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Nourishing Roots, Cultivating Healing: A Participatory Movement Exploration and Future Co-Creation within Visual Critical Studies

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apr 22

Mon, Apr 22 2024, 5PM - 6:30PM

Blattner Hall Multi Purpose Room (MPR) | 75 Arkansas, San Francisco, California, 94107 View map

Part of event series: Visual & Critical Studies Forum | 2023-2024 Series

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Organized by

Graduate program in Visual and Critical Studies

vle@cca.edu

Event description

Embark on a transformative journey into healing, embodied sustainability, and future co-creation during the Visual and Critical Studies Symposium with Mandisa Wood, M.F.A. Mandisa will weave together her background as a visionary educator, activist scholar, African Diaspora dancer, and artist. The symposium seeks to ignite a dialogue on the transformative potential of movement as a powerful tool for personal and collective healing. 


Imagine our dancing feet echoing the same movements placed on the earth by our ancestors. This journey honors ancestral movement and invites individuals of all backgrounds and physical abilities to engage in conversations that examine and transcend borders. Adopting Gloria Anzaldúa's nepantla theory as a theoretical lens, this presentation delves into the intersections of art, healing, embodied sustainability, and futurity. Participants will engage through movement and dialogue to amplify love amidst global political and social turbulence. Through storytelling, stillness, gestures, and movement, this symposium will help participants identify the connections between artistry, education, and embodied sustainability in their work. Embodied sustainability is a consistent and regenerative interconnectedness to self and all living, past, and future beings. In her dissertation research and interviews with women, Mandisa Wood built upon this concept. The dancing women identified as healers who perform various Indigenous dances and expressed the potential of movement for healing, co-creating a more just and sustainable future, and earth stewardship. 


BIO

Mandisa Wood, M.F.A., is a versatile individual whose passion spans the realms of artistry, education, sustainable and regenerative agriculture. Hailing from the vibrant California Bay Area, Mandisa has taught Critical Ethnic Studies, Humanities, Philosophy, Art, Dance, and Gardening for nearly thirty years. She is also a Teaching Artist in local Middle and Elementary Schools for the Junior Center of Art and Science in Oakland, California. She is pursuing a Ph.D. in Sustainability Education at Prescott College in Arizona. Her research delves into women's healing modalities within Indigenous dance forms, exploring the intersection of women's embodiment of sustainability and the transformative power of Indigenous dance and rituals to resist climate change, social and environmental injustices, and violence. Beyond academia, Mandisa brings a wealth of experience as an urban farmer, beekeeper, and food justice activist. She managed a weekly farmer's market in West Oakland, holds a permaculture certificate from Oregon State University, and is well-versed in Regenerative Agriculture practices. As an artist, Mandisa is a seasoned dancer with over three decades of experience in African Diasporic Dances. Her training includes performances with renowned troupes such as Fogo Na Roupa, Afia Walkingtree's Spirit Drumz, Samba do Coração, and the Caribbean dance troupe Sistas Wit Style. Mandisa's commitment to community engagement is exemplified through her volunteer work at MISSSEY, where she provided dance classes at a drop-in clinic for youth, addressing issues of femicide and sex trafficking. Additionally, she is a Priestess of Aggayu, initiated in Lucumí, the Yorùbá Orishá tradition from Nigeria, West Africa.

Entry details

Free and open to the public