Junk Journal for Racial Justice
A Workshop Series Exploring Creativity & Culture Change
~ and a fundraiser for the Center for Food, Faith and Justice* ~
- Date: August 28, 1–4PM over Zoom
- Cost: Early Bird: $75 or more (Until 8/23/21)
- Regular Cost: $100 or more (After 8/23/21)
- 50% of proceeds will be donated to the Center for Food Faith and Justice
You want to participate? You can sign up right here.
What is Junk Journaling for Racial Justice
This Junk Journaling for Racial Justice workshop aims to support us in dissolving white supremacy culture from within ourselves by empowering our inner artists to discover–and enjoy!–a new way forward. This is intended to be the first in a series of workshops. Come once, or come to all of them! It’s up to you.
This workshop is also a fundraiser for the Center for Food, Faith, and Justice, a Black-led organization in Berkeley, California dedicated to “Raising Healthy Communities from the Soil to the Soul.”.
“You are empowered to create something, not something out of nothing, but something out of what has been placed in your hands…. Something that responds to the worst conditions in your own family, in your own life, and in this community. Right now, your ability to cultivate a holy imagination is needed, now more than ever.”
Pastor Michael McBride
In this three-hour workshop, we will slowly, loosely, and playfully use a range of mixed media art supplies to create what our inner artist craves to see on the page. We will work with color, texture, and images cut from magazines to create the visual medicine that we each need to see.
As we do this, we will challenge some specific attributes of white supremacy culture, as laid out by author and activist Tema Okun. In this workshop we will reflect on the related attributes of (perfectionism, one-right-way, paternalism) and practice a new way that emphasizes
- Appreciation
- Process over product
- Finding beauty in “mistakes”
- Listening for your body’s authority (as expressed through your inner “ah yes”)
We will use the space of our journal page as a place to find and practice a new culture–first and foremost in how we related to ourselves.
Note: we will start and end the workshop with a brief circle, and there will be plenty of space for you to ask questions about the creative process. However, most of the workshop is designed to be contemplative/meditative in nature. This is a space designed first and foremost to help you connect with YOU in a new way.
I will be working with the following art supplies. Feel free to make substitutions as you care to!
- A paper grocery bag
- scissors
- Gluestick
- Mod podge or collage glue
- Old magazines
- Random scraps from your recycling bin
- Colored paper
- Acrylic paint
- Paint pens or gel pens
- Ball point pens for journaling
I look forward to creating “liberation art” alongside you!
FAQ: What’s a Junk Journal?
A junk journal is a visual journal where we use materials and supplies from our everyday lives…. and transform them into something that feels personally delicious to see. People sometimes make a junk journal out of an old book, magazine, catalogue or a used calendar. I often use composition notebooks form the dollar store, or I make junk journals out of paper grocery bags.
For the purposes of this workshop, I encourage you to use a journal that you can write words in… as we will start our workshop doing a stream of consciousness “free write” exercise in our journal. We will create art right on top of our journal entry.
Using scraps and bits of materials from your everyday life, mixed with a few art supplies, you will create art right on the pages of your junk journal.
Why sign-up for this workshop?
In the U.S., we have all grown up under the overwhelming influence of white supremacy culture. While this lands differently on each of us (depending on our race, skin color, and exact social location and personal life story), none of us are free from the grip of a way of life that emphasizes control over connection and extraction over generativity.
One of the things white supremacy culture does is kill our creativity. But our creativity is revivable! And that’s a good thing, because we need our creativity now more than ever as we live into new ways being a human community on planet Earth.
Do you know what children do when something is overwhelming and psychologically or spiritually indigestible? They play about it! This workshop is an opportunity to do just that: visually play our way toward a new sense of compassion, authenticity, belonging and freedom.
Who is this for?
This workshop is intended for anyone who would like to free their creativity in a safe, playful, self-reflective environment. It is also a place for people who would like to self-reflect on how white supremacy culture lives in you, and begin to grow in self-awareness and establish a new culture: first and foremost in how you interact with yourself.
No matter what race or skin color you have, and no matter what your level of experience with creating art, you are welcome here! Likewise, no matter where you are on your antiracist journey, new or seasoned, you are warmly welcomed to this safe container for self-reflection and self-connection.* The only requirement is that you come with an open heart and mind, and with willingness to self reflect and explore. This space is for you if you crave a more authentic connection to yourself.
*This is not a space for discussion or debate about white supremacy culture. This is for people who are willing to assume that attributes of white supremacy culture live in all of us, and we each can benefit from becoming more free.
What supplies do I need?
I will be working with the following art supplies. Feel free to make substitutions as you care to!
- A paper grocery bag
- scissors
- Gluestick
- Mod podge or collage glue
- Old magazines
- Random scraps from your recycling bin
- Colored paper
- Acrylic paint
- Paint pens or gel pens
- Ball point pens for journaling
What if 3-hours is too long for me?
This workshop is a creative retreat; it is intended to feel spacious, grounding, and enlivening. We will have regularly scheduled breaks to use the bathroom and get refreshments, and you are welcome to take a break at any time you feel you need one.
I ask that you keep your camera on for the opening circle (and the closing circle if you stay the whole time), but you should feel free to have your camera off for the time in between if that is more relaxing for you.
If 3-hours still feels too long, you should feel free to leave before we are done. I ask that you message me to let me know you are leaving, just so I know.
How do I sign up?
Simply click on this link and you are all ready to sign up.
I look forward to seeing you on August 28,
Angela