Community Arts Facilitation

Art has the power to transform, to inspire, and to provoke change

—Toni Cade Bambara

I believe that making art, and to extend that - living creatively - is both a human need and a liberatory practice. Community arts spaces are places of connection, rejuvination, and (co)creation.

The act of making through art is an embodied way of thinking/feeling/doing something completely new. When we do this in a collective, the whole can be much greater than the sum of its parts: so much becomes possible as a group moves through creative processes together. Whatever the focus of my facilitation, I always ensure that groups are well resourced with creative outlets and provocations throughout our time together.

Creating together:

  • Decenter art as a form of capitalist production, and reclaims its function as a critical part of our collective wellness and healing

  • Shifts reliance on our often overworked cognitive systems, allowing us to access other forms of processing (emotional/physical/spiritual)

  • Supports emotional regulation and collective co-regulation

  • Builds individuals’ self-efficacy and consequently stronger collectives

  • Is a critical tool in supporting groups in the complex processing of grief, conflict, trauma, relational transitions, and social/political/cultural/historical markers

  • Is a way of recording what we learn and sharing it with others

  • Offers us the embodied experience of trying new things - to create is to think beyond existing paradigms

I believe that access to making and experiencing arts is not a luxury but the right of all, and not the privilege of few. Art is critically woven into the fabric of healing justice and has always been a mechanism of social change.

The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistable.

— Toni Cade Bambara

I work with groups as a community arts facilitator, designing arts-based programming to support collectives in building, processing and experiencing together. Bringing together my expertise as a psychologist, facilitator and creative myself allows me to tailor my arts offerings to the specific needs of the group, grounded in theory and guided by practice. I believe that all opportunities to create should be fully accessible (including physical and language accessible), intergenerational, inclusive and sustainable.

Recording our Lessons: Teachings from Our Pod

This workshop involving journal-making was inspired by the book Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals (Alexis Pauline Gumbs, as part of the Emergent Strategy series). Photographs are from an event I co-organized with collaborator and friend Taína Vargas-Sosa; Wellness By The Water: QTBIPOC and Allies Gathering for Rest, Reset and Resourcing in August 2024. Our event was supported by a Better Beaches Grant from Save The Harbor/Save The Bay.

Mandalas

The process of mandala-making is a powerful collective contemplative and embodied practice. I facilitate groups through this practice as a tool for grounding, fostering connection with the land, building community, and processing collective experience. By making a mandala together, a group creates their own unique focus of collective attention and engagement. Mandala-making is also a beautifully meaningful way of marking an event or moment in time: some of the mandalas pictured here are from facilitating events marking loss or celebration. I also work with local BIPOC farms and gardens to source materials, and preserve them myself. The practice of making land-based sacred geometry is seen across indigenous cultures and in the global south, and is rooted for me in my South Asian ancestry.

Cut + Paste: Who Am I? The Role of Identities in Conflict

This workshop is part of my Generative Conflict curriculum, specifically exploring how different elements of self- and collective identity impact spaces where conflict occurs. Photographs are from a workshop at the Harvard Graduate School of Education as part of a three-part series on Generative Conflict through their Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

An interactive community art installation, workshop and drop-in art activity, The Prayer Flag Project is art by and for community. This ongoing project is designed to uplift folks’ inner voices, amplifying them within the collective and through the interaction of their words with the elements. A workshop and facilitation curriculum is available, as well as a package for educators for use in the classroom and with community groups. Read more about The Prayer Flag Project here and add your words to the Project also.

Catch the next installation at the Wake Up The Earth Festival in Jamaica Plain, MA 5/3/25 11am-4pm.