Artists and audiences alike describe feeling changed by visual, narrative, musical, and performance works of art. The shift can be slight, but it can be profound, too. What's happening in our minds and bodies when we engage with the arts, to allow that transformation to occur? Are there special ways art-making can help address the neurobiological effects of trauma, in particular? And might engaging with art, individually and as a culture, help inspire the changes we wish to bring about?

Hear Tony-winning performer & playwright Tonya Pinkins and  Lindsay Lederman, the Clinical Director of The Art Therapy Project, discussing Tonya's project from the #HealMeToo Festival, Truth And Reconciliation of Womyn, while exploring the neuroscience of trauma and the process of healing through the arts.

A few of the topics they discuss:

• The neuroscience of trauma and of healing
• Why Tonya asserts we have the ability to “change the past”
• What art therapy is, how it works, and why it lets you work through past trauma at “a step away” so it may be less overwhelming--and sometimes more effective than addressing things “head on”
• How imagination and being creative in many aspects of life can open the locked parts of the brain
• How our neurons start to fire in new ways while we experience art, like putting footsteps down in a new path
• How art can help us recover our sense of joy after trauma
• Why artistic activities access feelings and memories through the body, to help us address experiences that were not captured in language at the time 
• Why trauma of many kinds leaves survivors with a sense of shame, and how witnessing art and performance can help address that shame
• How and why creating or viewing art that presents new and different ways of imagining the future may help change the way we respond to things that trigger or frighten us, even when we disagree with the artwork we’re responding to

The #HealMeToo Podcast is hosted by Hope Singsen--the artist, creativity researcher and survivor-activist who founded the #HealMeToo Festival in NYC this Spring. 

On the episode details page for this interview, you'll find Tonya and Lindsay's biographies and links to Art Therapy resources. You'll also find a page with videos of many performances at the Festival, and can join our email list to hear about future pop-up #HealMeToo Festival events.

Soon, we'll also drop an audio and video montage of work from Tonya Pinkins' amazing project in the #HealMeToo Festival -- http://tinyurl.com/hm2trwTruth And Reconciliation of Womyn.

Subscribe now. Let's talk about how we can #HealMeToo.

Find the #HealMeToo Podcast on Apple Podcasts at bit.ly/hm2pod. Or visit healmetoopodcast.com to find links to other platforms.

Interview recorded & prepped by Delaney Hafener
Edited by Hope Singsen
Music performed by Micah Burgess:
If I Can by Hope Singsen & Dillon Kondor
Rockabye by Hope Singsen, Dillon Kondor & Micah Burgess
Gorgeous Fire by Hope Singsen & Dillon Kondor

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