City of Altars, Kwanzaa at Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum

Kwanzaa Festival and Altar Installation @ Sojo Art Museum 2023

El Panteón de Sacramento at Latino Center of Art & Culture

Latino Center of Art & Culture Presents City of Altars

Introducing some of the lead artists for City of Altars. These are the incredible people responsible for teaching the beautiful art of making an altar, and here's a little about them.

Stan Padilla is a multimedia artist, indigenous educator, and cultural activist.

Alpha Bruton is an artist/curator/ research and development consultant for the Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum. My current work examines cultural signs and symbols and their use of interpretation. 

J. Andrea Amezcua Porras / yAyA;  is an IndigeQueer 2Spirit Chicana de Coahuiltecan decent. yAyA is an Interdisciplinary artist, curator & producer. They create performance work as storytellers, poets, actors, and directors. 

Luis Ramon Campos Garcia (Lurac) is a multidisciplinary artist, graphic designer, cultural worker, educator, and migrant from Mexico City who is interested in cultural diversity and how it can enrich the human experience. Mr. Campos Garcia studied at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México before coming to Sacramento and earning his B.A. in Studio Art at CSUS. 

As a Chicano of Teenek, Otomi, and Lipan Apache descent, Jesus has dedicated his life to learning the traditional medicine of his community while utilizing art as a tool for healing. Jesus is an LMFT working in the Sacramento region with survivors of various traumas. 

Shonna McDaniels is the Founder and Director of the Sojourner Truth Art Museum (founded in 1996). McDaniels is a professional artist/teacher/muralist and community activist. She has an extensive background in art instruction and mural design. She has studied under some of the finest professors in the Los Rios Community College network and master artists in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Soy danzante por amor. My name is Natalia Itzali Serrato and I am an Aztec Dancer with Grupo Telpochkalli de Sacramento. La cultura cura.

Make sure you're following Sol Collective, Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer, The Washington Neighborhood Center, and the Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum so you can sign up for these workshops!

#latinoart #latinocenter #cityofaltars #dayofthedead #Diadelosmuertos #exploresacramento #sacramento365 #altarmaking #sacramentoartists

"Kwanzaa Festival of Life, Community, and Culture."

 A message from Shonna McDaniel's Executive Director of SOJO Museum invites community altar makers to participate in the "City of Altars." 

Kwanzaa is Celebrated December 26 -January 1 - Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum will host a workshop on Tuesday, December 26, with the installation of Kwanzaa Altars and judging will happen on December 29, during the "Kwanzaa Festival of Life, Community, and Culture." 

The Kwanzaa Festival of Life, Community, and Culture is a week-long celebration that honors the achievements of the Black community and provides support. It occurs from December 26 to January 1 at the Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum.

On Friday, December 29, the festival is dedicated to Ujamaa, "Cooperative Economics," which is celebrated at the Florin Business Complex. Over 100 African-American businesses and vendors participated in this event.

On Saturday, December 30, there will be a celebration at the African Marketplace. Celebrating Nia (Purpose) is to make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

On December 31, Kuumba will be celebrated with various creative arts projects and performances catering to the youth.

(This falls on a Sunday, but most activities will happen on Saturday; TBD ceremonies will happen.)

January 1, Imani, is our day of faith. A special ceremony will be held to bring a close to our week-long celebration of life and a closing reception for the City of Altar Installation, a Day of Rest.

 Along with the Seven Principles(Nguzo Saba) and the seven days of Kwanzaa, seven symbols ortable implements are used to celebrate the holiday. These seven items are arraigned in an area set up as a 

Kwanzaa altar or table in the home.

The seven symbols of Kwanzaa are:

Mkeka (m-KAY-kah): The Mat

A mat is woven of fabric, raffia, or even paper. The Mkeka is essential because the other holiday implements rest upon it.

Symbolizes the experiences, culture, achievements, and sacrifices of our ancestors upon which our lives are built.

Kikombe cha Umoja (kee-KOHM-bay cha oo-MOH-jah): The Unity Cup

Representing family and community unity. When the Unity cup is filled with water, juice, or wine, a little bit is poured out as a reminder and respect for our ancestors. The cup is then passed around and shared with those gathered, each taking a sip.

Mazao (mah-ZAH-oh): The Crops

The fruits and vegetables that are the result of the harvest. Bananas, mangoes, peaches, plantains, oranges, or whatever might be the family favorites. The Mazao are placed on the Mkeka and are shared and eaten to honor the work of the people it took to grow them.

Kinara (kee-NAH-rah): The Candleholder

The Kinara holds the seven candles representing our African ancestors that symbolize the Nguzo Saba. The Kinara is placed on the Mkeka and holds the Mishumaa Saba (the seven candles).

Mishumaa Saba(mee-shoo-MAH SAH-ba): The Seven Candles

Seven candles representing the seven principles of Nguzo Saba are placed in the Kwanzaa Kinara. The colors of the candles are red, green, and black, which are the colors of the Bendera (or African Flag).

Muhindi (moo-HEEN-dee): The Corn

Represents the children (and future) of the family. One suke (ear) of corn is placed on the Mkeka for each child. If no children are in the family, one suke is still placed on the Mkeka to symbolize the community's children.

The Muhindi also represent the Native Americans, the land's first inhabitants. Without whom, there would be no corn, also known as Maize. It is used to acknowledge and respect their contribution to the culture and ancestors of African Americans.

Note: A single ear of corn can also be known as Vibunzi. Indian Corn is sometimes used.

Zawadi (zah-WAH-dee): Gifts

Kwanzaa gifts are given to children that will make them better people. The gifts should always include a book, video, or other educational item to educate and inform the child. There should also be a gift known as a "heritage symbol." Something to remind the child of the glory of the past and the promise of the future.

Since Kwanzaa is a relatively new holiday, you, your family, and your community can use great creativity to observe Kwanzaa. The area in your home where you set up the Kwanzaa altar or table can be decorated in the same spirit as other holidays. Create posters and banners to hang on the walls, and add African sculptures or other artwork to the display. Many crafts and decorations can be created by the children of the home to be used in your Kwanzaa display.

The City of Altars, Capital Region Creative Corps, and City of Sacramento Office of Innovation & Economic Development partly fund this project.  

The Latino Center of Art & Culture announces the “City of Altars.”

 www.thelatinocenter.org

We are excited to announce our partnership with our sister organizations for the program called "City of Altars." Thanks to support from the City of Sacramento's (@saccityarts) Capital Region Creative Corps Program with funding from the California Arts Council (@calartscouncil), the City of Altars consists of a collaboration between five leading arts organizations in the Sacramento and Woodland communities, including Latino Center of Art and Culture, Sol Collective, Taller Arte Nuevo Amanecer, Washington Neighborhood Center, and Sojourner Truth Museum African Heritage Museum.

Together, we will activate our spaces throughout the fall of 2023 to honor our respective customs relating to Día de los Muertos and Kwanzaa. Collectively, we will shine a light on the issues that most impact our communities through the sacred practice of altar-making. Community members will be invited to create altars through workshops and will be encouraged to exhibit at our annual events.

Follow each of us to stay informed about this exciting project.

@Sac_LCAC

@Solcollective

@tanawoodland

@thecenter916

@sojomuseum

#cityofaltars #diadelosmuertos #kwanzaa #sacramento #woodland #arts #culture

#Sacramento365 #dayofthedead #cityofaltars

Capital Region Creative Corps Grant

What: City of Altars, a program by the Latino Center of Art and Culture

When: 2023-2024, a bulk of the activities will take place from September to December 2023

Where: multiple sites throughout the region.

Overview: The Latino Center of Art and Culture was granted $117,000 through a Capital Region

Creative Corps grant. The grant's scope allows us to bring in organizational partners to strengthen our programs around Día de los Muertos. The goal is to work alongside sister organizations that will host social justice-driven workshops while co-creating altars alongside members from their organization and the community. 

These sister organizations would also select lead altaristas and artists (5-7 total) who would develop their own cohorts of about 10-15 emerging artists. The goal is to leverage the altar, a sacred artistic practice, as the medium through which our community members share the issues that impact our collective communities.

Kwanzaa is Celebrated December 26th -January 1st - Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum will host a workshop on Tuesday, December 26th, with the installation of Kwanzaa Altars and judging will happen on December 29th, during the "Kwanzaa Festival of Life, Community, and Culture." 

The Kwanzaa Festival of Life, Community, and Culture is a week-long celebration that honors the achievements of the Black community and provides support. It occurs from December 26 to January 1 at the Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum.

On Friday, December 29th, the festival is dedicated to Ujamaa, "Cooperative Economics," which is celebrated at the Florin Business Complex. Over 100 African-American businesses and vendors participated in this event.

On Saturday, December 30th, there will be a celebration at the African Marketplace. Celebrating Nia (Purpose) is to make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

On December 31, Kuumba will be celebrated with various creative arts projects and performances catering to the youth. (This falls on a Sunday but most activities will happen on Saturday, TBD ceremonies will happen)

January 1, Imani, is our day of faith. A special ceremony will be held to bring a close to our week-long celebration of life and a closing reception for the City of Altar Installation, a Day of Rest.

Onward in Gratitude and Joy: MovimientoYaYa Jam

A word from the Curator, Jennifer "YaYa" Porres,

"I trust you are beautifully, and I am sending deep appreciation for you, from my heart to yours!

This is a reminder that we are activating the exhibition we have woven together at Medicine for Nightmares next Sunday, September 10th, from 5:30 to 9 PM.

Please let me know if you would like me to hold space between performers for you to offer Palabra/ Poetry/Song; otherwise, I will introduce you to the crowd when and if you can join us in person. 

Exhibition catalog that people can scan a QR code to learn more about you and your Arte.

Join us at Medicine for Nightmares Gallery & Bookstore for a gathering celebrating la Vida Sagrada through an Electric Flor y Canto Cultura Cura! with Sound, Poetry, Teatro, and Movement! This event is part of our current exhibit in the Galeria, “Onward in Gratitude & Joy” a group show curated by yAyA(j. Andrea Amezcua Porras)

An exhibition of mixed media Visual Arts including but not limited to silkscreen, paintings, photography, sculpture, textile, graphic design, and oil pastels.

Calling in appreciation and nurturing of our collective relationship with earth, air, water, fire, guardians, ancestors, y tierras we acknowledge as an Indigenous sacred space.

Walking in this world as an Indigequeer creative and collaborator, it is imperative that I tend to and grow spaces that see & support 2Spirit & QTPOC familia and accomplices alike. Our collective healing makes for mas support, bridging resources, familia bonds and joy !

This show includes artists from Tejas, New Mexico, Cuba, Southern and Northern California. I am grateful for the invitation and support of Medicine for Nightmares. Special Tlasakamati to AM of MA Series Arts, Classy Hippie Tea Co. & Bay Area American Indian Two Spirits ; Artist grant award. 

This show is dedicated to the spirit of Elodia Amezcua Nieto, de San Felipe, Del Rio my madrina, y maternal tia.

Visual Artists:
Odaymar Cuesta, Stan Padilla, Alpha M. Bruton, L Frank Manriquez, Jaren Bonillo, Amy Reed, Jesse Vasquez, Cris Escobar, Ruben Briones Reveles, Dom Dodda, Rosesharon Oates MadBoy, Txutxo Perez and Sen Mendez, MadBoy, Txutxo Perez and Sen Mendez.

J. Andrea Amezcua Porras {yAyA}

They/Them/Theirs

Independent community/ art curator working at the intersection of cultural, spiritual, civic & social engagement.

Co Founder: teatro Movimiento Molcajete 1997, MA Series Arts (Non Profit) 

2018 MA Series Arts Organization

IG Movimientoyaya

mobile: 916-228-9388

What are our streets for?

Sistars Samaria Marley- Host Juniper's Garden

https://www.junipersgarden.org/

Junipers Garden is a small-scale family farm in Brandywine, Maryland. We grow herbs, flowers, African American heritage crops, and more. This year we are excited to offer a Herbal C.S.A. membership. The C.S.A. will provide fresh herbs, herbal products, seedlings, and nourishing foods. This C.S.A. is perfect for herbalists, foodies, gardeners, and spiritualists. Build your own home apothecary! 

https://issuu.com/mncppc/docs/brandywine_study/4

2023 Summer Solstice Oasis in The Woods:

An Art & Wellness Festival

Friday, June 16, 2023, 6-9 pm

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oasis-in-the-woods-an-arts-wellness-festival-tickets-638393942467

"2023 Summer Solstice: The Land" is a living, creative, and cultural experiment with sustainable practice at its center. It incubates the artist's and community's personal and collective transformation.

For one week, June 12-16, 2023, artists of diverse disciplines and ages will converge at Juniper's Garden for a week-long residency. Their collective goal is to build generational bridges while working with ideas and materials that emanate from the land to create installations that answer the question, "How we will rebuild our communities to be stronger and recreate sustainable places to live." Importantly, this conversation addresses environmental justice's physical and psychological dimensions and impact. The residency will occur in Maryland's Prince Georges's County, the Southernmost region, and its remaining rural tier.

On Friday, June 16, 2023, 6-9 pm, as part of the 2023 Summer Solstice Oasis In The Woods: An Art & Wellness Festival at Juniper's Garden, the artists will host an open house where they will be present to offer free and open to the public gallery walks. In addition, they will be contributing stories of their experiences with the South County ecosystem and the process by which their installations came together.

HOST: Samaria Marley

Junipers Garden- 18104 Croom Rd Brandywine MD, 20613/ 202-270-2039 /samariamarley@gmail.com

About the Facilitators, Samaria is a farmer, herbalist, and co-owner of Junipers Garden. She has worked in agriculture and food justice in the D.C. metro region for over ten years. Her innovative and visionary approach has helped to usher in accessible models of food access and community-centered care. She developed the first low-cost C.S.A. model, C.R.I.S.P., in DC 2016. Then went on to manage The Farm at Kelly Miller in NE DC for four years. She is also the co-founder of the D.C. Mutual Aid Apothecary, a mutual aid organization that connects people to herbal medicine, education, and community.

She began her herbalism journey in 2015 and has studied with Wild Ginger Herbal Center, Well of Indigenous Wisdom, and the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism. She is also a 2022 Braiding Seeds Fellow. Samaria and her partner Blain recently opened Junipers Garden, a small-scale vegetable and medicinal herb farm in Brandywine, MD, whose mission is to provide a space for black and brown people to be on land, reclaim their ancestral healing and farming practices, traditions, and seeds and gain access to valuable knowledge and resources. The farm hosts seasonal events, herbalism workshops, retreats, and natural building workshops.

D.M.V. Black Owned and Operated Farms

https://www.marylandmarketmoney.org/news/dmv-black-owned-and-operated-farms-d6ta3

Special thanks to the Black Church Food Security Network, Future Harvest, and Maryland Market Money participating markets for helping us compile this perpetually growing list. If we left somebody out, it was not intentional. Please let us know using the form below.

Maryland

Harwood Community Garden Baltimore, MD

Hidden Harvest Farm Baltimore, MD

Honey Hemp Farms Upper Marlboro, MD

Jenny's Market Friendship, Maryland

Kindread Hill Farm Ellicott City, MD

Maxine's Garden at Pleasant Hope Baptist Church Baltimore, MD

My Mustard Seed St. Leonard, MD

Myles Produce Capitol Heights, MD

Native Mountain Farm Boonsboro, MD

New Brooklyn Farms Prince George's County, MD

Peaceful Acres Farm Glenwood, MD

Plantation Park Heights Urban Farm Baltimore, MD

Pop! Farm Baltimore, MD

Primo Noir Capital Heights, MD

Purple Mountain Organics Takoma Park, MD

Real Food Farm Baltimore, MD

Strength to Love II Baltimore, MD

Sweet Love Flower Farm Upper Marlboro, MD

Tripple Springs Farm Brandywine, MD

Whitelock Community Farm Baltimore, MD

Windy Willow Farm Sunderland, MD

804 Cattle Company Upper Marlboro, MD

Backyard Basecamp Baltimore, MD

Baltimore Free Farm Baltimore, MD

Bearfoot Farm Baltimore, MD

BLISS Meadows Baltimore, MD

Bon Secours Community Works Baltimore, MD

Cherry Hill Urban Community Garden Baltimore, MD

Elements of Nature Clinton, MD

Curemore Farms Upper Marlboro, MD

Deep Roots Farm Brandywine, MD

Dodo Farms Brookeville, MD

Double Z Cowboy Corral Faulkner, MD

Empower Project Baltimore Baltimore, MD

Eco City Farms Riverdale, MD

Filbert Street Garden Baltimore, MD

Flower of the Forest Farm Lexington Park, MD

Four Mothers Farm Princess Anne, MD

Friends of Great Kids Farm Baltimore, MD

The Green Anarchist Annapolis, MD

The Greener Garden Urban Farm Baltimore, MD

Harlem Park Community Farm Baltimore, MD

The H.A.T. Shop (Healthy Alternative Treatment) MD

Washington, D.C.

Good Sense Farm Washington, DC

Three Part Harmony Farm Washington, DC

Soilful City Washington, DC

Cultivate the City Washington, DC

DC Greens Washington, DC

Dreaming out Loud Washington, DC

District Growers Washington, DC

Virginia

Gardens of Khmet Madison County, VA

GoGreen Farms and Greenhouses VA

Melanated Medicinals Prospect, VA

Mighty Thundercloud Edible Forest Birdsnest, VA

Sun Path Gardens Richmond, VA

Sylvanaqua Farms Montross, VA

Vanguard Ranch Gordonsville, VA

Waddle Om Farm Scottsville, VA

WoodBox Farm Engleside, VA

5th District Mini Farm Richmond, VA

Airport Food Forest Ashland, VA

Botanical Bites Provisions Fredericksburg, VA

Browntown Farms Warfield, VA

AgNCulture Brunswick County, VA

Carter Farms Orange County, VA

Cusheeba Earth Onley, VA

Haynie Farms Reedville, VA

Fitrah Farms Orange County, VA

https://farmersmarketcoalition.org/the-anti-racist-farmers-market-toolkit/

Rekindling this list of Black farmers and growers in the D.M.V. region (with a focus on Maryland) in honor of Black History Month. 

Black farmers comprised 14% of America's farmers almost a century ago. Today, they account for less than 2%. 

Maryland Market Money is proud to support Black farmers and food producers.

We encourage you to use your dollars to do the same at markets, farm stands, and C.S.A.s every month.

Chantel Bennett Joins "Oasis in the Woods" 2023 Retreat

My name is Chantel Bennett, and my preferred pronouns are she/her. I hold a Master's degree in Social Work. I believe in dreaming before thinking as you climb the ladder of trust and power. This is beautifully captured in the words of Toni Morrison.

Chantel (she/her) is a Caribbean-American multidisciplinary artist and spiritual diviner. She hasn't found a medium she won't try at least once and often cycles through periods of focusing on one or three mediums more than others. She is currently focusing on fiber arts and collage.

 

After learning how to knit through TikTok and YouTube University, she is working on replacing her storebought sweaters and knitwear with clothes she knit or crocheted herself. She learned how to crochet from her mother at a young age and often has at least two fiber projects going at once. 

She uses collages for emotional expression and has led therapeutic art journaling and collaging sessions for over 7 years. After completing her Master's in Social Work at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, in May 2023, she plans to become an art therapist and incorporate creative self-expression into her therapy practice.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oasis-in-the-woods-an-arts-wellness-festival-tickets-638393942467

Grandmother's Circle, "Those That Help Us Find Our Way"

How will we rebuild our communities to be stronger and recreate sustainable living places? 

Six artists will answer this question with land-based art installations during a week-long artist residency at Juniper's Garden. 

FEATURED ARTISTS AND GUEST CURATOR ALPHA BRUTON

Alpha Bruton, 2012 Wanderlust, in a German Garden 

Alpha Bruton, phantomgallerychicago@gmail.com,  

Chief Curator Phantom Gallery Chicago Network, the Phantom Galleries, are temporary exhibitions in nontraditional gallery settings. The mission of the (PGCN) is to promote the betterment of the visual arts community through the arts, promote personal achievement in striving for excellence and continual growth as an artist, and promote cultural activities in exhibits, workshops; galleries exhibitions; art centers; artists in residence projects. 

She is the Co-founder of the Visual Arts Development Project (VADP), formed in 1996. It is an art service organization - that develops projects as living experiments for sustainable practices and an incubator for personal and collective transformation. Visual Arts Development Project is a community-based art organization that provides children, adults, and emerging artists with resources, workshops, and venues to show and express their art form. 

Oasis in the Woods is a 2-Day Arts Festival Showcasing 

2023 Environmental Installations Artists and Celebrating the Summer Solstice!

Mark your calendars now & stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks!

Brought to you by @junipersgarden, @carylhenryalexander, @Phantomgallerychicago. @liminal.grace

 ELEMENTS FROM THE ARCHIVES 2013 "THE LAND" 

Fire Pit, Found Objects Repurposed, 2013 @ Bruton

Grandmother's Circle, installation, 2013 @ Bruton 

Labyrinth by Caryl Henry Alexander,  Happy Hyder, 2013

What is the spiritual meaning of a labyrinth? A labyrinth is an ancient symbol of wholeness. The imagery of the Circle and spiral combine into a meandering but purposeful journey. The Labyrinth represents a journey or path to our center and back again out into the world. Labyrinths have long been used as meditation and prayer tools.

Grandmother's Circle Storytelling, 2013

Tree Decorating @Caryl Henry Alexander

Nature, Culture, Public Space Curator Caryl Henry Alexander

2023 Summer Solstice Oasis in The Woods:
An Art & Wellness Festival
Friday, June 16, 2023, 6-9 pm
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oasis-in-the-woods-an-arts-wellness-festival-tickets-638393942467

"2023 Summer Solstice: The Land" is a living creative, and cultural experiment with sustainable practice at its center. It incubates the artist's and community's personal and collective transformation.

For one week, June 12-16, 2023, artists of diverse disciplines and ages will converge at Juniper's Garden for a week-long residency. Their collective goal is to build generational bridges while working with ideas and materials that emanate from the land to create installations that answer the question, "How we will rebuild our communities to be stronger and recreate sustainable places to live." Importantly, this conversation addresses environmental justice's physical and psychological dimensions and impact. The residency will occur in Maryland's Prince George's County, the Southernmost region, and its remaining rural tier.

On Friday, June 16, 2023, 6-9 pm, as part of the 2023 Summer Solstice Oasis in The Woods: An Art & Wellness Festival at Juniper's Garden, the artists will host an open house where they will be present to offer free and open to the public gallery walks. In addition, they will be contributing stories of their experiences with the South County ecosystem and the process by which their installations came together.

Curator/ Environmental Installation:

For more information, artists that wish to participate.

Caryl Henry Alexander, carylhenryalexander@gmail.com  https://www.carylhenryalexander.com/

For more than 40 years, Caryl Henry Alexander's work has harnessed the power of creative collaboration with multi-generational, multicultural, and interfaith communities to conceive, design, and implement community art projects in diverse public settings around the globe. In the studio, Caryl's work includes painting, printmaking, papermaking, textiles, installations, and sculpture. Her media are traditional and experimental, often incorporating recycled or found objects and natural plant materials. Out in the community, she combines her roles as a visual artist, teaching artist, curator, researcher, lecturer, writer, and social activist to support communities in clarifying their shared goals and turning their ideas into action. Her long-term focus is on culture, environment, and nature. She has exhibited throughout the US and abroad. Her media are traditional and experimental, often incorporating recycled or found objects and natural plant materials.

FROM THE ARCHIVES OF THE PHANTOM GALLERY CHICAGO

WOMEN ARTISTS OF THE AMERICAN WEST - FEATURED CARYL HENRY

2001 Nature, Culture, Public Space-- 

 "My life as an artist comprises several activities reflected in my artworks. I work as a studio artist, a community and public artist, and an educator.

For me, art is medicined: it brings me in close touch with the life force at the center of my being. It reflects where I am and how I can travel through the world at this time in history. This search for self and connection with community speaks to all present in our post-modern culture. I often look for places where I can feel a solid connection to nature.

Travel figures prominently in my process, as it is often through collaboration with other artists that I can see my own truth. Toward this end, I have traveled to France, Cuba, Mexico, and most recently to Nigeria and West Africa to share ideas and processes with artists and to exhibit my work.

I was trained as a printmaker and have worked in sculpture, painting, mixed media, installation, and public art throughout my career. 

My current concerns are fully integrating my African experiences and processing a more robust vision of who I am as an African American into my art. This is taking the form of studio paintings, prints, and sculptures. Also, I am working to bring my images and vision out of the traditional gallery environment and into the public arena through site-specific public artworks. 

"Pause Portal" a Place for Collective Reflection, Imagination, and Transformation

 https://www.liminalgrace.com/

Sanskrit term for Vinyasa- is a smooth transition between asanas in flowing styles of modern yoga as exercises such as Vinyasa Krama Yoga and Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, especially when movement is paired with the breath. Vinyasa yoga, also called "flow" because of the smooth way the poses run together, is one of the most popular contemporary styles of yoga. It's a broad classification encompassing many different types of yoga, including Ashtanga and power yoga.

Soul Flow is a slow-flow vinyasa yoga class that moves to the rhythm of your deepest breath. Gigi will guide you through a heartfelt practice of longer holds & fluid transitions that unite your mind, body & soul. Designed to expand body awareness, rejuvenate the mind, and deepen spiritual growth, this installation will nourish you inside & out and act as a portal to the artist's installations at Junipers Garden Environmental Art  Installation Galleries. 

Gigi is a holistic wellness educator, experience curator, 200-hour certified vinyasa yoga teacher, social justice advocate, and an eternal student of life. She uses the principles of yoga, mindfulness attitudes, and natural wisdom as catalysts for ease, empowerment, and liberation. With a strong belief that holding space for collective reflection, imagination, and transformation is the key to meaningful change, Gigi regards her work as spiritual activism. Her teaching style honors the beauty and nuance of the human experience while encouraging individual power and curiosity along the way.

What We're All About

In between the past, which we cannot change, and the future, which has not come yet, lies the only place we have any actual power- the present. This liminal space presents (pun intended) an opportunity to transform our experience of life.

So in the face of that opportunity, we began asking...

What if we met the present moment with the slow & steady wisdom of Earth?

The adaptable flow of water?

The burning enthusiasm of fire?

The easeful lightness of air?

And the deep knowing of ether?

What kind of life could we make for ourselves?

What kind of world could we create together?

At Liminal Grace, this is both our adventure & our ministry.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oasis-in-the-woods-an-arts-wellness-festival-tickets-638393942467

2023 Summer Solstice Oasis in The Woods: An Art & Wellness Festival

 

2023 Summer Solstice Oasis in The Woods:
An Art & Wellness Festival
Friday, June 16, 2023, 6-9 pm

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oasis-in-the-woods-an-arts-wellness-festival-tickets-638393942467

“2023 Summer Solstice: The Land” is a living creative, and cultural experiment with sustainable practice at its center. It is an incubator for the artist’s and community’s personal and collective transformation.

 

For one week, June 12-16, 2023, artists of diverse disciplines and ages will converge at Juniper’s Garden for a week-long residency. Their collective goal is to build generational bridges while working with ideas and materials that emanate from the land to create installations that answer the question, “How we will rebuild our communities to be stronger and recreate sustainable places to live.” Importantly, this conversation addresses environmental justice's physical and psychological dimensions and impact. The residency will occur in Maryland’s Prince George's County, the Southernmost region, and its remaining rural tier.

 

On Friday, June 16, 2023, 6-9 pm, as part of the 2023 Summer Solstice Oasis in The Woods: An Art & Wellness Festival at Juniper’s Garden, the artists will host an open house where they will be present to offer free and open to the public gallery walks. In addition, they will be contributing stories of their experiences with the South County ecosystem and the process by which their installations came together.

2023 ARTIST/CURATORS/FACULTY 

FACILITATOR/HOST: Samaria Marley

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oasis-in-the-woods-an-arts-wellness-festival-tickets-638393942467

Samaria is a farmer, herbalist, and co-owner of Junipers Garden. She has worked in agriculture and food justice in the DC metro region for over ten years. Her innovative and visionary approach has helped to usher in accessible models of food access and community-centered care. She developed the first low-cost CSA model, C.R.I.S.P., in DC in 2016. Then went on to manage The Farm at Kelly Miller in NE DC for four years. She is also the co-founder of the DC Mutual Aid Apothecary, a mutual aid organization that connects people to herbal medicine, education, and community.

She began her herbalism journey in 2015 and has studied with Wild Ginger Herbal Center, Well of Indigenous Wisdom, and the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism. She is also a 2022 Braiding Seeds Fellow. Samaria and her partner Blain recently opened Junipers Garden, a small-scale vegetable and medicinal herb farm in Brandywine, MD, whose mission is to provide a space for black and brown people to be on land, reclaim their ancestral healing and farming practices, traditions, and seeds and gain access to valuable knowledge and resources. The farm hosts seasonal events, herbalism workshops, retreats, and natural building workshops.

Curators:

Caryl Henry Alexander,

For more than 40 years, Caryl Henry Alexander’s work has harnessed the power of creative collaboration with multi-generational, multicultural, and interfaith communities to conceive, design, and implement community art projects in diverse public settings around the globe. In the studio, Caryl's work includes painting, printmaking, papermaking, textiles, installations, and sculpture. Her media are traditional and experimental, often incorporating recycled or found objects and natural plant materials. 

Out in the community, she combines her roles as a visual artist, teaching artist, curator, researcher, lecturer, writer, and social activist to support communities in clarifying their shared goals and turning their ideas into action.  Her long-term focus is on culture, environment, and nature. She has exhibited throughout the US and abroad. Her media are traditional and experimental, often incorporating recycled or found objects and natural plant materials.

Alpha Bruton, 

Chief Curator Phantom Gallery Chicago Network, the Phantom Galleries, are temporary exhibitions in nontraditional gallery settings. The mission of the (PGCN) is to promote the betterment of the visual arts community through the arts, promote personal achievement in striving for excellence and continual growth as an artist, and promote cultural activities in exhibits, workshops; galleries exhibitions; art centers; artists in residence projects. She is the Co-founder of the Visual Arts Development Project (VADP), formed in 1996. It is an art service organization - that develops projects as living experiments for sustainable practices and an incubator for personal and collective transformation. Visual Arts Development Project is a community-based art organization that provides children, adults, and emerging artists with resources, workshops, and venues to show and express their art form. https://vartsdevelopmentproject.blogspot.com

Jennifer Andrea "YAYA" Porras- Holds a B.A. in Theater/Dance Arts from CSU- Sacramento. 

During her studies and the American Southwest, she was a cultural ambassador, arts educator, and performing artist in China, Mexico, Africa, and Cuba. A multi-talented artist who has received Fellowships from Teatro Campesino, the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC), was a youth mentor and video documenter for the Center for African Peace Conflict Resolution. Curator of the International Society of Altar Making artist constructs temporary installations which are curated by master altar makers drawing on personal history: Envisioned to evoke the transformative value of historical and contemporary cultural traditions, MAP's Gallery uses the power of myth, stories, and imagination to give voice to the universality of cultural traditions.

https://vartsdevelopmentproject.blogspot.com/2023/02/yaya-porras-berkeley-poetry-festival.html

Happy/L. A Hyder – Photographer executive director of Lesbians in the Visual Arts has been an arts activist and fine art photographer in the Bay Area for more than three decades. She taught herself photography with a Hasselblad camera in 1971 (the same year she learned to belly dance) and has been developing her craft ever since. https://www.edgewater-gallery.com/happyla-hyder-1/

I am an artist using the camera as my tool and the negative as my canvas.  Loving the intricacies of architecture, I seek the same in nature.  Every day since spring 2016 (my first in Mendocino following 47 years in San Francisco) finds me ecstatic as I became physically and visually immersed in this vibrant area. I claim the pictorialist photographers of 1950s' Life Magazine as mentors; their crisp, sometimes stark, B&W images began my love of photography, informing my budding vision and, to this day, making me exact in my choice of image to take and to print.

Gabrielle Gilliam, g.gilliam024@gmail.com

Gigi is a holistic wellness educator, experienced curator, 200-hour certified vinyasa yoga teacher, social justice advocate, and an eternal student of life. She uses the principles of yoga, mindfulness attitudes, and natural wisdom as catalysts for ease, empowerment, and liberation. With a strong belief that holding space for collective reflection, imagination, and transformation is the key to meaningful change, Gigi regards her work as spiritual activism. Her teaching style honors the beauty and nuance of the human experience while encouraging individual power and curiosity along the way.

"Vinyasa" is a Place for Collective Reflection, Imagination, and Transformation

OBSERVER 2022 Person of The Year: Shonna McDaniel's

 This Sacramento Artist And Museum Founder Uses Her Art To Unapologetically Educate And Inspire The African American Community

Shonna McDaniel's spent a lot of time lying down this year. The local artist slipped from a ladder while working on a community mural project and broke her foot.

As a person who is constantly on the go and doing something, usually for other people, being unable to move pained her as much as the injury itself. The initial injury turned into others and she also developed life-threatening blood clots from being prone for an extended period.

McDaniels doesn’t know how to sit still; yet, when she was forced to, it still wasn’t idle time. The artist’s hands – and mind – were constantly working. Bedridden for five months, she discovered new ways to create and while recuperating, organized art shows and youth art activities.

McDaniels’ unapologetic work in showing the beauty of Black people and their contributions and her continued commitment to seeing Black artists have a seat at the table led to her selection by The OBSERVER as its 2022 Person of the Year.

Before her injury, McDaniels could be found running the Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum in her beloved South Sacramento. She founded the museum in 1996 and has expanded it from a one-room space to a must-see cultural destination.

Local artist and museum founder Shonna McDaniel's has made a conscious effort to paint her people, educate the community and create opportunities for others to shine. Verbal Adam, OBSERVER

“We want to have information on great African kings and queens and individuals that they don’t speak of when they talk about art history, that they are too afraid to speak of when they talk about our history,” McDaniel's says of the space.

Visitors often encountered her going seemingly 100 mph, urging them to discover all the museum offers and pointing them to other activities throughout the building. She’s still going full speed, only these days, it’s in a wheelchair or a motorized scooter donated by a community supporter.

The museum is located inside the Florin Square complex. McDaniels’ roots in the space date back 30 years to when she worked for Barbara Nord, the first Black woman to own a payee service in Sacramento. The building was known as the Business Incubator at the time. It’s now home to a number of Black-owned small businesses and the African Market Place, which takes place every first and third Saturday. McDaniels also organizes Second Saturday activities as a way to include Blacks in activities that expose people to art and culture as they do in other parts of the city.

“We need that for South Sacramento,” she says. 

African Market Place leader Ra West hosted an art exhibit featuring McDaniels during Second Saturday earlier this month. West says the spotlight was long overdue, as McDaniels usually is uplifting other people’s work.

Black Like Me
Where others see a blank canvas, McDaniels sees possibilities. When she sees voids, she seeks to fill them. When others push back against her desire to see people of color depicted in public spaces, she just paints them with bolder strokes.

She focuses much of her artistic energy into painting Black women in all their melanated glory. Former mentor Akinsanya Kambon says that’s a skill in itself.

“You can’t just make Black skin by using one color,” says Kambon, who first taught McDaniels at the tender age of 4.

“Black skin has all the colors in it and I see Shonna is doing that,” he says. “You have to use reds and blues and greens, and purples, and yellows; all those colors come from the sun and the sun reflects off the melanin in the skin.

“The first thing in being an artist is you’ve got to learn how to see. The average person doesn’t know how to see those things, but when you study it, you learn how to see it and you also learn how to paint it. But it’s not easy. So when somebody does what Shonna’s doing, you can see that they put in a lot of work studying those skin tones or skin colors.”

McDaniels’ work has been featured in the recurring “The Black Woman Is God” exhibit at the SOMA Arts Culture Center in San Francisco. Co-curator Karen Seneferu says as an artist, McDaniels embodies what “The Black Woman Is God” is all about.

“Shonna McDaniels is an unsung heroine,” says the fellow artist. “Like the exhibit, Shonna’s art celebrates Black women as essential to building a more just society. Shonna McDaniels creates spaces that are sustainable to the community’s future.

“When she produces art, she expands the intersectionality of race, age and gender, dismantling stereotypes of Black women.”

McDaniels has taught art classes and conducted numerous workshops and exhibits. She also has been involved in such collaborations as the Visual Arts Development Project, Zica Creative Arts and Literary Guild, Kuumba Collective, and the Sacramento African American Nonprofit Coalition. She also advocates for Black inclusion in public art projects such as Wide Open Walls.

“Shonna is pure light and love in action,” says Sandy Holman, founder of the Davis nonprofit The Culture C.O.-O.P.

Holman met McDaniels at the African Market Place and says her life is better for it.

“She is fearless, committed and talented beyond measure, but I love her most for what she does for our community and her zeal to give back,” Holman says.

‘Woke’ Walls 

“Woke” is a fairly contemporary term, but McDaniels says she always has been that way. She participated in her first Kwanzaa at age 5 and attended an African-centered Saturday school where she learned Swahili and was immersed in culture.

She credits her mother, Ollie McDaniels, who helps run the museum, for laying the foundation early.

“We had African masks, African paintings and images of Black people all throughout the house,” McDaniels says. “She was a part of the Black Panther movement. We would go down to Oakland and participate in the marches and other activities, so she kept our minds stimulated.”

McDaniels’ father, William McDaniels, spent time behind bars and was changed by the experience. He passed on that knowledge to his children.

“When he got into prison, he started to cultivate his Black mind and he started sharing that information with us as young people,” she says. “He started writing letters to me as a young child and sharing information about historical Black leaders. I’m getting letters with all these powerful history lessons in them.”

Her mother also joined the Nation of Islam and exposed her children to its ideology and self-sufficiency message. Both have influenced her art and community-focused activism.

“I definitely was inspired by the fact that the Nation had an entire block in Oak Park of businesses,” McDaniels says. “ It was like a Black Wall Street. I had never seen anything like it before.”

Today’s kids need similar exposure, she says.

“My mom involved us in everything that she could possibly imagine that would cultivate our Black minds and a lot of the parents are not doing that. That’s one of the biggest mistakes that’s happening today for our youth. Of course, we know they’re not getting that information in school.”

While educators were being damned nationally for teaching the realities of American history, McDaniels was educating local youth about their place in it through a docent program at the museum that gives them money for their pockets as well. While school districts across the country added classical Black titles to their lists of banned books, McDaniels was introducing youth to Black authors on the walls of her museum and supporting the local business, Escape Velocity’s Boys in The Hood Book Club, a literacy program.

For McDaniels, who hosts a Black memorabilia fest and the annual Festival of Black Women’s Hair, Body, Mental/Financial Health, Beauty and Art, it nearly broke her heart to hear a local teen say she “didn’t know anything about being Black until the George Floyd incident.” Also troubling, she says, are upper middle-class parents and celebrities with far-reaching platforms, who shy away from their Blackness and denounce the importance of young people knowing about their culture and their past.

“What our community does not understand is that our children are out here acting foolish and running amok and it is because they don’t have a knowledge of self,” she says. “If they had a knowledge of self and they loved self, then that would allow them to love others in their space. If they knew that they come from greatness, they wouldn’t be out here calling each other the n-word and the b-word; they would be on a whole other level of consciousness.”

‘This Work Is A Part Of My Soul’

During the pandemic, McDaniels and the Sojourner Truth Museum have minded the gaps for the community, hosting senior activities, providing weekly meals and hosting youth pop-up events and art lessons, complete with supplies. Some of the events were covered by city COVID-19 money, but McDaniels continued the activities even after the funds stopped this year.

“This work is a part of my soul,” McDaniels says. “It’s my life’s work and I want parents to get it, I want our children to get it; I want them to succeed, I want them to love each other. It doesn’t matter if the funding is not there. Like Malcolm said, ‘By any means necessary.’ So, if I have to come out of my own pocket, which, in the past, and still, sometimes today, I still do. I’ve always had that mind-set. I’ll go without to make sure that my community has.”

Kambon, a former Black Panther Party artist, is proud of McDaniels.

“I’ve seen her develop as one of the most accomplished artists in Sacramento, in terms of African Americans,” he says.

Kambon is also happy she has stayed true to her activist roots.

“We as artists have a responsibility to speak to our people’s struggle in this country because that’s why our ancestors gave us this talent. They gave it to us so we can carry the fight. We have to intensify the struggle,” Kambon says.

Supporters often caution McDaniels that she’s “doing too much,” but those words don’t seem to be in her vocabulary. She’s already focused on 2023 and getting an early start on securing funding for her annual Banana Festival that is a major fundraiser for the museum.

“A lot of people tell me, ‘You’re going to kill yourself trying to save your people,’ ‘You’re going to make yourself sick,’ or ‘You have made yourself sick,’” she says. “It’s just embedded in me to continue to do this work, and hopefully, before I transition, some type of major change will be made.”

THE OBSERVER proudly salutes Shonna McDaniels as its 2022 Person of the Year.