Community Healing Series
Welcome to the American Indian Center’s Healing Illinois Program!
We are thrilled to announce that the American Indian Center has been awarded a Healing Illinois Grant by the Illinois Department of Human Services and the Field Foundation of Illinois. This grant empowers us to embark on a transformative journey towards healing and reconciliation within our community.
At the American Indian Center, we recognize the profound impact of historical and systemic injustices on Indigenous communities. Through our Healing Illinois Program, we are dedicated to fostering understanding, trust, and resilience among our diverse community members.
Our program is rooted in the principles of racial healing and equity. By providing a platform for dialogue, education, and healing activities, we aim to address the deep-seated wounds caused by racism and discrimination. Together, we will work towards building a more inclusive and equitable society where every individual feels valued and empowered.
Join us on this important journey towards healing and reconciliation. Together, we can create positive change and build a brighter future for all.
Native, Black & Afro-Indigenous Storytelling Healing Event
The American Indian Center is honored to extend a warm invitation to “An Afternoon of Healing: Black, Native, and Afro-Indigenous Storytelling,” taking place on February 24, 2024, from noon to 2 p.m. This profoundly enriching event will feature esteemed storytellers Allen Turner, Nataka Moore, and Ronnie Preston, each offering narratives centered on resilience, cultural heritage, and triumph over adversity.
Storytelling has long been revered as a powerful tool for fostering understanding, empathy, and healing within communities. Through the art of storytelling, we hope to create a safe space where diverse voices can be heard, honored, and celebrated.
This event is open to individuals of all ages and backgrounds, and admission is free of charge. Engage with our storytellers, immerse yourself in their captivating tales, and discover the profound connections that bind us all together.
In addition to the storytelling session, there will be opportunities for community dialogue, reflection, and fellowship. Light refreshments will be provided.
Please mark your calendars and spread the word to friends, family, and colleagues. Together, let us embrace the transformative power of storytelling as we journey towards healing, unity, and mutual respect.
Sankofa Seasons
Come join us as we kick-off a series of events centered around stories and community conversation and healing.
Sankofa Seasons is a project facilitated by Allen Turner (designer, storyteller, performer) about gathering stories from our past to help us move forward and heal from our struggles and trauma.
Stories are powerful medicine. They can help us to laugh, cry, or find a way forward. They can also become obstacles that disrupt our sense of self, where we belong, and can stop us in our tracks if we get stuck with a story that is unhealthy for us. One way or another, they often carry something for us to learn about our world, ourselves, or both.
For a couple of months the AIC has been curating various storytelling events where we told traditional stories and thought about their meanings in our life. We will be pivoting to explore the power of personal stories and how they affect our perception of the world around us and the struggles we have to navigate.
We will begin with a project called Sankofa Seasons. Sankofa is a Ghanaian idea that means “Go back and get it” that speaks of the need to learn from the past to inform the future. The seasons part of it borrows from the idea of the Winter Count and acknowledging that we need to take stock of who’s here, and their wellbeing, after we have pushed through a hard time.
We’d love to have you with us as we work to pull some of our personal stories out of the darkness and into the light where we can examine them and turn them into medicine for ourselves and each other.We anticipate that there may be some heavy topics discussed. Our goal is to move them into a place where they can become uplifting and not toxic or painful. That doesn’t mean we’re trying to make everything positive. More so it’s about trying to acknowledge the weight of some things and figuring out how to move with them and grow so they take up less space inside of us.
We will do some story sharing and create some artifacts and processes that will become part of community and personal toolboxes for helping us to catch our breath and figure out how we move forward in a healthy way.
Session 01: Beginnings
May 19, 2024 • Noon – 4:30 p.m.
3401 W Ainslie, Chicago, IL 60625
Introduction:
We introduce the facilitators and the big ideas of the session, how we will proceed, and our processes and protocols. When we are done we gather into a circle to begin the next activity.
Activity 01: First story (Invoking our names)
We gather in a circle to do personal introductions. In addition to a name we create movements that represent parts of us that are unseen and share that and what it represents. Once we’ve been through everyone we disperse to table.
Activity 02: Second story
Meditation: We find places to sit in community and write. We begin with brief guided meditation, in dimmed light or darkness, to get everyone present. In front of each participant is a bundle of sage and tobacco and a tea light. At the end of the meditation participants are invited to announce that they are ready to begin the work by stating that they are here and turning on the tea light before them.
Activity 03: Third Story: Listening to our child
Participants are invited to think of their childhood and recall a story that sums up their experience of being a young child (not a teen) and their relationship to community. They take a moment to write down a few sentences and create a small pictogram to represent that moment in their life. They are also invited to identify how that experience continues to affect how they engage with the world. After everyone has had some time to write we ask for share out and affirmations and naming of our stories.
Closing:
Having looked at the world through the eyes of our inner child, we close with instructions to listen to someone else’s child story and bring them back to the circle. We review the collection of stories and symbols people created and ask participants to talk about what they’ve learned about themselves and each other in this session. We invite participants to recognize that this is a rekindled light that they can sit with and listen to. To represent this light we invite them to participate in the candle making workshop.
Session 02: Growth
June 12, 2024 • 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
3401 W Ainslie, Chicago, IL 60625
Opening: Return to First story (Invoking our names)
We gather in a circle to do personal introductions. Once again, in addition to a name we create movements that represent parts of us that are unseen and share that and what it represents. If we have those who have done it before, we invite them to start us off by recalling the motions they remember from last time.Once we’ve been through everyone we disperse to table.
Remembering:
We look at the collection of named events and created symbols and invite people to recall stories that stood out to them just from the name and the symbol and talk about how they feel resonant or dissonant with the story. We’re looking for moments of overlap where we can build connection. We introduce asking people to give tobacco to each other to celebrate stories that really activated something in you and introduce the idea of illumination to let people know you need someone to listen to something you need to say and hold space for it. Then we move on to our next series of stories.
Activity 04: Fourth story: Listening to our youth
Participants are invited to think of their adolescence and recall a story that sums up their experience of being a teen and their relationship to community. They take a moment to write down a few sentences and create a small pictogram to represent that moment in their life. They are also invited to identify how that experience continues to affect how they engage with the world. After everyone has had some time to write we ask for share out and affirmations and naming of our stories.
Activity 05: Listening to our genders
Participants are invited to think of how they engage with the world in terms of gender and how they identify and recall a story that sums up their experience of gender and how it connected them to, or ostracized them from, community. They take a moment to write down a few sentences and create a small pictogram to represent that moment in their life. They are also invited to identify how that experience continues to affect how they engage with the world. After everyone has had some time to write we ask for share out and affirmations and naming of our stories.
Activity 06: Listening to our experience
Some of us have been in the world for a long time, some for a short time, we all carry some sort of eldership that alchemizes what we know of the world. Participants are asked to think of a moment that gave them great knowing or (if they are an elder) something that defines their eldership to them in relation to community. They take a moment to write down a few sentences and create a small pictogram to represent that moment in their life. They are also invited to identify how that experience continues to affect how they engage with the world. After everyone has had some time to write we ask for share out and affirmations and naming of our stories.
Closing:
Having looked at the world through the eyes of youth and lived experience, we close with instructions to listen to someone else’s story of themselves as young adults and how life changed for them as they got older and, if possible, bring them back to the circle. We review the collection of stories and symbols people created and ask participants to talk about what they’ve learned about themselves and each other in this session. We invite participants to recognize that this is a rekindled light that they can sit with and listen to. To represent this light we invite them to participate in the candle making workshop.
Session 03: Belonging
July 17, 2024 • 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
3401 W Ainslie, Chicago, IL 60625
Opening: Return to First story (Invoking our names)
We gather in a circle to do personal introductions. Once again, in addition to a name we create movements that represent parts of us that are unseen and share that and what it represents. If we have those who have done it before, we invite them to start us off by recalling the motions they remember from last time.Once we’ve been through everyone we disperse to table.
Remembering:
We look at the collection of named events and created symbols and invite people to recall stories that stood out to them just from the name and the symbol and talk about how they feel resonant or dissonant with the story. We’re looking for moments of overlap where we can build connection. We do honoring and illuminating and give space for that celebration of the stories and people. Then we move on to our next series of stories.
Activity 07: Listening to our land
The land holds space for us. Literally. Participants are invited to talk about their relationship to community in space. They will be considering a story of how a particular place was their anchor for belonging and community. They take a moment to write down a few sentences and create a small pictogram to represent that moment in their life. They are also invited to identify how that experience continues to affect how they engage with the world. After everyone has had some time to write we ask for share out and affirmations and naming of our stories.
Activity 08: Listening to our motion
We are asked to consider the future and where we feel we can go and what we would like to see of our community and how we individually can create opportunities and processes to get us there. Write a story of what you want us to become and share those out as light that will pull us forward in the darkness.
Closing:
Having looked at the world through the eyes of place and belonging, we close with instructions to listen to someone else’s story of where they belong and, if possible, bring them back to the circle. We review the collection of stories and symbols people created and ask participants to talk about what they’ve learned about themselves and each other in this session. We invite participants to recognize that this is a rekindled light that they can sit with and listen to. To represent this light we invite them to participate in the candle making workshop.
Session 04: Gathering the Bundle
September 27, 2024 • 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Location TBA
Opening: Return to First story (Invoking our names)
We gather in a circle to do personal introductions. This time we have a bonfire at the center of the gathering. Once again, in addition to a name we create movements that represent parts of us that are unseen and share that and what it represents. If we have those who have done it before, we invite them to start us off by recalling the motions they remember from last time.Once we’ve been through everyone we disperse to table.
Activity 09: Witnessing
All of the stories are gathered together so we can look at them and their symbols. We talk about our commonalities and our differences. We talk about how we can use these stories as medicine and inspiration and scaffolding to help us build newer, stronger community and how an ecology of stories and support is essential to our wellbeing as people. We talk about how we move forward as community, and as individuals, without losing identity. We do an extended session of honoring and illuminations and then prepare to move into releasing and moving.
Activity: 10 Lighting the way forward
Participants are invited to finish by participating in a round dance around the fire. We ask people to write on a card stories that they are ready to transform and/or release. As we dance and sing around the fire people are invited to come forward, tell a story of release and put it, and some tobacco, into the fire. The stories from before have been gathered into a community artifact that will take turns being on display at different community organizations and we ask each person to take a pledge to help build community over the next year and that different organizations take turns holding space for gathering community to review the work that is being done.
We disperse.
Book Discussion Panel
Join us for a compelling panel discussion of the profound novel “A Council of Dolls” by PEN Award-winning Native American author Mona Susan Power. This eagerly anticipated novel spans three generations of Yanktonai Dakota women, offering a poignant exploration of their experiences from the 19th century to the present day.
Through the captivating stories of Sissy, Lillian, and Cora, Power delves into the complexities of intergenerational trauma, resilience, and the enduring power of heritage and culture. From the bustling streets of Chicago to the windswept ancestral lands of the Dakota people, and the harrowing Indian boarding schools, “A Council of Dolls” unearths the untold stories of Indigenous women.
Sissy, Lillian, and Cora’s lives are intertwined with the dolls they carry, each doll a silent witness to their joys, sorrows, and triumphs. As we journey through their lives, we bear witness to their resilience in the face of adversity and their unwavering determination to reclaim their identities and heritage.
This modern masterpiece offers a poignant reflection on the legacy of Indian boarding schools and the historical traumas endured by Indigenous communities. With exquisite prose, Mona Susan Power crafts a narrative that is both devastating and hopeful, illuminating the enduring power of love, healing, and cultural resurgence.
We are honored to provide copies of “A Council of Dolls” to community members who wish to participate in this enriching discussion. Join us as we delve into this unforgettable novel, exploring its themes of resilience, heritage, and the enduring bonds of family and community.
Stay tuned for more details on the panel discussion, including date, time, and location. We look forward to engaging in meaningful dialogue and reflection with our community members.
Missing & Murdered Indigenous and Black Relatives Healing Event
We are honored to invite you to join us for a solemn yet uplifting event as we come together to honor and remember our missing and murdered Indigenous and Black relatives. This event is a testament to our commitment to justice, healing, and solidarity within our communities.
Throughout history, Indigenous and Black communities have endured disproportionate rates of violence and injustice, resulting in the loss of countless lives. It is imperative that we come together to acknowledge and honor the memories of those who are no longer with us and to demand accountability for the injustices they faced.
The event will commence with spoken word performances, offering a platform for community members to share their voices, stories, and reflections. Through the power of spoken word, we will amplify the voices of those affected by violence and injustice and reaffirm our commitment to seeking justice and healing.
Following the spoken word performances, we are privileged to host jingle dress dancers, who will perform this healing dance. The jingle dress dance holds deep spiritual significance and is often performed as a prayer for healing and protection. We invite you to witness the beauty and power of this traditional dance as it uplifts our spirits and honors our ancestors.
Concluding the event, we will gather for a ring shout, a traditional African American religious dance and song form that originated during slavery. The ring shout is characterized by participants forming a circle and moving counterclockwise while singing and clapping in a call-and-response fashion. It is a deeply spiritual and communal practice, symbolizing unity, resilience, and collective healing.
While the month of May is recognized as MMIR month, it is essential to acknowledge that this issue requires ongoing attention and action beyond a single month of observance. By hosting this event outside of May, we aim to emphasize the importance of continued dialogue and advocacy surrounding missing and murdered Indigenous and Black relatives throughout the year.
Join us as we come together in solidarity to honor the lives of our missing and murdered Indigenous and Black relatives. Let us stand together as a beacon of hope and resilience in the face of adversity, and let us reaffirm our commitment to seeking justice and healing for all.
Stay tuned for more details on date, time, and location. Together, let us remember, honor, and heal.
