IAS Faculty to lead Migration Stories Community Workshop

On February 8, Naomi Macalalad Bragin and Milvia Pacheco Salvatierra will co-facilitate the Migration Stories Community Workshop, a new partnership with Derek Dizon, founder and steward of A Resting Place grief and loss cultural resource center in Seattle’s Chinatown International District. The workshop focuses on migration as a form of separation and loss embedded deeply in the cultural history of the CID. Naomi and Milvia will share their artistic practice with local artists, healers, educators, activists and families, using performance to explore migration stories through a collective grief framework. After the workshop, they will begin a two-month creative process called We Activate With Our History, bringing local artists into collaboration and culminating in an activation ceremony at A Resting Place on Sunday, April 6. Naomi and Milvia collaborate as Little Brown Language a multidisciplinary performance project that exists to weave new forms of solidarity among leading artist-organizers, activating local communities through embodied cultural practice. LBL has performed in theater, gallery and outdoor spaces, for On the Boards, Wing Luke Museum and Seattle Artists at the Center, and has received support from UW Bothell’s Scholarship, Research and Creative Practice Seed Grant, Seattle 4Culture, Office of Arts & Culture, and Base Experimental Arts residency. Naomi Macalalad Bragin is an associate professor in IAS and teaches classes in streetdance, performance and cultural studies, and co-directs the Critical Acts: Socially Engaged Performance faculty group with professor Anida Ali.