Getting out of our comfort zone and doing art in community 🌈✨🎨
Recently, as part of our Palenke Seniors Program, we hosted an intergenerational Art Therapy gathering facilitated by @fern.creates - and we were blown away by the synchronicities in what people drew to represent the feeling they have when engaging with Iyé and how our collective came into their lives, how they visualize the work we do, and how they imagine we could be in the future.
We saw many themes through the pieces of art, including lots of suns, radiating rays of light, flowers, spirals, circles, curvy, flowing shapes (not a lot of straight lines), and of course…food!
We know that art with pastels isn’t something most adults get to do on a regular basis, and were touched at the openness of folks to play around with a medium that may be quite unfamiliar to them, and maybe a little out of their comfort zones.
We also enjoyed some incredible (as always) food from the amazing folks at @syriana_catering. We can’t recommend their beautiful Mediterranean-inspired food enough! We have a beautiful
partnership with Chef Safaa and her amazing team, and the relationship feels almost maternal - when she provides such nourishing, soul-ful foods for our events, and every time someone takes a bite of her dolmades… it’s such a joy to watch their faces experience the flavour for the first time!
As a collective, we learned a lot from this session, and were able to further clarify the ways we work with our communities who face multiple intersecting barriers. We’re always learning and growing, and are immensely grateful for everyone who’s a part of this ecosystem and who shares the values of:
🌿 Food justice & equity,
🌿 Accountability to our community, and
🌿 Uplifting different ways of knowing, being and doing.
Much love to everyone who participated in this heart-expansive gathering.
P.S. See everyone's artwork below!
