Beginning in 2023, artist Badri Valian and I started collaboration on a long-term participatory art project called In My Fluffy Pajamas: From Silk Road to San Francisco.
This is a series of guided art workshops that assist participants in verbalizing and visualizing narratives of immigration, displacement, relocation, resilience, and belonging through a combination of textile art, mapmaking, sensory recall, and co-storytelling. We complete different iterations of the project working with different target populations. Then we create exhibitions combining all of the resulting visual art together, amplifying the voices of the individuals while highlighting the many similarities people have across diverse communities.
I have created several of my own works of visual art through this process. In designing the workshops together, I relied heavily on my background in trauma-informed craft-as-therapy, and I bring that to the co-facilitation of the workshops as well. I also take on the primary role of grant writing and press release production.
Related Links:
- In My Fluffy Pajamas newsletter
- Press release for Silk Road to San Francisco APICC workshop
- Included in 2024 APICC brochure (second page, third column)
- Eventbrite workshop page at Chinese Culture Center (because this event has ended, you’ll have to click “view event” at the top right of the page and then “view all event details) on the page that opens up)
- CAPL Impact Award winner announcement
- CAPL events workshop announcement
- Social media samples: search #silkroadtosanfrancisco hashtag on Instagram
- Cross-promotion example: APICC featured artist Megan Lowe shared our workshops in her newsletter and we did the same for her
Grants Received:
- 2024: APICC USAAF Award
- 2024: CAPL Impact Award
- 2024: SFAC Artist Grant
Other Organizations Collaborated With, Venues Hosting Workshops, Etc:
- ARTogether, Oakland
- Chinese Culture Center, San Francisco
- Fiscal sponsorship with Independent Arts & Media
