Join us for a day of Artist & Community Healing through creativity, storytelling, and collective action.
Coffee Reception | 9:30 am
Morning Session: Artist Healing (10am–12pm) 🌱
A workshop for artistic activists to reconnect with the big-picture visions that fuel their work and gain practical tools for sustaining themselves while fighting for social justice. Led by Rachel Gita Karp, Programs Director at the Center for Artistic Activism (c4aa.org), participants will explore inspiring campaign stories and creative strategies for turning bold ideas into real change. The session will also offer restorative practices and frameworks that help participants care for themselves while doing the demanding work of building a more just world.
Community Lunch & Gathering (12–1pm) Lunch included! 🍽
Connect with fellow artists, organizers, and storytellers while sharing experiences and building community.
Afternoon Session: Community Healing (1–3pm) 🎬
A film screening and panel featuring filmmaker-activists documenting justice movements and community resilience. Together we’ll explore how storytelling, art, and courage help communities heal and imagine new possibilities.
Films include:
• Kingdome — by Shawn Antoine II
• The Anarchist & the Fridge — by Jackie Yunchang Zhang
• The Greening of the Bronx: An Urban Garden Tale — by Savanna Washington
Come gather, reflect, and imagine the worlds we’re working to build together.
Panel Moderator: Karen McMullen
Presented by Creatively Speaking @ The Institute on Race, Power & Political Economy at The New School and DOC NYC.
New York City based film curator and programmer Karen McMullen is a Senior Feature and Shorts Programmer at DOC NYC film festival. Formally, she has served as Festival Director & Head of Programming at Urbanworld; Lead Curator for New Voices in Black Cinema; Head of Programming for the TIDE Film Festival, Features Programmer at Tribeca Festival and screener at the Sundance Film Festival.
Rachel Gita Karp (she/her) is the Programs Director at the Center for Artistic Activism. Rachel supports bold, strategic, and ambitious organizations, people, and projects that fight for progressive causes with creativity and innovation. She’s helped over 150 organizations and 2,500 individuals with training, community-building, mentorship, and more.
Shawn Antoine II is a documentary and experimental filmmaker whose work centers on memory, identity, and the preservation of underrepresented Black histories. Raised in Harlem, Shawn draws deeply from his personal experiences and cultural heritage to tell stories that amplify voices often overlooked in mainstream media. He earned his Master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Documentary Media program.
Jackie Yunchang Zhang is a filmmaker, producer, and video artist from Hangzhou, China, now based in New York. She holds an MFA in Photography, Video and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts. Through an observational yet personal approach, her work examines memory, relationships, and the quiet negotiations of everyday life.
Savanna Washington received her M.F.A. in Directing from City College in New York. While attending City College she was awarded a Colin Powell Graduate Fellowship, the first filmmaker to be honored. Savanna has Produced, Written and Directed four feature films (two narrative and two documentary) and over a dozen shorts.
Savanna is also the Creative Program Director for Creatively Speaking at the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at the New School
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Shawn Antoine II is a documentary and experimental filmmaker whose work centers on memory, identity, and the preservation of underrepresented Black histories. Raised in Harlem, Shawn draws deeply from his personal experiences and cultural heritage to tell stories that amplify voices often overlooked in mainstream media. He earned his Master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Documentary Media program.
Jackie Yunchang Zhang is a filmmaker, producer, and video artist from Hangzhou, China, now based in New York. She holds an MFA in Photography, Video and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts. Working across documentary, moving image, lens-based media, and animation, her practice uses a hybrid non-fiction approach to explore identity, resilience, and cultural displacement. Through an observational yet personal approach, her work examines memory, relationships, and the quiet negotiations of everyday life.
Savanna Washington received her M.F.A. in Directing from City College in New York. While attending City College she was awarded a Colin Powell Graduate Fellowship, the first filmmaker to be honored. Savanna has Produced, Written and Directed four feature films (two narrative and two documentary) and over a dozen shorts.
“The Greening of the Bronx: An Urban Garden Tale” and her previous documentary, “Playing Frisbee in North Korea,” are available on demand through PBS Passport. Savanna is also the Creative Program Director for Creatively Speaking at the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at the New School.
New York City based film curator and programmer Karen McMullen is a Senior Feature and Shorts Programmer at DOC NYC film festival. Formally, she has served as Festival Director & Head of Programming at Urbanworld; Lead Curator for New Voices in Black Cinema; Head of Programming for the TIDE Film Festival, Features Programmer at Tribeca Festival and screener at the Sundance Film Festival.
She has been a juror at Pan African, Trinidad + Tobago, Thessaloniki International Documentary, Cleveland International, and Bentonville film festivals; on the nominating committees for Gotham Awards, Film Independent Spirit Awards, Carey Institute, Black Public Media, and Cinema Eye Honors; and on pitch panels at Cannes Docs at the Cannes Film Festival, Visions du Reel and Nordisk Film Forum.
Karen participates in panels and moderates interviews for HBO, Netflix, Apple, Peacock, NY African Film Festival, AfroCannes, and others, curates an annual program for the Creatively Speaking film series at the New School, and has guest lectured at Columbia University and NYU. She has editing credits on features and short films, and was a professor of film post-production at Long Island University. Karen graduated from Brown University with concentrations in French Studies and International Relations.
Rachel Gita Karp (she/her) is the Programs Director at the Center for Artistic Activism. Rachel supports bold, strategic, and ambitious organizations, people, and projects that fight for progressive causes with creativity and innovation. She’s helped over 150 organizations and 2,500 individuals with training, community-building, mentorship, and more. This work builds off of and feeds Rachel’s background making activist performances in support of bodily autonomy, voting and voters, and increased gender representation in government.
The Center for Artistic Activism helps people use their creativity and culture to effect power and build campaigns that win. They train and support activists, organizers, advocacy groups, artists, and individuals to design cultural strategies that disrupt narratives, shift power, and drive lasting change. Since 2009, they’ve worked on the ground with partners across 23 countries and 6 continents and reached thousands in-person and online, learning what actually works in real campaigns. From voting access across the U.S. to anti-corruption work in West Africa to environmental justice in South Asia, they help movements integrate art, culture, and imagination into campaigns that are strategic, scalable, and impactful. c4aa.org