SUNDAY JUNE 4

ARTS of JUSTICE

in SONOMA at MUSEA CENTER

11-5 PM

A Call to Awaken and Care has been heard - Join us!

MUSEA's Arts of Justice Sonoma Gathering is connected with
Cinema, Conversation, Creativity, and Consciousness


AWARD-WINNING FILMMAKER PRATIBHA PARMAR and AUTHOR and ACTIVIST ALICE WALKER will be LIVE at MUSEA SONOMA


SPACE IS LIMITED TO 20 TICKETS

RSVP - $247 or 3 pay of $85

This Sunday, June 4th event is only open for Saturday Living The Truth screening event ticket holders.

1. Buy your Sunday ticket HERE.

2. Then, GO HERE TO GET YOUR CINEMA TICKETS FROM SIFF for the event at Sebastiani Theatre on Saturday, June 3rd

Questions? Contact us at support@musea.org

Women - the Arts - Social Justice - Resistance - Friendship

At the heart of this event in Sonoma this Summer is the story of the instersection between friendship, activism and storytelling. The opportunity to gather with these two incredible women and hear their stories of the these three films and their work with activism throughout their life is a treasure. ~ Shiloh Sophia

SONOMA
ARTS OF JUSTICE
SUNDAY, JUNE 4 2023

Come together at MUSEA with Pratibha Parmar, Alice Walker, Shiloh Sophia and the Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color and Culture from MUSEA to learn, grow and heal together as we weave through the framework of the arts of justice and friendship.

All justice movements have always had art and song, let's become the voices and images of the future. The time is when?

Celebrate and Support Women in the Arts of Justice at MUSEA

We don't need to keep saying "Let's do SOMETHING!".
This is SOMETHING to do and to be a part of the solution
we are seeking together.

Now. Right now! Let's gather!

Let's gather to create, sing, dine, and discover the pathway forward together.

We will gather with Walker and Parmar for the first half of the day, have a lunch created on-site by Chef Jonathan, and then create art for the second half - each of us making our own Arts of Justice poster. Here's our classroom in action at MUSEA CENTER.

LET'S EXPERIENCE LIFE TOGETHER

GATHER and CONNECT with women who are in motion with resistance and the arts and our Sonoma community for conversation and sharing a meal together.

WATCH and LEARN from three influential films about social justice, human rights, and friendship as an educational framework for where we have been and where we are going

ENGAGE and HONOR with Award-winning Filmmaker Pratibha Parmar and Alice Walker LIVE from MUSEA Center in Sonoma with Curate Shiloh Sophia

DEVELOP and SHARE your stand regarding race, equity, justice, and allyship - creating clarity in collaboration and friendship

ACTIVATE your stand for justice through the creation of an Arts of Justice Activism poster that represents YOUR stand.

"I Am" by Milagros Suriano-Rivera

OVERVIEW

SATURDAY JUNE 3RD at Sebastiani Theatre - (10:30 AM - 7:30 PM PT)

Watch 3 films by Award Winning Filmmaker Pratibha Parmar to awaken your life - the thread of all three films is that they feature our guest, Alice Walker. Ticket holders may add same-day private reception ticket to connect with Parmar and Walker that includes the 6:15 PM screening of the film Alice Walker: Beauty In Truth.

SUNDAY JUNE 4TH at MUSEA Center for Intentional Creativity - (11:00 AM - 5:00 PM PT)

Join Curate Shiloh Sophia in conversation with Parmar and Walker about friendship, justice, resistance, and a look at where we have been and where we are now for the first half of the day.

Break for a Barbeque and Rosé lunch prepared by our very own Jonathan McCloud with lots of deliciousness planned - Barbeque proteins, mushrooms, Jonathan's famous corn salad, garlic bread, cake, and more.

In the second half we will Create an Arts of Justice Poster rooted in Intentional Creativity in action with Shiloh Sophia, Sumaiyah Wysdom Yates, Anasuya Isaacs, Milagros Suriano-Rivera, Lauren Adorno-Weatherford, and Mary MacDonald live from MUSEA.

This is THE EDUCATION you have been seeking to take
your informed activism to the next level.

THREE POWERFUL FILMS WILL BE A PART OF OUR EXPERIENCE

from Filmmaker
Pratibha Parmar + KALI Films

Warrior Marks

a poetic and political film about female genital mutilation presented by Alice Walker

Interviews with women from Senegal, Gambia, Burkina Faso, the United States, and England who are concerned with and affected by genital mutilation are intercut with Walker’s own personal reflections on the subject.

A Place of Rage

an exuberant celebration of African American women and their achievements

Featuring interviews with Angela Davis, June Jordan, and Alice Walker. Within the context of the civil rights, black power, and feminist movements, the trio reassesses how women such as Rosa Parks and Fannie Lou Hamer revolutionized American society.

Beauty in Truth

a penetrating look at the life and art of Alice Walker - artist, intellectual, self-confessed renegade, and human rights activist

Mixing powerful archival footage with moving testimonies from friends and colleagues such as Angela Davis, Quincy Jones, and Steven Spielberg - this film tells the compelling story of an extraordinary woman’s journey from her birth in a paper-thin shack in cotton fields of Putnam County, Georgia to her recognition as a key writer of the 20th Century.

Registration

Sunday, June 4th RSVP

Shiloh and Jonathan McCloud are proud to have donated their time to planning, financing, and sponsoring/hosting this incredible series of events.

100% of your ticket price benefits women working in the arts of justice through the MUSEA Intentional Creativity Foundation 501(c)3. Events like this are made possible through your generosity and care for the arts of justice locally and globally.

We look forward to your support and Thank You in advance for your contribution and participation.

ABOUT MUSEA CENTER

MUSEA Center is located in Sonoma, California. It is our physical museum location where we show our art exhibits, and host many events from Musea University classes, art education, and community gatherings.
Our centrally located venue has beauty curated inside and out, with multimedia art from our permanent collections visible throughout, flower and vegetable gardens, vineyards, redwood trees, and spaces for experiencing art and ceremony in the community. We are located close to all amenities and very near downtown Sonoma.

Additional Opportunities to Engage and Support Arts of Justice

Should the timing of these Sonoma June 3rd and 4th events not work for your schedule and you want to engage in this powerful movement consider joining us virtually in ARTS of JUSTICE VIRTUAL CLASS a Call to Awakened Activism featuring Pratibha Parmar and Alice Walker on Sunday, June 11th. This all-day virtual class experience is BASED on in-person events from June 3rd and 4th. This class will be Live-streamed from our MUSEA Sonoma studio and recordings will be made available for 6 months. That way even if you can't attend and participate in real-time you'll still be able to support this Great Work and participate through the iMUSEA app Arts of Justice group.

Pratibha, Shaheen Haque and Alice Walker

What arts of justice posters have impacted you in your life? You will make your own based on what matters to you!

Let's spend the day making art together at MUSEA in our classroom!

For over three decades, Pratibha Parmar’s body of work includes landmark, life-changing films; such as Warrior Marks and Beauty in Truth, both featuring Alice Walker, Queer South Asian films, Khush and Nina’s Heavenly Delights, and revolutionary, iconic films like A Place of Rage, that features Angela Davis and June Jordan. Her most recent film is, My Name Is Andrea, a stunning retelling of the story of Andrea Dworkin.

Parmar’s films are rooted in deep soulful storytelling, and they invite the viewer to enter into the visceral and the beautiful. How she accomplishes both, making accessible what is hard to hear, and generating a desire to dive into the story is a wonder to those of us who are her avid fans. Some of us commit to seeing every single film. Her body of work includes feature films, narrative and non-fiction, experimental film and video, and episodic television. She is a true artist devoted to her craft.

ABOUT PRATIBHA PARMAR

Pratibha Parmar has spent her life creating films that make the invisible visible. With a focus on the arts centering on women, social justice, resistance, friendship, and love. Parmar’s films evoke deep emotion and inspire action.

Photo: Angela Y Davis, June Jordan & Pratibha Parmar @Roxie Theatre, SF, 1991 at the premiere of A Place of Rage.

"...Warrior Marks [is] a symbol of our mutual daring and trust. It is a powerful and magnificent film...constructed from our grief and anger and pain.” Alice Walker

Pratibha, Alice, and Shaheen Haque

at the SF Jewish Film Festival

.In Girls in Film, Roberta Graham says this of Parmar “she is a key component in a history of creative resistance,” and, “her work examines the creativity of women of color alongside the politics of oppression to give a voice to the marginalized, often with the view of depicting the strength of womanhood. Being of Indian descent and from a family history of migration across three continents - themes of diaspora, colonization, and persecution lie at the heart of much of her work."

ABOUT ALICE WALKER

Alice Walker is an internationally celebrated writer, poet and activist whose books include seven novels, four collections of short stories, four children’s books, and volumes of essays and poetry.  Her work has been translated into more than two dozen languages, and her books have sold more than fifteen million copies. Among her many awards, Alice has most notably won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 1983, and the National Book Award. 

Walker has been an activist all of her adult life, and believes that learning to extend the range of our compassion is activity and work available to all. She is a staunch defender not only of human rights, but of the rights of all living beings. She is one of the world’s most prolific writers, yet continues to travel the world to literally stand on the side of the poor, and the economically, spiritually and politically oppressed. She also stands, however, on the side of the revolutionaries, teachers and leaders who seek change and transformation of the world. Upon returning from Gaza in 2008, Walker said, “Going to Gaza was our opportunity to remind the people of Gaza and ourselves that we belong to the same world: the world where grief is not only acknowledged, but shared; where we see injustice and call it by its name; where we see suffering and know the one who stands and sees is also harmed, but not nearly so much as the one who stands and sees and says and does nothing.”

"My work has been devoted to women and women's stories. To speak the truth once we find out what it is. To educate and awaken us to what is really happening here..." Shiloh Sophia

MY BIG WHY

When I asked award-winning filmmaker Pratibha Parmar to identify just a few of the common threads running through her films over the past thirty years, she brought these two themes forward... making the invisible visible and celebrating the joy of difference. 

The second is how her thinking and her art have been inspired by powerful poets, activists, and change-makers like Alice Walker, June Jordan, and Angela Davis. Her cinematic gaze on these women has in turn fostered deep friendships and nourishing kinship.

For her entire career, Pratibha has been in creative collaboration with her long-standing life and business partner, Producer Shaheen Haq. When I reflect on these motifs and think of what I know about her films, I have to smile warmly and nod yes in gratitude for what her films have brought into my life. Some of the films Pratibha has created, like A Place of Rage, Beauty in TruthWarrior Marks, and My Name is Andrea, have literally changed my life.  Each one of these films stands alone as a devotion to truth-telling. They show us what we haven’t been able to see before, with the kind of beauty that helps us to bear the unbearable hard truths, all the while inviting us to care more. To love more. To tell the truth more. 

Her films invite us to open our eyes to the reality of suffering from an honest and deep heartfelt place. While Pratibha’s films have plenty of calls to action, there’s something else here to witness, and I want everyone I know to witness it. The thread, for me, is that she conveys gentleness within the harsh reality, this is her as the artist - a storyteller of the human experience - woven with compassion and truth.  She honors the human spirit’s ability to find dignity in conditions of suffering while always holding abusive systems accountable. There is an invitation. I said yes to this invitation in my early twenties. 

Jonathan, Shaheen, Pratibha and Shiloh

As I contemplate what her work has stirred for me, I feel myself responding to an invitation to a holistic consciousness that includes, provokes, and summons the parts of me that are most needed by a hurting world. When I think back to the night Warrior Marks opened in San Francisco’s Castro Theater in (1983),  I can now see that the film had a before and after effect on my life. It is a documentary about female genital mutilation and features the Pulitzer Prize Award Winning author Alice Walker as the narrator. I had just moved out of San Francisco to the country to live with the Art Matriarch of our community, Sue Hoya Sellars. We were guests of Alice Walker’s, so we drove back into the city with excited anticipation for the film’s opening night. The intention is to bring light to (FGM) and to be with and explore the centuries-old ritualistic custom of female genital mutilation still being practiced throughout many parts of the world. A profound sense of devastation washed over me as I viewed the film, seeped in the richness of color, texture, and a sense of place. I quite literally felt that I was becoming a different person as I watched this transformative film. I woke up the next day, changed, and called to action. This movie and the women who were a part of making it happen have shaped my work with Intentional Creativity.

I have many stories I could tell of my personal encounter with Warrior Marks, but suffice it to say that this documentary sparked a vision that took hold and provoked me to take a stand for the change I wanted to see. This film turned out to be a seminal catalyst in my life.

Shortly thereafter, Intentional Creativity presented itself to me through the teachings of my mentor, Sue Hoya Sellars. If you’re in my community, you’ll know the story of how this was the moment when I was wedging the clay, and Sue asked me what the change was that I wanted to see in the world.

My response was, “to see the end of violence against women and children.” Sue instructed me to put that loving intention into the clay and to believe it was going out to the women. I felt love travel from me to every place I could imagine, including the women that Pratibha documented in this film. 

Gathering In Georgia - Sue Hoya Sellars is right in the middle

Gathering In Mexico 2023

This is why the opportunity to share films like Warrior Marks with all of you is a very personally meaningful project. I think of it as a retrospective of some of her most powerful pieces and the visual archive of her unfolding evolution as an artist. We have had conversations about the Intentional Creativity that went into the making of these films and how they have shaped her life, as well as sowed the seeds for future projects. We are now bringing together a series of films to share with all of you.

We are overjoyed to collaborate with the Sonoma International Film Festival to create a cinema event that centers on women and honors Pratibha’s work. It is my deepest desire that having the opportunity to witness these films inside of a defined container in the order in which they were created will be as life-changing for you as they continue to be for me. 

Engaging with our unique festival will be soul-stirring, eye-opening, and action-packed. We look forward to being in deep, heart-centered, and intentional conversation with you. Above all this gathering is about friendship and the stories that friendship, over time, tells about what matters to us. The stories we tell, the lives we touch, the justice we seek, this is our life.

MESSAGE from MUSEA LEADER and EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR of the Intentional Creativity FOUNDATION: SUMAIYAH WYSDOM YATES

Sumaiyah Wysdom Yates
Executive Director
MUSEA Intentional Creativity Foundation

And Still, I Rise! ~Maya Angelou

"I have worked with Shiloh Sophia since 2010. Over the last 13 years, Shiloh has made it clear that she stands in the gap with women of color, and has given us a platform where our voices can be heard. As the first appointed Executive Director of the MUSEA Intentional Creativity Foundation, and a Black woman, I am living proof of Shiloh's work to uplift Black and Brown women. The Living Your Truth Cinema Events and the Arts of Justice Intentional Creativity class speaks volumes of Shiloh and MUSEA's clear intention to take action and not simply sit on the sidelines saying "let's do something."

I am honored to be working with MUSEA in a leadership role where my voice and my actions are making an impact and keeping the spotlight on the racial injustice that Black and Brown women face daily."

In COLLABORATION with
MUSEA'S BLACK, INDIGENOUS, and WOMEN of COLOR COMMUNITY

Sacred ECHOES is a space to support and uplift those who identify as Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color. It is designed to create stronger bonds by weaving the practice of Intentional Creativity into group activities that strengthen creative self-expression and witness each other.