Veronique d’Entremont, Veronica De Jesus and Cole M. James will discuss and share practices for healing ancestral and family connections, discovered through art and writing. As a group, we will engage a practice based in the work of trauma therapist and theologian Kelly Germaine-Strickland, and spiritual activist Jardana Peacock, who practice ancestral healing as an extension of anti-racist organizing work. We welcome others to bring their knowledge, practices and experiences to the conversation.

Doors will open at 6PM for food and viewing of:
A Reproduction of the Trauma; A Portal Through Which Love May Enter
Installation by Veronique d’Entremont

SENSORY EXPERIENCES
Artwork by Veronica De Jesus

Rue: Explorations of Ether,Fire, Wata, and Gia
Artwork by Cole M. James

DISCUSSION WILL START AT 7PM
Food will be provided! RSVP is not necessary but it will help us with the headcount.
please email with questions or RSVP: verohneek (at) gmail.com

A Reproduction of the Trauma; A Portal Through Which Love May Enter.
Installation by Veronique d’Entremont
Family linens, clothesline, charcoal from a churchfire.

VDJ SENSORY EXPERIENCES. Artwork by Veronica De Jesus (2nd floor chapel)
. The goal of this project for me is to create an experience that brings to light the multi layers of life as it relates to our mind, body and spirit.
In the room you have drawings I made recently which describe a need I feel for more spaces with shared resources, more community building and more care overall that is not so Commerce driven.
Also in the room is a table set up with objects the were crafted by me, crafted by nature and crafted by the time past. These objects serves as an offering space to spend time to connect, play and build from within.
And finally I will have a letter writing station with stamps, paper envelopes. I will specifically be encouraging guests to write to my brother Abraham who serves life in prison here in California. I will be sharing a book I handmade that has his writings and drawings he has been sending me over the years.

Rue: Explorations of Ether, Fire, Wata, and Gia. Artwork by Cole M James. 
In 2013 I was ushered into a hospital room to undergo a small but invasive surgery.  The next day  I was face to face with an AK 47 at the door of my classroom as the Los Angeles Swat Division cleared the campus of Santa Monica College after a mass shooting. The trauma of my surgery followed by the trauma of living through a mass shooting at the hand of a person diagnosed with a manageable psychological disease made me question many modern practices embedded in our modern health care system.  I started searching for ancestral healing practices.  In an article the plant Rue was mentioned as a useful and abundant herb.  This plant that grows evasively is used all over the world.  It has the ability to aid in regulating the reproduction system of women and suppressing the fertile efficiency of men. Given the name witches herb and Herb of Grace, Rue is mentioned in ballads of Cecilia Cruz and sonnets of Shakespeare. Rue has many roles within religious ceremony and can be found practices of Santeria, Appalachian HooDoo, Voodoo, Wicca and the Catholic Church.  This project is an exploration of Rue and is centered on the connectivity of ancestral knowledge.

Veronique d’Entremont (Boston, 1983) is a LA-based interdisciplinary artist, invested collaborative practice and community organizing.  Through reciprocal spiritual, pedagogical and studio practices, Veronique investigates art as a medium for healing individual and community experiences of trauma.  Her work explores how we are shaped by the social and institutional spaces we inhabit– from our families of origin to academic, religious and correctional institutions—and seeks to transform these spaces.  She has exhibited in Los Angeles, New York, Boston and Mexico City, and has lectured at UCLA, CalArts, California College of the Arts, Palomar College, and at California Rehabilitation Center, a prison in Norco, CA. In 2016 she co-founded The Liberated Art Collective, and facilitates healing art workshops with formerly-incarcerated and institutionalized individuals.

Veronica De Jesus is a visual artist raised in several American cities. She illustrates life as an American, in all its varied splendor. Drawing on pop culture icons, sports, heroes and villains, and more, she draws our complex world into focus. Her Memorial Drawings, an ongoing series of illustrations complemented with text, honor the many people who have influenced our collective culture and reflect on loss and mourning. Her work also explores identity and the ways we hide and reveal elements of our personalities. For over a decade, Veronica has been working with artists with disabilities, including at The Lighthouse for the Blind in San Francisco and NIAD (National Institute for Adults with Disabilities) in the SF East Bay. She is currently The Head Arts Facilitator of the Arts Programming and Exhibitions at UCPLA (United Cerebral Palsy of Los Angeles).

Cole M. James’ work is that of a negotiator, navigating the African Diaspora, circling the expanse of queerness and fumbling through womanhood.  James creates paintings, digital prints and video work that explore the intersections between digital production and the analog collections of lived experiences. James was born in Chicago and raised in Moreno Valley California.  She received a BA from Cal State San Bernardino and MFA from Claremont Graduate University James exhibits her work primarily in Los Angeles but has shown in New York, Miami and South Korea. She was awarded the Alfred B. Friedman Grant, Walker Parker Artist Fellowship, and Mignon Schweitzer Award. In addition to her art practice James is a Human Rights Advocate and community collaborative partner.  James has an installation up at the University of LaVerne titled Edifice Artifice until May 2019.  CM James works and lives in Los Angeles CA.

A Portal Through Which Love May Enter  is the second day of three days of programming at Human Resources, organized by Veronique d’Entremont.

***We apologize but the HR bathrooms and second-floor are not wheelchair accessible.***