When I met her last week at a local café, Dola, a multidisciplinary artist who lives in Newark, candidly told me that the inspiration for the “Dear Dad” event she’s hosting to honor fathers of color didn’t stem from having a perfect relationship with her own Black dad.

“Nah, far from it,” she says, “but it was 100% inspired by him.” She tells me her relationship with her dad, who passed away in 2019, was actually, at times, “complicated.” But she explains that, regardless of their many differences, her father “always showed up” for her. His love for her, she says, “never wavered.”