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Core Align: ArtMoves

Consultant and co-designer for ArtMoves, an initative that uses the arts to bring reproductive health, rights, and justice activists closer to their authentic curiosity using the arts.  While exploring how to tackle barriers to creative thinking, ArtMoves asks: how might we create a world in which all people have the love, sex, family and community they desire? Participants rotate through four visual art stations to generate inquiry and catalyze community. 
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Pop-Up Participatory Action Research (PAR) Lemonade Stands

Curator and facilitator for a two-week summer program that amplified youth-implemented participatory action research projects through pop-up lemonade stands. Strangers could "drink in knowledge" with decoupaged cups that featured findings from youth research on birth justice, youth-friendly healthcare, pregnant and parenting youth rights in schools and Parental Notification for Abortion. Youth also distributed research zines, reaching over 300 people in 3 Chicago neighborhoods in just 3 days. 

Swarm Artist Residency

Co-Founder and Organizer for Swarm Artist Residency, an artist’s retreat built by and for Chicago artists. Swarm is a place for artists to do the work they often do not have time to commit to in the midst of three jobs, five rehearsals, commuting and grocery shopping. The residency takes place each summer for the full month of July on a farm within reach of Chicago. Visit swarmartistresidency.com to learn more.  
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Rice and Beans  

Co-creator and host for a bi-weekly house party that includes rice, beans, drink and intentional conversations about race. Investigating home as a space for revolution, Rice and Beans cultivates lightness from the dark by asking the question: what does it look like to make consistent social space for folks to gather and explore racial justice in community, to dream a world beyond our current conditions, over food and drink?
Visit ricenbeansparty.tumblr.com for comprehensive questions and guidelines to plan a party in your city. 
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Repeal Parental Notification for Abortion- Advocacy Day Demonstration

Collaboratively developed a demonstration to support safe family-centered conversations about sexuality by banning Conversion Therapy and Parental Notification for Abortion in Illinois. Performed at the state capitol building in Springfield, Il in March 2015. 
Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health- Make/Art/Space
Curator and facilitator for high school and college age youth artists in a two-week summer program that used public art installation to generate dialogue about Illinois' Parental Notification for Abortion Law.  Referenced in the American Alliance of Museums Trends Watch for 2015 on page 54. PRESS: Chicago Bureau, Windy City Times.   

Talk the Talk

Co-Designed a game on starting comfortable conversations about sexuality between youth and the people that influence their lives. Its intent is to help players practice for real life, empowering them with tools needed to start critical dialogue in their lives. Through a simple card game that references Apples-to-Apples, players enjoy enacting responses to health scenarios through the perspectives of multiple characters.   

Urban Gateways Center for Arts Education

Teaching Artist in elementary, middle and high schools in the Chicago area. Urban Gateways places artists in extended residencies to integrate arts programming into classroom curriculum. Urban Gateways artists partner with classroom teachers to promote the full creative potential of all young people. 









Listen to student poetry from Carson elementary here. 



Ag47 Arts Mentorship Collective

Community Engagement Coordinator, Teaching Artist and Mentor for a women and girls' arts collective. 
The Ag47 Mission is this:

Ag47 knows that girls’ creative voices must be heard.  We are an artistic mentorship collective dedicated to providing opportunities for bold creative expression.  Through collaboration and one-to-one mentorship, women and girls share stories about their lives, take risks, ask questions and use arts to respond.  By presenting their work to a public audience, Ag47 provides girls with the chance to be heard and their communities with the chance to listen.

Girls have something to say. Ag47 amplifies their voices.

Dramagirls' She Saw One Million Sea Stars

Developed group movement and final dance spectacle in collaboration with participants in Redmoon Theater's Dramagirls Program. The piece dove through three levels of the ocean beginning with the surface jellyfish layer, then moving to the middle school fish layer and finally deeper into the bottom dwellers. Performed by Dramagirls and their mentors at Richmond Hall- Spring 2009.  



Actor's Training Center- Wilmette Theater

Instructor for "Collaborative Creation" and "GirlSpeak," devising theater classes for 6th-8th grad students in the Wilmette area. Collaborative Creation focuses on ensemble work, building well-rounded, inspired actors, directors, writers, and performers. Students are encouraged to find their voice, foster imagination, and take ownership in their work. GirlSpeak uses devising theater technique to explore specific issues that young women face, such as body image, beauty in the media, gender roles, and social pressures. 
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