Healing Arts from the Borderland

Join us with healer and yogi Karessa, creator of the Wholistic Mercado, as she explains the lessons in her life; evolving her acceptance and understanding through facing the truth and having faith. Karessa demonstrates a kindness towards her being, her lessons, and her faith in the community she serves doing the same with a little bit of guidance.

Join us with Celia Aguilar storyteller through writing, poetry, music, and acting, as she reviews her journey of connection, strength, and  reconnecting to her indigenous heritage despite stigma. Celia continues to grow her stories pending a manuscript and by connecting to additional organizations that uplift through music.

Join us with Ome Tlatoc tattoos and agriculturalist as he describes the healing he does towards the stigma of tattooing, his active decolonization journey, and how his culture influenced his art of tattooing.

Meet Maria R Perez, activist and wordsmith as she describes her life as a Mexican-American woman with disabilities and how it has given her many opportunities to empower people through language and connection.

Join us with artist, activist, and essayist KB Brookins through their journey of discovering themselves in literature and poetry as they deconstruct the gender binary, societal expectation and stereotypes. Experience their empowerment in their identity of being a queer, Black, non-binary, transmasculine person who actively seeks to helps others speak their truths, write themselves into history, and take on their own strength in their identity and wounds. #cw: sexual trauma

Valerie Rivas discusses the lessons in her life and how her intuition protected her, introspection allowed her

to heal and start an incredible journey of utilizing herbs to help her community. She has gentleness in her

approach, and in caring for plants, she honors lessons in every type of situation and not take on the weight

of expectation. She speaks of medicine being everywhere in both plants and experiences.

Kaelin Li discusses her life as an international adoptee from China during the 90s and how it influenced her life experiences, art, identity, as well as recognizing the harmful impacts of stereotypes within her community. As graceful as her dancing, Kaelin inspires by knowing she will be legislator later but is making impact now through film, dance, and her being herself. #StopAsianHate

Join us with Jacqueline Recendez as she grows into herself as a Latina lesbian muralist. She describes the obstacles in her life demonstrating an art of resiliency, strength, and allowing others to know they can do the same.  Despite challenges, Jackie offers confidence, pride, and beauty in this world through the murals she makes and the story she carries

Join us with Jackie Barragan an Indigenous Mexican-American who continues her ancestral ties through art, filmmaking, and ceremonial practice. Jackie discusses generation trauma experiencing sexual oppression and being inspired to heal using multiple modalities to express and bring awareness to a better tomorrow as survivors.

Join us on a journey through perspective where Lori Edwards discusses her 3 lives: as an adopted child, a young mother to a an ill child while being an EMT, her new life with her family having a transgender child, and how her experiences have allowed her to build community wherever she goes. She copes through writing, reading, and allowing herself to continue to grow from experiences that are not just her own.