Breathing Space

aAt the beginning of a new year, I am taking some time to breathe. I am between projects and the semester has not yet begun. It is snowing outside. So I am starting to work my way through a reading list on peacemaking with some social justice advocacy on the side. Some I've already read, but I'm excited to learn more about the theological foundations for the practices and principles that guide my community building and interfaith dialogue efforts. What's more, I have plans in the works to engage in these topics with a small group of Christian and Muslim women. We've named ourselves Sustain: Nourishing bodies and spirits through food and faith. Who's excited and has two thumbs? This girl.

I've also been working on two watercolors that I started several months ago. Now that Qorsho and I have submitted our forthcoming book, Urur Dhex-Dhexaad Ah / A Community in Between, with Trillium Press (shameless plug) and are waiting on copyedits, and I haven't yet begun building the project website, or any plans for the exhibition, I decompressed a little by painting Global Mall. I've been attempting to make something visual that encompasses my relationship with that space since 2011 (see below, Global Mall throughout the ages of my research), and have countless abandoned pieces. But, as Jonah reminded me as we sat down to paint together, "Mommy, you are an artist. You paint pictures." Significant partly because I rarely paint these days, and also because it was a nice reminder that I understood myself first as an artist, then as an educator, and then as a researcher. These roles frequently shift, and at this point are so intertwined that to think of not doing one element in favor of another is fairly incomprehensible. But, I've learned that to do one, for me, is to do them all, which is why, I suppose, I love arts-based community research so much. 

There is much I am looking forward to this year:

• Finally putting together an edited volume about art education with immigrants and refugees. If you're interested in learning more or getting involved, please contact me! I'll be at NAEA in March with some other awesome art educators and will be presenting a panel on Creative, Collaborative, Culturally-Relevant Art Education with Immigrants and Refugees. Come check us out!
• Seeing Urur Dhex-Dhexaad Ah come to life in print, online, and in the gallery
• Facilitating community dialogues around central Ohio as part of UDDA
• Engaging in interfaith intiatives in Lafayette and surrounding counties
• Continuing to write, and
• Reading and painting more