Mapping Belonging: Art & Connection Creative Workshop with Christine Wong Yap & José González
Mapping Belonging: Art & Connection Creative Workshop with Christine Wong Yap & José González
Wednesday June 12, 2024, 5-6:30pm PT
Hello friends,
A new month starts today, and you know what that means: there’s another Create+Engage workshop coming your way. Mark your calendars for Wednesday June 12th.
For those of you new to the Creative Fuel newsletter and ecosystem, Create+Engage is a series of monthly programming fusing together art, activism, and community. Every month we host a creative workshop centered around a specific theme that features two guest speakers. We began hosting these in March (you can read more about the inspiration behind the series here), and this next one will be our fourth installment.
I think we all know that is often very hard to know what one can do in response to everything that is happening around us, both locally and globally. It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed and powerless. I wanted to be able to offer something that kept us from sinking too far into that feeling, and together with my friends Marta Hanson and
, we launched the Create+Engage series as a way of reminding us that in the face of difficult moments, the creative act is a powerful action. Not only that, but the more that we exercise our creative engagement, the more that we’re engaged in our communities overall.I didn’t really know how this series would do when we launched it, but so far we have had 550+ people sign up for these workshops! People leave feeling inspired and connected. When I feel down about the state of everything that is happening in the world, this is what I come back to.
As Heather Bird Harris, one of our featured artists in the April session said, “when I start to lose my faith in people, based on the news, I just think about how everyone I know is doing incredible things, actively working every day to make the world better.”
Next time you’re feeling overwhelmed do this: think about one (or two, or three) people who are doing things to change the world around them, in small or big ways. I think you’ll quickly be able to find a few bright spots.
If you’re in need of a bright spot, and some inspiration this month, I hope that you come join us! As always, these workshops are free to attend.
Our June session will be hosted on Wednesday June 12, 5-6:30pm PT. We’ll be joined by visual artist and social practitioner Christine Wong Yap and conservationist, artist, and educator José González of Latino Outdoors.
Our conversation and workshop will be driven by two guiding questions:
How can we use art to map belonging?
How can communities effectively weave together commonalities and differences?
A little bit about the featured artists in this workshop…
Christine Wong Yap has done many projects centered around belonging and community, and some of you may already be familiar with her work. In 2022, she was an artist-in-residence at the Palo Alto Art Center, that included the publication of a zine and a community mapping activity, and last year she engaged 16 Chinese- and Spanish-speaking, working class, immigrant womxn for How I Keep Looking Up / Como Sigo Mirando Hacia Arriba / 仰望, a community-engaged process and public art action using banners to amplify stories of power and resilience.
Back in 2021 (you know, those days when attending cool, collaborative online events still felt like something new and different) I signed up for Earth Day “art party” hosted by the Brower Center that José González was a part of.
I really appreciate the way that he thinks about environment and education—if you’re interested, I recommend reading more about his bigger picture thinking and approach in his essay “Healing Severed Connections.” I’ve been inspired in my own writing thanks to him, in particular his rumination on the concept of “river thinking.”
“The river came to mind as a model to acknowledge that balance is not stillness,” writes González. “The river does not flow in a straight line, but it is also not scattered. It flows as a result of tension.”
I think many of us see this play out in our creative practices—flow is not linear, and our paths are continuously moving, shifting. That goes for our creative work, and it goes for our communities as well.
This is all to say: I can’t wait to be in conversation with Christine and José and I hope you will join us.
Mapping Belonging: Art & Connection with Christine Wong Yap & José González, June 12, 5-6:30pm PT. Hosted on Zoom.
All of these Create+Engage sessions are free to attend! It’s really important for me to be able to offer programming like this, while still paying the guest artists an honorarium. Creative labor is labor and deserves to be compensated. Thank you to so many of you who help to make this happen.
10% of paid subscriptions every month are donated to organizations chosen by the artists. For June, we’ll be donating to The Association of Ramaytush Ohlone and Brothers on the Rise.
This is a community effort. If you want to help support, here are a few ways.
1. BECOME A PAID SUBSCRIBER TO CREATIVE FUEL
Paid subscribers help make this newsletter and community happen, and as a thank you, you get access to seasonal editions, invites to upcoming virtual studio sessions, and the monthly Nice Things series. A portion of paid subscriptions will also be donated every month to an organization chosen by the workshop speakers.
2. MAKE A FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION
You can also support with a financial contribution in any amount. These financial contributions go to paying speaker honorariums, as well as helping us put together our month of creative action later in September.
3. SHARE IT WITH A FRIEND
Know someone who might enjoy this series? Want to bring a friend a friend along to the workshop? Pass this along!
I hope to see some of you there on June 12th!
-Anna
Do you enjoy Creative Fuel? You can support this work by becoming a paid subscriber. You can also order something in my shop, attend one of my workshops or retreats, or buy one of my books. Or simply share this newsletter with a friend!
Yay! I hope I can finally join this one 🙌
Hi. I'm pretty new here and would love to attend but I'm in Europe and not sure I can make it at 3am 😅 is there a replay if I sign up ? Thank you