Self-Love Portrait Project

The Self-Love Portrait Project was inspired by a member of our Youth Collective, Mailan Carr's, wanting to create a project that highlighted her passions about feminism, hyper masculinity and self-love. Through a series of Circulo styled workshops, we explored how toxic masculinity and femininity impacts self-love and self-destruction while also providing self-improvement and self-care tools for all community participants.
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Circles integrated writing, education about cosmic feminine and masculine energies and posing to creatively explore these topics. During the Solidarity Circle, participants came together for a gallery installation of portraits and testimonies collected during the identity specific circles. Participants who attend both Sister/Brother Circles AND Solidarity Circlereceive free portraits, headshots and self-care kits!

This project was made possible by the Oakland Youth Advisory Commission and The Pollination Project. ​

Stay True 

The Product.
Women's bodies and sexuality are under an on-going assault by dominant social norms, behaviors and ideas. Amidst all of the dominant ideas forced on us through the media, in our families, by our peers, in the workplace, etc, its ESSENTIAL for us to reclaim our bodies and our sexualities as a source of power, NOT a source of shame, and "Stay True" to who we are.​

The Process.
To create this piece, we held our first sister circle with these three dancers, addressing and then discussing how we feel impacted by ideas about how we should present ourselves to the world. While the choreography was collaboratively devised, each dancers writing and testimony was taken, dissected and reconstructed to tell our stories through this collective poem. ​

Born of Warrior Woman 

The Product.
We need to remind ourselves of the legacy of strength and resilience that flows in our veins. We must act to build the world that benefits our children generations to come and defies every dominant narrative that tells you that you are not enough. Find strength in your history, and the history of radically loving women that came before you. Not only are we Born of Warrior Women, we ARE warrior women. 

The Process.
Born of Warrior Women was inspired by a WAGE ART Sister Circle that we hosted in the Fall of 2017. We wanted to bring young women together to talk about the everyday battles we're facing and where we draw our strengths from. We engaged in a Sister Circle where we all had an opportunity to share memories, ideas and reflections.