2024 Program:
Visual Arts
Thursday November 21
Step into the world of artivism with Creative Reaction Lab's youth artists as they lead an interactive workshop, sharing their passion for creative change-making. In this session, participants will engage with the artists, exploring how to visually convey content around inequity and other social issues.
The artists will guide participants through the creative process, empowering them to become decision-makers in using art as a form of activism. In addition to showcasing their work, these talented individuals will share their experiences creating art and engaging in artivism.
Participants will have the opportunity to learn from the artists, gaining insight into their creative process and the impact of their work. The workshop encourages dialogue and collaboration, fostering a deeper understanding of the role of art in addressing social issues.
Join us to witness the passion and dedication of these young artists as they use their talents to drive meaningful change. Be inspired by their stories and learn how you can use art as a tool for advocacy and empowerment. Together, we can create a more just and equitable society through art and activism.
Native Americans are often invisible in our public discussion of America and even more so in any discussion of Muslims in the United States. As a group, Native Americans broadly make up 1.8% of the US general population. As such, they are often overlooked, invisible, and underrepresented in public conversations and decision-making. Muslims, the most ethnically diverse faith community in the nation, broadly make up an estimated 1.1% of the US general population. Among Muslims in the United States, Native Americans make up just 1-2%.
Native American and Indigenous Muslim Stories: Reclaiming the Narrative (NAIMS), the first comprehensive study of its kind, is centered around spreading awareness of the lived experiences of Native American and Indigenous Muslims in the United States. It includes the first-ever photo narrative project to center the lived experiences of Native American and Indigenous Muslims in the United States. We explored identity, ways to navigate multiple marginalized communities, and intersectionality.
The complexity and richness of such identities, like being Native, Black, and Muslim in the US, will take the audiences to a conversation beyond race and racism 101. Religion, ethnicity, race, belonging, and creating a society that fits all of us will be the center of this conversation. By centering their voices and images, this form of storytelling opens up the possibilities of new ways of understanding, disrupts dominant narratives about Native American and Indigenous Muslims, and helps audiences contemplate broader themes of identity and what it means to be an American today.
This interactive workshop is designed to equip you with the tools and knowledge to effectively advocate for change through meme-making and digital organizing. Here's what you can expect:
🔍 Narrative Shift Case Studies: Explore real-world examples of narrative shifts that have sparked change and learn how to apply these strategies to your own advocacy efforts.
🎯 Creating SMART Goals: Develop clear, actionable goals for your digital organizing campaigns using the SMART goal framework (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound).
🎨 Hands-On Graphic Design Tutorial: Master the art of meme-making with a step-by-step tutorial using Canva, a user-friendly graphic design platform. From selecting powerful imagery to crafting compelling messages, you'll learn how to create memes that resonate and inspire action.
💡 Prepare to Share New Content: Leave the workshop with fresh, impactful content ready to be shared across your social media platforms. Whether you're raising awareness about social issues or mobilizing your community for change, you'll have the tools to amplify your message effectively.
The California Endowment plays an influential role within the field of philanthropy, taking bold stances to advance health and racial justice through grassroots power building of those most impacted. In the spring of 2018, foundation staff brought to executive leadership’s attention the need to activate its leadership by becoming explicit about the direct connection between U.S. structural racism, racial capitalism, and persistent poor health and life outcomes, particularly for Black, Native, and other people of color. Doing so would address the historical harms and power imbalances inherent in philanthropy and negatively impacting grantee partners and their communities. This call was especially true for grantees who were on the frontlines of movement work organizing those most impacted to advance meaningful change.
In 2018, the Endowment began its journey to build organizational anti-racist culture. The first phase of Advancing Racial Equity (A.R.E.) ushered in organization-wide commitment and learnings and increasing staff understanding of anti-Blackness and systemic racism as the driver of poor health and life outcomes. In 2020 the foundation recruited the inaugural director who led the development of "The Five Elements to a Thriving Anti-Racist Health Foundation," a set of mutually reinforcing, interdependent capacities for transforming culture and operationalizing ant-racist practice.
Presenters will share the foundation’s journey and how it has embodied democratic participation by directly engaging staff at all levels of the organization. Core to this plan is the development of a Somatic Abolitionism practice to build embodied fortitude to metabolize the historical and deeply oppressive system of white body supremacy. The work to become an anti-racist health foundation is hard but necessary. We must become the transformation we need to see in the sector and share power and truly walk in trust with our partners in the broader movement building ecosystem. This interrogation is active, constant, and necessary to fully live into values and have clarity about the foundation’s proper role as a philanthropic leader.
This workshop will demonstrate how descendants of enslaved Afrobobe people have reclaimed their heritage by reconnecting to their roots in one of the smallest countries in Africa named Equatorial Guinea. It is the only Spanish speaking country in Africa. A map will be laid out as the presenter steps through the events that removed Africans from their island and forced to five particular countries across the world. Despite language barriers, descendants within the diaspora have reconnected with family and their native villages in addition those who remain spread across other lands that became home.
Although small in size, the Afrobobe people have proven time and time again that they are mighty in power by building resilience despite the many ways and forms that white supremacy and colonization attempts to carry out centuries old plans, efforts and narratives designed to wipe out the Afrobobo Tribe, ancestral memories, spiritual values and its language off planet earth. Tools and projects created by diasporans to preserve their culture and how it inspires and ignites unity amongst their society and tribe will be shared. Resisting the plan for “No Return” is a wild dream come true – our collective unity is making a powerful story and changing the narrative!
Afrobobe descendants is a living and breathing intergenerational framework that keeps the rites of passage and dream alive in enriching, empowering and sustainable ways through film, magazines, podcast, poetry, art and fashion. We are the wild dream come true, sho'nuff for our ancestors!
A kaleidoscope is a tube of mirrors reflecting colored glass pieces, with the angle of the mirrors shaping what we see. Drawing inspiration from Kenyan-American artist Wangechi Mutu, who transforms images from magazines that fail to represent her culture into powerful art that creates presence from absence, this workshop invites you to create a collage that addresses and challenges your own sense of invisibility. Together, we’ll explore how to assert visibility, take control of your place in media narratives, and dismantle imposed hierarchies to make room for your authentic story. Join us in this creative journey to discover how you can commit to being seen and redefine the space you occupy in the world.
Friday November 22
In 2022, Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality (AACRE) launched a major strategic effort to build narrative power that reinforces shared progressive values across Asian American communities and empowers action toward an inclusive vision of healing and justice.
AACRE launched a narrative strategy lab in partnership with the Butterfly Lab for Immigrant Narrative Strategy and Asian American Futures to define a set of guiding aspirational narratives for AACRE’s work. Then, they engaged over 40 artist-activists (“artivists”) to launch a multi-sensory, immersive installation in San Francisco Chinatown in partnership with Edge on the Square. They hope to engage older teens and young adults across the AA diaspora to embrace values of activism, justice, and racial solidarity as they come to understand how these values are embedded in AA cultures and have informed AA history.
This understanding can counter negative stereotypes (i.e., that AA people are passive in the face of injustice, that AA communities are isolated and insular) and prompt young people toward new depths of reflection, collaboration, and civic action. This session will offer an introduction to arts-based narrative strategy. Then, we will share how others can advance a culture-based narrative strategy across a broad network, with interactive arts activities exploring the strategies AACRE has developed.
This breakout session, titled “Energizing Justice,” proposes an innovative approach to dismantling systemic racism by integrating the concept of energy justice into racial equity efforts. Set against the backdrop of New York City's vibrant history of activism and the transformative power of people in Black, Latinx, and People of Color communities, our session will explore how clean energy initiatives can catalyze community empowerment and systemic change.
“Energizing Justice” is a 90-minute interactive workshop designed to help attendees understand how the transition to renewable energy—a powerful tool—can advance racial justice. The session will combine a panel discussion featuring activists and experts in renewable energy and racial equity, hands-on art projects, and group activities to foster a participatory and solutions-oriented environment.