September 15, 2024 | 11 AM – 1 PM
Cost: Free
ARTogether Center, 1200 Harrison St., Oakland
“This is Home, from Palestine to Turtle Island” tells the stories of resilience, loss, and the universal longing for a place to call home. This teach-in style workshop will offer architectural and urban planning explorations of the lineage of palestinian indigenous structures, rooted in the family story and lineage of co-facilitator Rania Qawasma.
Following the teach-in, participants will be guided through visioning questions by facilitators Kelsey Hubbard and Diane Ojeda. These questions will inform a larger discussion on the teach-in and other key concepts of ‘Home’.
Build-at-home kite kits will be gifted to all participants of the teach-in. Kites, with their ability to soar high in the sky, represent freedom and liberation, embodying the aspirations of communities striving to reclaim their dignity and agency. Participants will be given their own kit to create a kite and illustrate on it what home means for them.
About the Organizers
“This is Home” emerged from the Equity in Practice fellowship, hosted by Open Architecture Collaborative. It is a fellowship for architects, planners, and designers of the built environment called Equity in Practice. Fellows met virtually September – December 2023 to train in relational practice, with the intent to support a community project.
Rania Qawasma, one of the fellows, was in Palestine visiting her family with plans to start a project in Gaza. That became impossible. And the fellowship became a first hand experience for all cohort members of what Palestinians are experiencing in this latest wave of violence and genocide.
The “This is Home” team came together from this experience, and are moved to create this traveling series of conversations and art making to weave threads of solidarity, resilience, and liberation for all with the vision of displaying the stories and art work at local exhibitions
Team members include Rania Qawasma, Abraham Diaz, Sarah Goldblatt, Diane Ojeda, Kelsey Hubbard, and DaMario Walker-Brown.
Accessibility
ARTogether Center is located on the ground level and there are two entrance doors accessible from the sidewalk. There are two accessible bathrooms on the ground level of the building, each with a single stall and an accessible stall. Please reach out to michelle@artogether.org with your needs.
