Sanctuaries of Self: Protection as Healing. April 2024 for Los Angeles Comtemporary Exhibitions Abundance Series. Ashley Blakeney, Patrisse Cullors, Darius Williams
Sanctuaries of Self: Protection as Healing is an exploration of the sacred act of safeguarding our essence, our being, and our collective history as Black women. This work serves as a profound meditation on the themes of defense, healing, and empowerment through the ancestral and contemporary experiences of Black femme warriors.
A Sonic Journey and Study of Alice Coltrane + Flying Lotus for LA Freewaves, Heal, Hear, Here. May 2023
Participants experienced a listening and writing journey exploring the sonic world between relatives Alice Coltrane and Flying Lotus. Combining my arts healing facilitation practice and embodied somatics practice, participants were guided through a listening session while practicing “centering in action” which allowed for us to listen to the music while taking in the sounds and distractions of the outdoor environment. Participants experienced a 13-minute track combining thematically relevant songs from both artists' discography and were provided with a notebook and guiding questions encouraging visualization of the musical storytelling, tracing feelings and somatic reactions throughout our body inspired by the music and connecting the otherworldly to our immediate surroundings. Participants were invited to write through the process and share with each other where the listening journey led them.