Join us on Saturday, April 19th from 1-4PM for an insightful workshop at Second Street Gallery, a partner event of this year's Tom Tom Festival. This workshop is a contribution to the wellness-centered events featured on Saturday, aligning with the festival's theme for the year, "Evolve". The workshop will be led by Darnell Lamont Walker and Yolonda Coles Jones with opening remarks by Kristen Finn.
As part of the Charlottesville Porch Portraits exhibition, running from April-May, this workshop sets a stage where the community can engage, reflect, and create a collective narrative. To reminisce about 2020, a year full of grief, rage, but also, imagination and change, we provide a platform to acknowledge and honour our personal stories and their influence on our existing realities.
The Charlottesville Porch Portraits project, featuring the work of photographers Ézé Amos, Tom Daly, Kristen Finn, John Robinson, and Sarah Cramer Shields, captured 1000 individuals in front of their homes during the height of the COVID-19 quarantine. It served as a reminder of community connection while raising funds that were transformed into small grants for artists and gig workers.
The workshop will start with introductions and intentions, followed by a meditation to immerse into the space. Each participant will explore a specific prompt, sense into it, and write their thoughts or experiences. Attendees are free to share their reflections and the session concludes with a meditative practice reminding us of our connectivity and affirmation that every story matters.
Participants are encouraged to visit the Charlottesville Porch Portraits exhibition at Second Street Gallery before the workshop.
PLEASE NOTE: Seating will be available during the event, but participants are welcome to bring their own pillow, blank, yoga mat, etc. so that they may be comfortable and relaxed during the session.
We look forward to your participation in this meaningful exploration.
Workshop Facilitators:
Darnell Lamont Walker is a writer, death doula, teacher, film maker, author, world traveler, big hearted human and compassionate facilitator. Through loving, thought provoking prompts and questions, Darnell will lead the group in writing into their personal pandemic stories. Together we will explore the healing power of narrative and owning our own stories.
Yolonda Coles Jones is an embodiment teacher, birth doula, mediator, Ayurvedic wellness practitioner, lead coach, teacher and facilitator inside her Empowered People ecosystem which supports humans with realizing more calm, clarity, confidence and life-giving/life-supporting connection and healing. Yolonda will gently guide the group into meditations that orient the body into the moment and create awareness, noticing and sensing into what the body wants to say.
Exhibiting Photographer from Charlottesville Porch Portraits:
Kristen Finn is an artist and commercial photographer with an interest in the way people inhabit space and connect with one another. Her portraits look for small, honest moments while her process alternates between being witness and playful experimentation. Finn is based in Charlottesville, Virginia.