ASÉ ARTS PROJECTS
OAKLAND, CA
WE-Making is a suite of resources that explores the relationship between place-based arts practices and social cohesion as a means to advance health equity and community wellbeing. This We-Making story is one example of how place-based arts and cultural strategies uniquely contributed to social cohesion and wellbeing in this community. Throughout this story you’ll see terms paired with actions in parentheses (e.g., social capital, collective action, place attachment, civic engagement, self-determination of shared values). This is to denote for the reader how the WE-Making framework was specifically incorporated. Explore the WE-Making framework and resources.
Image credit: Asé Arts
The proposed project "Stitching Our Stories Together: A Sewing workshop and Story circle for BIPOC women and gender queer folk. Is a collaborative creative place making project between Asé Arts and Amara Tabor-Smith House/Full of Blackwomen. Together through this collaboration they will invite Black women and femme identified folk to a series 8 workshops to gather at the sewing table to share their stories of living in Oakland as a way to cultivate a deeper sense of community and Home-fulness (social capital- bonding). Centering the collective experience of being an Oaklander and affirming the power of sewing, the group of participating women will learn from one another and grow together as we hold space for an age-old practice of sharing stories, passing down knowledge and culture traditions orally (celebration and preservation of culture- exalting cultural forms that have not been valued). The need for this type of communing has become more apparent during this time of COVID-19.
These seeds will be sown through the energetic actions of BIPOC folk using their medicine-be it art, social justice grassroots actions and other community-affirming methods that bring folks together to voice our rights to home-fulness and well being in Oakland (creative responses to trauma and racism). These are acts of Black feminist insistence that begins with our gathering together to remember and call our ancestors back on these streets, to move through our hands and tell our stories, wading through a vibrational storm to find our right to live in peace and calm. This is our remedy for community healing.
Funding form WE-Making Story will go towards payment for the space and facilitation costs. Enabling Asé Arts to provide the 8-week workshop series as a free service to the community.
