Tag: Creativity

The Healing Arts Series

Purchase tickets below.

In Flow: A Moving Meditation by Donne Lewis

Friday, November 15th at 7:30pm

Meet three enchanting women who are powerful solo performers in their own rights – sand dancer Donne Lewis, aka the Wychdokta, interdisciplinary artist and healer Artis Moon (the Boundless Eclectic), and producer/singer/songwriter Tamara Wellons, all artists who are deeply rooted in the American tradition of Jazz & improvisation with an eclectic mix of other influences. There is a synergy between them that feels like they are reaching into infinity.

You will experience meditative vibes from Artis Moon with anything from wooden flute and metallophone to crystal bowls and drums, the magic of the Wychdokta with percussive sand dance, movement, and energy healing (Reiki), and the scintillating vocals of Tamara Wellons.

To achieve the integration of Mind, Body, and Soul is to arrive at, or be within, the state of “Flow.”  Movement has always been how I tap into my spirit, to have peace, and its partner, euphoria.  A tap dancer for the past 20 years, I’ve spent the last five years nurturing and developing my concept of barefoot percussive dance, using sand on wood (Sand dancing). The incorporation of modern, contemporary and African movement came two years ago.  The final piece is my journey to mastery of Reiki healing. I am working to physically represent the symbols, to literally embody them, in order to simultaneously share with audiences both my artistry, my rhythms, and the healing energy of Reiki.

In Flow is designed to bring together all the parts of myself, Mind, Body, and Soul, for personal and group healing. I, along with my collaborators, Artis Moon and Tamara Wellons, will represent each concept. Tamara – the Mind, Artis – the Soul, and myself as the Body.

A bath of sound will be created to aurally stimulate the senses. The audience will be witness to a literal flight across the sand, and a gathering of light, air, and sonic vibrations, to arrive back in their bodies, awash in the experience of healing energy.

Click here to visit the Joan Hisaoka Gallery website.

Mind | BODY | Soul

Healing the Outside from Within

A Group Exhibition

Curated by Lindsey Yancich and Meg Mowery

October 1 – December 21, 2019

Curator & Artist Talk: Saturday, October 19, 1:00-3:00pm

Join the artists and curators of Mind, BODY, Soul for a look into their creative and individual perspectives!

In today’s fast-paced world of technology, social media, and a volatile political climate, American society’s opinions regarding body image are constantly evolving and oftentimes treacherous to navigate. Through platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat, a younger generation (that’s YOU!) is now dictating and interrogating their own ideals of beauty and body positivity. In this group exhibition, this new generation of artists and thinkers explore concepts of the body as a catalyst for healing and acceptance.

RSVP above in advance, or leave your email at the door for a chance to win 2 FREE TICKETS to the Healing Arts Series: A Movement Performance by Donne Lewis! Winner will be announced at the end of the night!!

Mind | BODY | Soul

Healing the Outside from Within

A Group Exhibition

Curated by Lindsey Yancich and Meg Mowery

October 1 – December 21, 2019

Opening Reception: Friday, October 4th, 7:00-9:00pm

In today’s fast-paced world of technology, social media, and a volatile political climate, American society’s opinions regarding body image are constantly evolving and oftentimes treacherous to navigate. Through platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat, a younger generation (that’s YOU!) is now dictating and interrogating their own ideals of beauty and body positivity. In this group exhibition, this new generation of artists and thinkers explore concepts of the body as a catalyst for healing and acceptance.

This event has been postponed. Please check back to register for the new date.

With Tina Lassiter

Collaging, Co-Listening & Cancer infuses collage art with the art of listening as participants are invited to share stories about their cancer journey and the path they are walking with a partner. Come create/“conversate”/listen in a mindful space; bring an open heart, mind and spirit. No arts experience is needed.

About Tina Lassiter

Tina Scott Lassiter is an Integrative Healthcare Consultant & Practitioner who, in the spring of 2016, launched mindful to a T., an entrepreneurial venture that showcases her passion for the healing arts and training in mindfulness/mind body medicine; programs, retreats, & workshops developed for both organizations and individuals are tailored to meet the needs of the client (www.mindful2aT.com). She is certified in Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra, Reiki Levels 1 – 3, and Acupressure and is also a Certified Pediatric Massage Therapist and Infant Massage Teacher. She completed coursework in Integrative Training for Healthcare Professionals; Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction; initial and advanced Mind Body Medicine; Touch Therapy for the NICU; and corporate wellness. One of her personal mindful/art practices was featured on the online version of Spirituality & Health magazine; she was selected to post on the Wellness Within website; and her first book, “morsels of peeps…mindful musings, inspirational thoughts, quiet images” was published in 2018.

In addition to her work in health and wellness, Tina is an accomplished artist and photographer (www.tinascottlassiter.com). Her intricately designed collages, some which focus primarily on the female body form and are referred to as goddesses, had their debut exhibition at Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts, have hung in several other group shows in the DC metropolitan area, and were featured in Body & Soul Connection, a national magazine published by Spirituality & Health; Ms. Lassiter was the featured artist in this same issue. Her goddess series and a body of work addressing issues that affect women serve as the inspiration for workshops designed to tackle self-esteem, body image issues, and current events; enlightening conversation and self-reflection have been provided to participants across the country during these sessions. In 2013, she was commissioned by the Capitol Breast Care Center to create a goddess image that came to represent the strength, courage and resilience of any woman and later received a Community Service Award for her work in the healing arts from Lambda Kappa Mu, a women’s business and professional organization.

Tina served as the Director of Creative & Therapeutic Arts at Children’s National Health System for 15 years.  She spearheaded efforts to bring a comprehensive complementary and integrative care program targeted at patients and families to the hospital organization, delivering her unique brand of mindfulness practices to thousands of patients, families and staff. After developing a complementary care model for caregivers in a medical setting, she was invited by Decision Health to present at several healthcare conferences which led to conducting a webinar for Ernest Health, followed by an interview for an article in the Joint Commission newsletter on the topic of Caring for the Caregiver.  During her tenure, Tina developed and instituted the first organized system for selecting, purchasing, installing, and cataloging art throughout the hospital in addition to establishing a criteria for accepting art donations.  Working closely with area schools and visual arts organizations, she and her staff secured then installed art in all 25 of Children’s off site clinics throughout the area; she collaborated with area interior designers to choose artwork created by children for the annual Show House to benefit the hospital for two years. Her curatorial effort to diversify the types of artwork on display at Children’s brought to the forefront the work of children living with AIDS; young artists with disabilities; a photographer who compiles a photographic record of children with life-threatening illnesses for their families; and local girls who are the victims of or exposed to violence via The Clothesline Project. Not only did she move the latter display to a prominent and highly visible gallery in the hospital, she also added a writing of narratives component, and eventually established and hosted an annual evening of awareness and education for staff, parents, and children; the DC Rape Crisis Center later joined as a hosting partner bringing in artwork and awards for children participating in Who Would You Tell?. She co-designed a forum that provides pediatric medical residents with comprehensive training in the importance of the arts in a medical environment; she was instrumental in the creation of an arts-based program which led to a five-year $1.2M Science Education Partnership Award; and presented at numerous national conferences and seminars discussing the value of arts programming and art in a pediatric setting.

Ms. Lassiter serve(d)s on both grant related and judging panels for various arts organizations; spoke at numerous conferences and seminars on the importance of art in a healing environment; was Art Editor/Columnist for NEWORLD Renaissance, a New York-based multicultural magazine of the arts; and sourced then visited galleries/artists around the country to select art for Black Enterprise Magazine. She is a former Adjunct Instructor for Smith Center for Healing and the Arts where she facilitated a variety of workshops using the cultural arts combined with mindfulness meditation; graduated from the Arts in Medicine Intensive at the University of Florida Center for the Arts in Healthcare Research & Education; holds an MBA in Marketing from NYU’s Stern School of Business; and a BA in Communications with a minor in Social Work from Howard University.

with Rick Black, An International prize-winning haiku poet

Slowing down, being attentive and writing haiku can help to affirm our sense of self and renew our awareness of the beauty of the world. Join us for this all-day workshop, which includes a short film and haiku walk. Please bring lunch or snacks and wear comfortable shoes for walking.

This intimate workshop is limited to 8 people. Be sure to RSVP to secure your seat.

Suggested donation: $25

Our programs are open to the community, and tailored to meet the needs of people affected by cancer. Classes and workshops are free or low cost on a pay-as-you-can basis, ensuring that our programs are accessible to everyone.

About Rick Black

A poet, book artist and photographer, Rick Black is the founder and owner of Turtle Light Press, a small publishing company that specializes in handcrafted books, fine art prints and note cards. In recent years, Rick has won several awards for his own poetry as well as books that he has published. He has given readings at the Library of Congress and elsewhere around the country. He often takes bike rides in the region and can be spotted taking photographs in and around Arlington, Falls Church, and Washington, D.C.

As he has gotten to know the area, he has begun turning his digital photos into artistic paintings – luminous, colorful and playful. His images have been selected to adorn the rooms of the Hilton Garden Inn in Falls Church. He has exhibited widely in the mid-Atlantic region and his work can be found in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia. For close to twenty years, he worked as a journalist, including a three-year stint in the Jerusalem bureau of The New York Times. He also has freelanced for numerous national newspapers and magazines, including The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, and other publications.

To see more of Rick’s books or his artistic photographs, please visit his website:
www.turtlelightpress.com

With Aminah Sané Ghaffar

This program will focus on the ideology of Indigenous medicine from a Native American perspective. You will have a chance to experience the healing power of the Jingle Dress Dance, which is a traditional healing dance that originated from the Ojibwa/Anishinabe tribe. Through storytelling, traditional dance, singing, and drumming, experience the realignment of mind, body, and spirit.

Traditional Native American remedies have been either diluted by mainstream culture or completely rejected or ignored in the conventional medical system. The vast majority of the medicines used today are a direct product of some Indigneous concept. This talk will explore the origins of traditional Indigenous medicines, and how to use them properly and respectfully in your daily lives.

The Jingle dress dance was developed by the medicine people of the Ojibwa tribe to heal the sick granddaughter of the Chief. The dresses are not costumes, they are traditional regalia that are one of a kind and have a unique connection and meaning to the wearers. The sound of the tin jingles that cascade down the dress make the sound of rain coming down on a tin roof. The jingle dress dance is one of the most common powwow dances and is revered in the Indigenous community.

Our programs are open to the community, and tailored to meet the needs of people affected by cancer. Classes and workshops are free or low cost on a pay-as-you-can basis, ensuring that our programs are accessible to everyone.

Suggested donation: $15

About Aminah Sané Ghaffar

Aminah Sané Ghaffar is a Lumbee and African American woman from Pembroke, NC. She is a B.S. in Biology from East Carolina University where she also ran track and field and holds the school record for the heptathlon. She earned a Masters from Georgetown University in Physiology and Biophysics with a concentration in Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and a recipient of the Hoyas for Science Scholarship. She is an Indigenous rights activist and has spoken at the Women’s March in Annapolis, MD in honor of Missing and Murdered Indigneous Women. She is a two-time panelist at the Shifting the Paradigm Back to Humanity Conference, and has aspirations to attend medical school to serve underserved populations on Native American reservations.

With Rebecca Wilkinson, MA, ATR-BC, LCPAT

In this workshop, we will explore the challenges we have encountered and honor the process that helped us survive and even thrive in the face of such adversities. We will create shrines using small boxes with an inspiring collection of found objects and art supplies to honor our resilience and perseverance.

Previous art experience is not needed in order to benefit from this arts, healing, and creativity program. This workshop is designed for all ranges of artistic experience–you need not consider yourself an artist to attend. Boxes and materials will be provided but you are also invited to bring your own box and any personally meaningful objects that you might want to include in your shrine.

“Consider how truly elegant the design process is that created us so that, in the face of the most difficult time of our lives, there is the possibility—not the certainty but the possibility—of access to states of awareness and experience that enable us to cope with these crises better than we otherwise could.  And consider how remarkable it is that these states of awareness make many people say that they feel more alive and more … than they ever felt before.”  Michael Lerner, Executive Director, Commonweal

About Rebecca Wilkinson

Rebecca is a Registered and Board Certified art therapist with twenty years of experience in mental health and in facilitating training and workshops. She serves as adjunct faculty at George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program and provides continuing education and development through the Potomac Art Therapy Association. She facilitates supportive workshops for those affected by life-threatening illness and the professional providers working with them. She is a co-founder of Creative Wellbeing Workshops, LLC, which provides training, consultation, and clinical therapy designed to reduce stress, prevent burnout and increase life satisfaction and wellbeing.

With Ravenna Raven and Jenny Hegland

Poets Ravenna Raven and Jenny Hegland will be on site from 1 – 5 p.m. on Tuesday, August 20th writing custom poems for anyone who’s interested in talking with them.  Conversations typically last 5-15 minutes. Poems are then composed, typewritten, and given to each individual who participates.”

More about Ravenna and Jenny

Ravenna Raven has lived in D.C. for the past decade teaching reading, writing, and yoga to students of all ages and learning how to sew and alter custom garments. Ravenna holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from the George Washington University and an MFA in Poetry from the University of Maryland.
Jenny is a creative facilitator, coach, and social entrepreneur whose life’s work centers around community engagement, participatory leadership, and social justice. She moved to the greater DC area in 2018 after living in Saipan (Northern Mariana Islands) for three years, where she co-founded and led two disaster recovery nonprofits. Prior to that she worked in higher education for 10 years as a counselor, instructor, and partnership liaison. She holds a M.S. in counseling and a B.S. in communications. 

 

 

 

With Theresa Walker

Tuesday, August 27th

Would you like to go on an adventure? It’s called SoulCollage® and the Road Ahead.

Its purpose? To nurture, explore, discover, and direct our life energies…to enjoy community and creativity and to see messages from our inner selves…our hearts and souls.

No artistic experience is needed for this activity, which is simple and engaging.
SoulCollage® and the Road Ahead
Create a small collage on 5 x8 high-quality cards.
Guided exercises to learn how to read your images
for self-care, wisdom, inner healing, and fun.
About Theresa Walker 

Theresa is a registered SoulCollage® facilitator and has led groups since 2011. She is a certified expressive arts facilitator, trained at Salve Regina University in writing and visual arts, and she is a graduate of Shalem’s Leading Contemplative Prayer Groups program. She finds that SoulCollage®, especially in a Group setting, offers participants a unique experience of playfulness, insight, and creativity.

 

Due to low registration, this program has been canceled for February 2.

In Partnership with George Washington Cancer Center, Georgetown Lombardi Cancer Center, and Camp Kesem

If you or a loved one had been diagnosed with cancer, you may have concerns about how younger members of your family are coping.  Kids’ Club is a group of children ages 6 to 12 with parents or grandparents in treatment for cancer.  Teen club is for those ages 13 – 18 with parents or grandparents in treatment for cancer. 

Each session, kids, teens, and parents will enjoy pizza together and then each group will go to separate rooms to talk and make art.  Our topics include communicating feelings, building personal strengths, and developing coping skills.  We invite everyone to share as much or as little as they feel comfortable.

Although we are brought together by our common experiences with cancer, Kids/Teen Club is not a sad or scary place; we have fun! Our goal is to have positive interactions with other families dealing with illness and to learn new ways of expressing and managing feelings. Our facilitators are experienced social workers, counselors, and trained volunteers.