Local mixed-media artist Lydia Boddie-Rice will join us at the library on Thursday, April 9, at 7:00 PM, to talk about her most recent exhibition, Rising on the Wind: The Messengers.
Rising on the Wind: The Messengers is an immersive, experiential installation that harnesses the healing power of visual art and literature to foster self-expression, emotional resilience, and cultural storytelling.
At the heart of the installation is “Triumph,” the inaugural inspirational kite honoring Nicolette Ferguson, a 21-year former Principal Dancer for world-renowned Garth Fagan Dance and a breast cancer survivor. The piece represents the strength and power of her triumphant re-emergence as a phoenix rising above circumstance with quiet strength, humility, and resilience. Her story anchors a growing constellation of companion storytelling kites, including “Elements,” featuring Artistic Director and Principal Dancer Norwood “PJ” Pennewell, Natalie Rogers-Cropper, Executive Director of Garth Fagan Dance, and Garth Fagan himself. Additional statement pieces demonstrate an interpretive range of emotional depth—a hallmark of Boddie-Rice’s portrait work.
Each sculptural form symbolizes personal and collective journeys—stories of remembrance, resistance, and renewal. Suspended throughout the space, the kites function as both visual anchors and narrative vessels, lifting lived experiences into the air as acts of creative restoration, release, and transformation.
Boddie-Rice was inspired by her discovery of purpose in the Chinese poem “Zhi Yuan” (Kite) by Zhun Kou (961–1023 CE): “a kite rises on the wind.” In the poem, the phrase suggests that—like a kite—the wind of one’s supporters helps them rise.
Rooted in African American folklore—such as Virginia Hamilton’s The People Could Fly—and inspired by Mayan beliefs that kites carry messages to ancestors, the installation honors cultural memory and ancestral communication. It intentionally invites historically marginalized communities, particularly youth and families, to see themselves reflected as co-creators in a living archive of healing and hope.
Rising on the Wind unveils and unifies a body of individual works that present art as a healing conduit for collective emotional, spiritual, and physical restoration of mind, body, and spirit. The stories inspiring the companion kites are curated to reflect Boddie-Rice’s narrative priorities, process, and selection criteria. Integrating architectural presentation, installation, three-dimensional adornment such as beading and wood-burned elements, storytelling, and audience reflection are central to creating intentional, immersive, and emotional experiences for viewers. When paired with the stories that inspired their creation, the kites offer interdisciplinary, thematic, and visually stimulating points of engagement.
Together, the aerial display encourages audiences to reflect, feel, and respond across emotional, visual, and narrative dimensions.
These powerful, hand-crafted artworks will be on display in our Atrium beginning on Thursday, April 9, and continuing through Thursday, April 30. Presented by the Town of Irondequoit and the Irondequoit Public Library, the installation will feature a unique and transformative collection of handcrafted portrait kites that tell stories from the Rising on the Wind: The Messengers exhibition.
Library Director Greg Benoit is very excited for the upcoming exhibition: “Lydia’s display of mixed-media, hand-crafted storytelling kites touches the emotions of the viewer, taking one on an immersive journey of exploration, expression, and introspection. Her book forms a keepsake framework of the exhibition for all ages.”
Published on January 17, 2026.
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