a big effort to build a life here.
Honestly, there’s nothing that makes me uncomfortable in this town. It has become home. It’s like a place I have been.
Learn more at casanovagallery.com
Photo SFM
