Bloom & Agitate: Reimagining Liberation through Personal Healing and Collective Action
Saturday, April 15, session 3
3:00 - 4:30 PM PST
The theme for this workshop is personal blooming and collective action toward ending mass incarceration. It will be centered around reflection and healing at an individual, community, and institutional level to envision a different way of moving forward together. This will include artistic creation on the concepts of reclamation, abolition, and prosperity. The writing workshop component is inspired by Zandashé Brown’s poem, “I dream of never being called resilient again in my life/I’m exhausted by strength/I want support/I want softness/I want ease/I want to be amongst kin/Not patted on the back for how well I take a hit/Or for how many” where attention is being called to what is desired form those impacted by the necessity to be resilient.
In the first part of the workshop, participants will reflect in groups on ideas of changing systems already known as it relates to incarceration. The second half of the workshop will also allow for opportunity to share personal creative expression on the idea of liberation as well as collective conceptualizations on policy reform or actions to address mass incarceration. In the group setting, artists and advocates alike will get to share their areas of expertise to help guide discussion.
Ángela Gonzales-Torres
Ángela Gonzales-Torres is a Northeast LA native, daughter of a deportee, and sister to three raised by a single mother. Her undergraduate studies at UCLA includes Chicanx and Central American studies and Anthropology, and her goal is to pursue a JD/MA program in American Indian Studies. Currently working with the formerly incarcerated and system-impacted at Pasadena City College, she also gets the opportunity to tutor nontraditional students like herself, and advocates for her neighbors impacted by gentrification as a Director on the Highland Park Neighborhood Council. She is committed to continuous personal blooming and agitating for community action.