Round I Projects
PROJECT
With These Hands I Can: Community Cultural Wealth Toolkits
With These Hands I Can: Community Cultural Wealth Toolkits aim to co-create a tailored toolkit that focuses on the mechanism of change involved in creating communal cultural wealth. This toolkit will be a living document created by specific target groups (Latinx parents, African Americans, AAPI, farmworkers, women, and more) in various communities. The support groups utilize Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and art processing to encourage a growth mindset and community engagement. Within this group process, community members can support each other, find solutions to communal challenges, and, most importantly, create empathy for each other and their community. The creation of empathy allows individuals to care about important issues that impact their community and care about other people. Having emotional intelligence encourages self-determination, community involvement, and ownership. Utilizing art and dialogue as a regular method of ritualization and healing can support the creation of community communal wealth. The information gleaned from the pilot groups will result in a cross-pollination campaign in which the artists disseminate the information through written, social media, and various other creative mediums such as poetry, dance, video, murals, site-specific installation.
LEARN ABOUT THE ARTIST + CULTURAL PRACTITIONERS
Sandra Carmona
San Diego County
Sandra Carmona is of Wixárika descent, Chicana, daughter of farmworkers, and a muralist for over 20 years. She is a well-known leader in her community and a longtime activist for farmworkers and Indigenous rights. She founded Calpulli Omeyocan, a grassroots Indigenous dance collaborative, and her project, Maijawee Divine Serpent, is a transborder art piece that served as a political statement in solidarity with the Kumeyaay Nation and Indigenous people’s struggle over sovereignty on the U.S.-Mexico border. Sandra’s art intends to amplify the voices of her people and showcase their culture, contributions, struggles, and vibrancy. To her, art is medicine.
Kendrick "Mr. Lyrical Groove" Dial
San Diego County
Kendrick Dial, also known as Mr. Lyrical Groove, is a renaissance man with a mission to blend mental health and social justice art. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Africana Studies/Psychology from San Diego State University and a Master's in Social Work from the University of South California. Dial is an accomplished spoken word artist who published his first poetry book, Da JOYNT, in 2005. He has worked with the poetry collective Collective Purpose for over ten years, hosting one of Southern California's highest-attended open mic events, ELEVATED. He has collaborated with several arts-based organizations to perform and produce shows that inspire, challenge, educate, and entertain, including BkSoul, Playwrights Project, and Ira Aldridge Theatre. He is also a teaching artist with the Old Globe and recently completed a veteran playwriting workshop with the La Jolla Playhouse, where he is working on his two-person production.
Enrique "Chikle" Lugo
San Diego County
Enrique Lugo, aka chikle!, is a visual artist and the proud son of Mexican Immigrants dedicated to human-centered education and CommUNITY activism. Via a multidisciplinary approach, his work has focused on identity, cultivating safe spaces, raising awareness, fostering change, and nurturing a sense of CommUNITY and belonging. He is a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo graduate and has been involved in activism, promoting entrepreneurship, producing family-friendly events, and curating art shows since 2004. He continues to make art, including CommUNITY murals and participates in his CommUNITY, serving as Dean of Culture at High Tech High Chula Vista in Chula Vista, California.
Kendrick "Mr. Lyrical Groove" Dial
Kendrick Dial, also known as Mr. Lyrical Groove, is a renaissance man with a mission to blend mental health and social justice art. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Africana Studies/Psychology from San Diego State University and a Master's in Social Work from the University of South California. Dial is an accomplished spoken word artist who published his first poetry book, Da JOYNT, in 2005. He has worked with the poetry collective Collective Purpose for over ten years, hosting one of Southern California's highest-attended open mic events, ELEVATED. He has collaborated with several arts-based organizations to perform and produce shows that inspire, challenge, educate, and entertain, including BkSoul, Playwrights Project, and Ira Aldridge Theatre. He is also a teaching artist with the Old Globe and recently completed a veteran playwriting workshop with the La Jolla Playhouse, where he is working on his two-person production.