We were lucky to catch up with Iya . recently and have shared our conversation below.

Iya, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I learn through the vibrancy of relationships, lived experiences, and the winding paths of study, guided always by Comrade Eros and a constellation of pro-resistance, anti-colonial denizens. Through the art of agitprop, collective movement, and surreal conversations, I’ve blossomed into a Socialist Surrealist, an identity molded in the transformative spirit of collective organizing, somatic expressionist art, and the rich thoughts and actions of those resisting capitalist patriarchy. My education is a tapestry woven from radical spaces, Socialist Surrealism’s visionary realms, and the lived wisdom of comrades.

My journey to understanding Socialist Surrealism followed the ebbs and flows of my life’s current, with obstacles ever-present in this settler colony’s parasitic, patriarchal Christian capitalist realism. But by attuning to my body and grounding myself in animistic connection with the earth, I’ve come to articulate an art movement that has quietly, and sometimes loudly, defied colonialism from its inception. Today, my mission is to awaken the artist-revolutionary within each of us, composting the poisons of compartmentalization, competition, and hyper-individualism, cultivating insurgent imaginations to nurture a revolution. A revolution fertilized in decolonization, sprouting a communism rooted in queer, Indigenous, feminist characteristics.

Acknowledgments: The Rhizome in Portland, OR; Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams & Radical Dharma; Organizing for Autonomy by Counter Power; Toyen; Claude Cahun; Leonor Fini; Aimé & Suzanne Césaire; Amílcar Cabral; Frantz Fanon; Amiri Baraka; Jayne Cortez; The Red Nation & Red Media; the Zapatistas; Franklin Rosemont; Robin D.G. Kelley; Fred Moten; Mao Zedong; Socialist Realism in the Levant; the Pan-African Festival of Algiers 1969; Kwame Ture; Ghassan Kanafani; and bell hooks, among others.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is iya, a genderqueer trans-femme Slavic baba (they/she), Socialist Surrealist, and dedicated organizer. My roots are nourished by the abundant fields of community care, late-night revelations, and a steadfast commitment to collective liberation. While my journey has sprouted from many places, it was through countless, generative conversations with my closest comrade, CW, that a new world emerged, within and around us. Together, we peeled back layers of reality, sowing seeds of dreams that would bloom into a vision of communism intertwined with queer, Indigenous, feminist characteristics. My work finds its home in the intersection of art and liberation, where surrealism pulls back the veil to reveal gateways into new worlds and revolutionary futures.

In practice, I create agitprop, curate events, and shape experiences that challenge the very foundation of colonial, capitalist, and patriarchal systems. My projects encompass community gatherings, multi-medium art practices, and educational workshops that spark dialogue and reveal visionary possibilities. Socialist surrealism is my guide, helping me cultivate spaces that are both grounding and transformative—places where imaginations find fertile soil to dream and organize for futures that defy oppression. I believe art should transcend gallery walls, living instead in the hands and hearts of those committed to the struggle for liberation.

What sets my work apart is its rootedness in community and its decolonial spirit. I am quite proud of events like “Our Trancestral Tapestry: A Surrealist Soirée,” a space where trans and genderqueer folks connected with their “trancestors” in the surrealist art movement, and the Socialist Surrealist Tea Party, where guests collectively acted as oracles, answering questions both bizarre and profound. My art is not a passive creation—it is insurgent, meant to grow a tradition of resilience and community imagination. Here, we compost hyper-individualism and competition, nurturing a world where relationality and collective liberation bloom.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I wish to Manifest the Marvelous as Suzanne Césaire once wrote.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Most lessons ingrained by our racial, patriarchal, capitalist society need unlearning—a journey that goes beyond shifting ideas in the mind. It involves listening deeply to the body, noticing its responses, and allowing these reactions to guide transformation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://iya-art.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baba__iya/
• Other: Are.na: https://www.are.na/iya-novak/socialist-surrealism
  Patreon: https://patreon.com/babaiya

Image Credits

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