“ Silk Road to San Francisco “
COME JOIN OUR MAY 2024 WORKSHOPS/EXHIBIT AS PART OF APICC
Workshop space is limited but there are still a few openings to join in. Workshops are free and no previous art experience is required. Each participant only needs to attend one of the available workshops. Preference is given to people who identify as part of the AAPI community; however all people 18+ are welcome. Sign up: https://tinyurl.com/silkroadtosanfrancisco
The workshops will include storytelling, mapmaking, textile art, and shared cultural foods. These creative activities connect individuals to what "Be(long)ing Here,” (which is this year’s festival theme) means to them, celebrating the resilience of these rich histories that have intersected here in the Bay Area.
Following the workshops is a one-day exhibition, uniting participants from all sessions with the public, showcasing their art and stories, fostering cultural exchange, and cultivating connections across Asian-American communities. By emphasizing the complexities of Asian-American journeys to find a sense of "Be(long)ing Here," it also raises critical awareness for American-born residents in order to increase understanding of the multifaceted journeys and stories of San Francisco’s Asian-American and Pacific Islander community.
Workshop, Saturday, May 4th, 12 noon - 3 pm at ARTogether in Oakland
Workshop, Friday May 10th 6pm - 9 pm at Chinese Culture Center, Kearney Street, San Francisco
Workshop, third weekend of May, location and date TBA
Public art exhibit location and date TBA (last weekend of May)
Direct questions to Badri Valian (info@badrianvalian.com) and Kathryn Vercillo (kathryn.vercillo@gmail.com)
"Silk Road to San Francisco," is a series of workshops for the AAPI, Asian American Pacific Islander community. The workshops, engaging local AAPI participants, will utilize storytelling, textile art, mapmaking, and shared cultural foods for collective healing.
San Francisco’s AAPI history consists of complex stories of both trauma and resilience. In SF’s Chinese community, that history ranges from 19th century railroad workers to 21st century discrimination during COVID-19. All other AAPI communities here have similar complex histories.
Participants, spanning generations and diverse backgrounds, will explore the relationship of their contemporary (im)migration stories to the traditional history of the Silk Road. The Silk Road was a vital cultural trade route connecting East to West during and after the Han Dynasty. Today's SF AAPI community mirrors that rich cultural diversity.
Badri Valian and Kathryn Vercillo, will facilitate the workshop for diverse members of the SF Bay Area AAPI community. The workshop will be a three hour trauma-informed participatory guided art and storytelling experience organized into small, intimate groups (8-12 participants each). The workshop will blend breathing exercises, sensory recall, memory sharing, textile art, and map making as tools for collective healing.
The workshop focuses on participants' homeland memories, emphasizing sensory details tied to food, sounds, smells, and clothing, providing a comprehensive approach to memory recovery. The process involves selecting fabric touchstones and sharing personal stories. Through this process, each participant will create a visual and narrative depiction of layered documented stories.
The artwork created in the workshops will be displayed in a one-day exhibition, uniting participants from all sessions with the public.
From Badri Valian, her series of artworks about her experiences of immigration. In this artwork, different medium like thread, fabric and markers are used for stitching, textile art and collage.
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, comprising a vast array of countries. The countries generally recognized as part ofAsia include:
Afghanistan
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Brunei
Cambodia
China
Cyprus (partially in Asia and partially in Europe)
Georgia
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Israel (partially in Asia and partially in Europe)
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Lebanon
Malaysia
Maldives
Mongolia
Myanmar (Burma)
Nepal
North Korea
Oman
Pakistan
Palestine
Philippines
Qatar
Russia (partially in Asia and partially in Europe)
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
South Korea
Sri Lanka
Syria
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Thailand
Timor-Leste (East Timor)
Turkey (partially in Asia and partially in Europe)
Turkmenistan
United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Uzbekistan
Vietnam
Yemen
About Badri Valian:
Badri Valian is a social practitioner, workshop performer, and participatory interactive installation artist residing in San Francisco. Born and raised in the mountainous central region of Iran, where the historic Silk Road intersected, her childhood was profoundly influenced by the interconnectedness of the world from East to West, long before the advent of online communication and technological transportation.
Badri's maternal indigenous Kurd ethnic roots trace back to Kurdistan, near the Turkish and Iraqi borders; displaced to the central region of Iran. On her paternal side, she carries South Asian ancestry from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Her family tree, inherited from her father, and a DNA test connecting her to numerous cousins in Asia fueled her curiosity about the ties between far Asia and South Asia, exploring the pivotal role of the Silk Road in uniting these regions.
Over the past few years, Badri has traveled extensively to Asian countries, particularly Korea, China, and Nepal. Her high-altitude expeditions in the Himalayas and trekking in other Asian nations provided insights into Asian cultures and traditions, revealing commonalities with her Iranian upbringing.
Currently, her interactive art installation, "A Cup Of Tea," is showcased at the Kyoto Museum in Japan. Badri has garnered prestigious recognition as the award recipient of the "Daughters of the American Revolution" for her universal language in advocating for democracy.
Having studied Fine Arts in Iran, Badri has also earned several other national awards for her creative techniques, public-oriented, and socially engaged art projects. Her artwork delves into pressing social issues, addressing poverty, systemic racism, dictatorships, and forced displacements.
Experiencing prevalent censorship, gender discrimination, and inequality in Iran juxtaposed against her life in the U.S, Badri felt compelled to use her art as a means to amplify the voices of underserved minorities, including immigrants, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and marginalized communities. Her preferred approach involves participatory and discursive interactive workshops, integrating diverse communities to weave new social fabrics while tackling global issues. Notably, her ongoing workshops on childhood traumas at ARTogether in Oakland, the Art Venture Gallery in Half Moon Bay, and the California College of the Arts in San Francisco aim to foster healing.
In the past year, in addition to her current exhibition in Japan, Badri has conducted interactive art workshops on displacement at notable institutions including the Santa Fe Art Institute AIR, Berkeley University, Clarion Alley Mural Project, Legion of Honor Museum, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
About Kathryn Vercillo:
Co-facilitator Kathryn Vercillo is a San Francisco writer/artist who researches the complex relationship between art and mental health. She works to break down the traditional binary narrative of the “tortured artist genius” vs. “art is therapy,” and instead explores the nuances of how art assists us in processing the challenges of life but can be impacted in myriad ways by mental health symptoms, difficulties in life circumstances, socio-economic and political factors, and so on.
Kathryn spent over a decade establishing an expertise in crochet-as-therapy including developing 100 crochet exercises for healing various aspects of life, which she published in her book Hook to Heal, and which have been utilized by therapists and educators in a variety of settings including substance recovery centers and prisons. She has facilitated large scale collaborative crochet projects, such as the Mandalas for Marinke project, which included 1000+ handcrafted pieces made by 300+ global contributors to raise awareness about depression, suicide, and crafting to heal.
Kathryn is the author of nine books, the most recent of which is The Artist’s Mind: The Mental Health and Creative Lives of Famous Artists. She utilizes her skills in writing both online and in print to amplify the voices of others and to raise awareness about the issues of concern to her. Kathryn lives in San Francisco but grew up in Arizona where she worked with immigrants, refugees, and people from the indigenous community through a number of organizations including the foster care system and International Rescue Committee.
Kathryn holds a Masters Degree in Psychological Studies from California Institute of Integral Studies. NOTE: Kathryn is not a licensed therapist and doesn’t perform therapy but facilitates workshops rooted in a trauma-informed approach and provides referrals as needed.