Thirteen Newsong artists invite you to learn about domestic abuse, mental health, racism, urban art, environmental destruction, and immigrant youth, through an interactive evening of spray paint, visual installations, turntable mixing, plant-based card making, the SIMS video game, music, and breakdancing. Parental supervision is advised as the content discusses domestic abuse and is not appropriate for all audiences. Light refreshments will be provided.
This exhibit is curated and produced by Susan Y. Shimazu, Tamara Fairbanks, and Ritchie Kong in partnership with Newsong Church, the City Seminary of New York, and The Expression Project, with funding from the Lilly Endowment’s Religion Initiative.
Highlighted Artists include:
Jenn Detroit – Street Artist and Designer
Jenn’s passion is to bring street and cultural art to life in classroom where it can be understood and not silenced. Street art and graffiti can often be judged and disregarded by mainstream society as vandalism when in fact street art enables and gives voice to individuals who don’t otherwise have a voice or space to be seen or heard. In collaboration with her students, Jenn has co-created visual street art that gives voice to the unheard.
Sarah Dornbos – Sculptor and Educator
Sarah invites Christians into envisioning a world without racism. She has designed an aspirational tree that incorporates the dreams of over 50 evangelical Christians of the world they would like to see realized by addressing racism in all its forms, personal, structural, and societal. Her living tree of anti-racism was cultivated in conversation with Bernadette Arthur’s Tree of Racism.
Tamara Fairbanks – Musician and Educator
Tamara’s passion is to obliterate the fear that people have in the creative process. Too many times people stop expressing themselves due to the fear of making a mistake. This project shows that mistakes can be beautiful. Some will take small steps others will take large steps, but together, we will create something beautiful and meaningful. Using a keyboard , music recording software, and colored dots to aid the participants in the creative musical process Tamara will assist participants in creating musical works.
Olivia Garcia – Artist and Survivor
Olivia is a survivor of domestic violence and currently works as an advocate in the Spanish speaking communities for women seeking pathways out of harm. She has shepherded six women who will be sharing their stories anonymously through their paintings as a part of an effort to bring awareness to the impact of DV on women and their families.
Tori Gray – Visual Artist
Using sketches and video, Tori’s designs create a safe place for participants and other CPTSD survivors to explore the pain that may often be hidden by shame and stigma. She invites each person into community through the sharing of her experience, strength, and hope. She illustrates her journey in Al-Anon and her faith through the evolution of a special bunny. Her piece is titled “A Day with the Grays”.
Dan Emmerie Hadinata – DJ and Curator of Arts and Culture
Dan “DJ Audible” has been working with local churches and in the Santa Ana arts community for over 18 years. Bringing together artists of different expressions from the Saint City hip-hop community, he invites you to participate in a safe space of expression, where the learning and worship of God can be more than the traditional methods of reading and singing. Urbanartsoutreach.org
Grace Hadinata – Environmentalist and Artist
Grace has witnessed the devastating impact of overproduction and waste on the global community, particularly in her homeland, the Philippines. As an environmentalist and watercolor artist, she has created a visual piece that invites participants into commitments to care for creation and restore hope for the vulnerable.
Teresa Huang – Musician and Social Worker
Teresa is a musician and educator who works with immigrant youth who are enrolled in an English Language Development program. She has included them in the creation of a musical piece that introduces the experiences of second-language English speakers and the challenges they face as newcomers to the United States. Teresa hopes to make visible the needs of this often-overlooked population of youth.
Ritchie Kong – Street Artist and Visual Designer
Ritchie’s installation showcases a montage of moving elements which explore and deconstruct the Model Minority Myth. One screen shows the presumptuous generalization of how Asians are perceived, exploring imposed stereotypes on racialized groups, the other reveals the life of post-war refugees in their struggles to navigate American culture and integrate into a new society
Sunny Lee – Social Worker and Artist
As a social worker, Sunny has observed many of the barriers which prevent individuals from diverse racial and socio-economic backgrounds from accessing mental health resources. In a creative and interactive experience using the SIMS video game she will help participants explore what the ideal therapy setting looks like for diverse communities.
‘Bboy Don’ Sevilla – Breakdancer and Urban Artist
Don started breakdancing as a youth back in 1982. Ever since then, he has been blessing dance communities and charities across Southern CA by sharing his love of the art form. In relation to Newsong, he was a member of the church’s dance crew “In Rhythm with Him” in 2005, which later led to launching @SaintCityHipHop in 2007 at the 10ten location and serving periodically at Mix Academy. You can now catch him alongside other faith-driven urban artists every first Saturday of the month at Santa Ana Art Walk.
Susan Y. Shimazu – Social Practice Artist and Educator
As a Japanese American whose parents were incarcerated in the U.S. concentration camps, Susan has seen firsthand how fearmongering creates hate. To address bias and stigma in the evangelical church, Susan has designed a color-filtered font and invites participants into the creation of eye charts that illuminate the issues that arise when we lack the ability to see others through a lens of love.
Jie Tian – Poet and Gardener
A poet and traditional arts/culture bearer, Jie practices EarthArt through writing, ink/paper/book making, and by tending a garden for art materials. She will offer a workshop where participants can experience spontaneous creativity to make prints and drawings by using words and fresh flowers/leaves on paper. She hopes to inspire self-sufficiency, ecological awareness, peace, and healing through sustainable art practices.
