Healing Together
Building Community Through Native + Black Storytelling
Thursday, January 18, 2024
4:00-8:00 PM
Explora, 1701 Mountain Road, NW, ABQ, NM
Suitable for Teens + Adults
Spaces are Limited and Tickets are FREE!
Pre-Registration is now Closed
Please Register at the Event
About
Healing Together is a collaborative effort of Two Worlds and High Desert Playback aimed at promoting understanding, empathy, reconciliation, and coalition between Native Americans and African Americans in New Mexico. This intergenerational convening is designed to create a space where members of both communities and their allies can share stories for healing, connection, and justice.
Healing Together is being produced in collaboration with Explora in celebration of the National Day of Racial Healing. Launched in 2017 by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, National Day of Racial Healing is an opportunity to bring ALL people together in their common humanity and inspire collective action to create a more just and equitable world.
Why This Project? Why Now?
The story of the United States is based in the painful legacy Indigenous genocide, settler colonialism, and the enslavement of African peoples. In order to truly heal the Earth and our communities, we must have the courage to be able to face our past, acknowledge the harm caused, and center the voices, experiences and wisdom of those most impacted by this legacy.
During Healing Together, we will share our collective stories of discrimination, empowerment, harm, resilience, pain, and joy that have affected our communities for generations. We will be encouraged to confront our own biases and assumptions and to listen deeply to each other. We will also use our imaginations and resources to co-create a more equitable and inclusive future for all New Mexicans.
The Agenda
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Come together in the Rotary space for sign-in and connection.
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Following a moment of grounding from our elders, Kim Delfina Gleason (Two Worlds) and Lynn Johnson (High Desert Playback) will welcome you to the event and lead you in an interactive activity.
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Beauty Way: Spider Woman Stories shares the world and voice of Native American and Indigenous Women through the lens of Spider Woman, a Navajo Deity. They journey and weave together both past and present, by honoring their cultural traditions in song, dance, and storytelling.
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With an assist from her celestial ancestors, Heaven-Kissed is about one woman attempts to find joy in a world that attempts to keep joy from her. A one-act about the life-long and potentially life-saving journey to joy.
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We break bread together.
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Playback theater is an improvisational art form in which audience members tell stories from their lives and watch them enacted on the spot. Your Stories will feature audience members’ stories of sanctuary and solidarity. We will center Native, Black, and Brown folks, giving white allies an opportunity to bear witness.
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Interactive Reflection: After experiencing these stories, what does racial healing mean to you now, in this moment? How might we apply our lessons learned to build powerful coalitions for justice in New Mexico?