The Northwest Sanctuary Project makes safe space through community art

Philadelphia families looking for an accessible, hands-on way to counter hate can head to Mt. Airy on Sunday, December 11 for the Northwest Sanctuary Project. It’ll include a variety of all-ages arts-based free activities and workshops, and organizers say it’s a response to “the recent rise of incidents of hate speech in our nation.”

Host Mt. Airy Art Garage (MAAG) is holding the Project at Germantown Avenue’s Philadelphia Immigrant Innovation Hub. MAAG cofounder and president Linda Slodki says the event quickly attracted the support of a wide range of local organizations, including sponsoring partners Mt. Airy USA, Philadelphia Young Playwrights (PYP), Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture, Patchwork: a Storytelling Guild, the Philly Children’s March, and Friends of Germantown-Northwest.

According to MAAG, “The scope of this project is not to fight negativity with negativity, but to create sanctuary and unify the community…. The aim is to foster and cultivate a safe space for everyone in the community through love and support expressed visually through artistic expression.” Musician Sarah Napolitan developed and helms the event.

What to do

Workshops and activities will include making self-guided signs of “peace, inclusivity, connection, and care for all members of the community.” Participants can leave their signs to be displayed around the community by partnering organizations.

There will also be watercolor painting for adults and children, and an origami Paper Cranes for Peace lesson. Al-Bustan will offer Nasij: Weaving Our Cultures into a Collective Poem, where participants can learn Arabic words and use them to create a collective poem about the city of Philadelphia.

Patchwork: a Storytelling Guild, with the help of facilitating storytellers, will give attendees a chance to tell their own anecdotes “of peace and healing.” Those who want to can give permission for their stories to be recorded on camera and shared on YouTube.

For those who prefer to pick up a pen, there will be a Free Writing Exercise exploring “fears associated with the recent election and how to create safety in the face of related acts of violence and discrimination.” And PYP will lead a session of the Post-It Note Project, which asks participants to fill out a small template of four Post-It notes with “a moment that recently changed me,” “a moment that recently changed the world,” “a thing that could change me,” and “a thing that could change the world.” These will come together for one installation with many voices.

There will also be live music and spoken word performances, with refreshments on hand.

MAAG hopes pieces that come from the project will have a public life in local storefronts and windows, or a future exhibition.

The Northwest Sanctuary Project is coming up on Sunday, December 11 from 1-5pm at the Immigrant Innovation Hub, 6700 Germantown Avenue. The event is free and open to the public, and walk-ins are welcome. For more information, e-mail Sarah Napolitan at [email protected] or Linda Slodki at [email protected].