Reflections of Healing
2012-2013 | DeFremery Park, Oakland CA
PROJECT PARTNERS:
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Southern Exposure Gallery
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The East Bay Community Foundation
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National Endowment for the Arts
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The Open Circle Foundation
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The Zellerbach Family Foundation
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Ictus
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Youthspeaks
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The Downtown Oakland Association
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Oaklandish
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Friends of DeFremery Park
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City of Oakland’s Parks and Recreation and Cultural Arts & Marketing Division
Championing health and wellness with participatory portraiture at Oakland’s Life is Living festival
Reflections of Healing was a multifaceted process of community building that included the collaborative development of large-scale public installations featuring Bay Area residents, who, through practice or legacy, demonstrated healing. The project catalyzed partnerships between diverse and under-resourced communities and residents through temporary and permanent actions across Oakland, California. Reflections anchored Life is Living, an eco-equity, interdisciplinary festival that centers historically underserved neighborhoods and communities with programming in public spaces that have been otherwise neglected.
The 2012-2013 edition of Reflections of Healing at DeFremery Park celebrated four community members who reflected the West Oakland location of the work’s installation: Ms. Phyllis Lun, Keith ‘K-Dub’ Williams, Kokomon Clottey, and Tarika Lewis. Their four portraits were projected on 8’ x 8’ framed plywood and collaboratively colored during the 2012 Life is Living festival. After final embellishments by Cook, the resulting portraits were then installed onsite at DeFremery Park for a five-year period.
