Reflections of Healing
2010-2012 | Multiple sites across Oakland, CA
PROJECT PARTNERS:
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Youthspeaks
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The Downtown Oakland Association
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Oaklandish
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Friends of DeFremery Park
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Southern Exposure Gallery
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The East Bay Community Foundation
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National Endowment for the Arts
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The Open Circle Foundation
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The Zellerbach Family Foundation
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Ictus
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City of Oakland’s Parks and Recreation and Cultural Arts & Marketing Division
Championing health and wellness with participatory portraiture at Oakland’s Life is Living festival
Reflections of Healing was a multifaceted process of community building that included the collaborative development of large-scale public installations featuring Bay Area residents, who, through practice or legacy, demonstrated healing. The project catalyzed partnerships between diverse and under-resourced communities and residents through temporary and permanent actions across Oakland, California. Reflections anchored Life is Living, an eco-equity, interdisciplinary festival that centers historically underserved neighborhoods and communities with programming in public spaces that have been otherwise neglected. Life is Living was produced by Youth Speaks every year since 2008, and the collaborative pieces were made over three years by Brett Cook and the more than 14,000 residents of Oakland who attended Life is Living over that time frame.
THE FIRST SEVEN HEALERS
In 2010, the first seven Reflections of Healing models were interviewed with a peer-generated questionnaire. Afterwards, they collaboratively created their own portraits that were later featured at the Life is Living festival. In May 2011, the first eight portraits of the Reflections of Healing project were the inaugural exhibition at 2930 Telegraph, a non-commercial storefront space in downtown Oakland. From May through September 2011, seven of the portraits were temporarily installed at five Oakland Public Library branches as part of the library’s Teen Summer Passport program and Youth Speaks’ fifteen-year anniversary.
The 12′ x 20′ collaborative portrait of Bobby Hutton was started in October 2010 and colored by hundreds of hands at Lil’ Bobby Hutton Park (DeFremery Park) as a centerpiece of Life is Living 2011. In October 2012, a series of cards and poster featuring the Reflections of Healing models were distributed in partnership with Oaklandish. The Little Bobby Hutton Power Figure was featured in the Oakland Museum of California in fall 2012.
Reflections of Healing interview of healer Nicole Lee with collaborator Marc Bamuthi Joseph. DeFremery Park, Oakland, September 2010.
Reflections of Healing offered visitors the chance to create and contribute to the portraits while reflecting on local legacies of healing.
Reflections of Healing offered visitors the chance to create and contribute to the portraits while reflecting on local legacies of healing.
The night preceding the festival, an international body of scholars, arts presenters, foundation program officers, and independent artists joined in conversation about a future-thinking sustainability policy. The convening was framed by esteemed social critic Jeff Chang. This position paper, which Chang codifies as a Theory of Change, contemplates the spirit and efficacy of a multi-city community organizing and arts presentation model with Life is Living at its core.
September 2010 - After completing the interviews and drawings, friends and family of the subjects were invited to participate in a day of drawing to ready the works for the collaborative coloring installations at Life is Living in the coming weeks.
Little Bobby Hutton Power Figure
Oakland Museum Installation - Little Bobby Hutton Power Figure. Brooms, Lights, Photos, Gold ornaments, Paint pen, Oil Pastel on Non Woven Media and gold Acrylic, 288" X 144", 2010-11.
Robert “Little Bobby” Hutton
Life is Living 2011 attendees contribute to the Bobby Hutton Power Figure in DeFremery Park, Oakland, CA.
Oh-oh, here come the brooms to sweep up the delusion. Soaring with the Reflections of Healing Little Bobby Hutton power figure - 55 % there - in the Oakland Studio/Practice Center, February 2011.
Reflections of Healing at the Oakland Public Library
Reflections of Healing at 2930 Telegraph
