Overview:
NeFesha Ruth launched “The Paint + Punch Project: An Exploration of Sexuality + Spirituality through Art + Athleticism” during June’s ArtHop, aiming to unite cross-sectional communities through storytelling and open dialogue.
NeFesha Ruth, 39, stepped into the ring in full swing, dressed head-to-toe in an all-white robe and boxing gloves.
She boxed a punching bag with different colored paint, such as red, green, and orange, as a metaphor for baptism, cleansing, purity, and the messy weight of gossip. Ruth no longer identifies as a Christian or any other religion, but still feels a deep connection with God.
Ruth’s performance took place Thursday night at ArtHop, hosted by the BreakBox Thought Collective, and explored how her intersectional identities and life experiences have shaped her journey.
Throughout Ruth’s performance, you hear pure gospel music mixed with house beats, genres she often turns to during moments of release and spiritual reckoning, and a pre-recorded narration of Ruth guiding the audience through her story.
The crowd listened as she reflected on the intersectionality of her identity as a queer Black woman raised in primarily Baptist churches and influenced by her grandmother, who’s a Pentecostal preacher.
“I’ve lived my life at many intersections—from my queer identity to my spiritual practice, from my artistic life to my background as an athlete,” Ruth said in an interview with Fresnoland. “This project is about bringing people from all these different communities into one space—and also inviting those who may not share those experiences, but are curious about the conversation.”
Ruth has been deeply involved in the arts as both a creative director, curator and an artist. She used to run Fresno’s African-American Historical & Cultural Museum in 2022, where she played a key role in bringing it back to life during the pandemic.
Beyond her work in culture and community, she’s also an accomplished athlete—competing in basketball, track, and boxing. In fact, Ruth is a two-time national boxing champion and was a bantamweight fighter for Team USA.
In an interview with Fresnoland, Ruth said she’s been developing different iterations of this deeply personal work for over a decade—each version rooted in her own story.
The hope, Ruth said, is that by sharing her story in such an embodied and vulnerable way, she invites broader conversations that extend beyond a single evening.
This latest iteration came to life after Ruth was approached by the founder of BreakBox Thought Collective, an organization that curates culturally responsive events in the Central Valley through cross-sector partnerships.
With support from BreakBox’s Artists-in-Residence program, funded by Measure P, Ruth was given the opportunity to develop a new art piece. She chose to explore a larger vision she’s long held: using art as a catalyst for difficult but necessary conversations.
Ruth, who has lived in Fresno for the past seven years, noted that while intersectional conversations do happen here, they’re often siloed and rarely approached through a lens like hers. She sees this work as meeting a broader need—one that goes beyond Fresno—especially at a time when the U.S. political climate is marked by deepening division.
“When we lean into curiosity,” she said, “we can begin to understand each other better. We start asking questions. We don’t have to lead with judgment, and we don’t have to feel threatened by someone being different from who we are.”
Throughout her life, Ruth has wrestled with the question of whether one’s sexuality can be part of a spiritual conversation. She’s also wrestled with whether the two can coexist, which inspired the title of her project.
“I’ve explored many different religions and spiritual practices that have broadened my understanding of spirituality and helped me move beyond silos,” said Ruth. “It would have been easy for me to view Christianity or any religion with boundaries and walls that separate and segregate, as a silo. But by learning about spirituality and practices from Buddhists, atheists, agnostics, and others, I’ve expanded how I interact with people and become a better community member.”
At the performance, a recurring theme was Ruth’s internal struggle and deep hope around what it means to love a “fear and trembling” God while also learning to fully love herself.
She spoke about embracing her queerness and the joy that comes with living that truth, even as she acknowledged she’s still on the journey toward full freedom.
Drawing on the imagery from Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” Ruth described her longing for a future where people like her can coexist freely and fully—a time when the caged bird, like herself, might finally sing outside the cage.
Ruth’s 30-minute performance was followed by an open dialogue with the audience, where she shared reflections on her identities, lived experiences, and the future direction of her project.
BreakBox Thought Collective will have a gallery of the project open to the public on July 19. Looking ahead, Ruth hopes to bring people together through paint and heavy bags, creating space for others to explore and express their own stories.
“My body has been used for my creative practice, and it’s been used as an athlete, but I’m also creative,” said Ruth. “I think that when we think of art, sometimes we have a smaller idea of what art is, but it’s really about human creative expression and using everything within us to create something meaningful that then provokes someone else to think about that thing in a different way than maybe they have.”
