The Day That Never Came / El Día Que Nunca Llegó
The Day That Never Came / El Día Que Nunca Llegó was a collaborative sound installation, record release, and community-engaged art project centering the voices of unhoused and formerly unhoused individuals in Santa Cruz County.
Developed over the course of a year, the project was built from nearly eight hours of recorded conversations with Mace Crowbear, Lisa Bordenave, Julio Lopez, and Sandra Aguilar. Their testimonies, reflecting on survival, displacement, addiction, parenthood, grief, resilience, and belonging; formed the foundation of both a vinyl/CD release and a quadraphonic sound installation.
The accompanying record paired each orator with a single sound artist: Leshy (Ben Krasner), Briana Marela, e-fem.url (Maya Garcia), and myself - creating four long-form compositions that blur the boundaries between oral history, documentary, and noise/ experimental music. The gallery installation weaved together all four voices around shared themes of survival, systemic inequality, loss, recovery, and home.
Presented June 5-7 2026 at Indexical, the exhibition also featured visual works by Ann Altstatt, Joy Schendledecker, Little Giant Collective, and international artists from the Czech collective Fůd, alongside public programming including panel discussions, a housing rights protest banner workshop, and community listening sessions.
Created in close collaboration with its participants, The Day That Never Came / El Día Que Nunca Llegó, is rooted in the belief that listening is an act of care. Rather than speaking about homelessness, the project creates space for people to speak for themselves: inviting audiences to encounter stories too often overlooked and to reflect on the social, political, and human realities that shape life without stable housing.
Proceeds from the project benefited Pajaro Valley Loaves & Fishes, with additional records donated to orator-selected community organizations: Housing Matters and People First; to extend the life of the work beyond the gallery.