Dialogue: What the Black Woman Body Knows, Addressing Trauma through Art Praxis

In this panel discussion, sculptor and poet, Sistar Lorraine Bonner, restorative justice activist and author Sistar Fania Davis, and dance theater artist Sistar Amara Tabor-Smith, address the historical and persistent trauma on black women’s bodies and offer modes of healing. In conversation with Sistar Wanda Sabir, CEO of MAAFA SF Bay Area.

Bonner’s work centers on externalizing what is unseen such as the consequences of historic and persistent trauma. Davis offers tools for the difficult yet necessary conversations centered on the self. Tabor-Smith’s work is a reclamation of public space with intentional occupation. Her current project, House/Full, is an uncompromising look at wellness for Black women and girls with rest and safety at the top of the list. In conversation with Sistar Wanda Sabir, CEO of MAAFA SF Bay Area, in its 25th year.  

Sistar Lorraine Bonner turned to art late in life, as a way of dealing with personal trauma. She soon recognized the parallels between the betrayal and violence she had suffered in childhood and the betrayal and violent plunder that form the foundation of our current way of life. Her work has moved from depictions of personal/political betrayal, in the Perpetrator series, to a vision of humanity beyond the limitations of socially defined “color” in the Multi-Hued Humanity series. She is now working on a series she calls the Mended series, in which our scars and broken places take on a new beauty. Lorraine Bonner lives and works in Oakland, California, close to her children and grandchildren. 

Sistar Fania Davis is a leading national voice on restorative justice, a quickly emerging field which invites a fundamental shift in the way we think about and do justice. She is a long-time social justice activist, Civil Rights trial attorney, restorative justice practitioner, writer, and scholar with a PhD in Indigenous Knowledge. Davis is the founder and currently Director of Restorative Justice of Oakland Youth (RJOY), she served as counsel to the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. Numerous honors include the Ubuntu award for service to humanity, the Dennis Maloney Award for excellence in Youth Restorative Justice, and World Trust's Healing Justice award. Davis’ research interests include race and restorative justice, social justice and restorative justice, and exploring the Indigenous roots, particularly the African Indigenous roots, of restorative justice. Davis is the author of The Little Book of Race and Restorative Justice: Black Lives, Healing, and US Social Transformation  

Sistar Amara Tabor-Smith describes her experimental dance theater work as Afro Surrealist Conjure Art. Her dance making practice, utilizes Yoruba spiritual ritual to address issues of social and environmental justice, community, identity and belonging. A San Francisco native and Oakland resident, she is the artistic director of Deep Waters Dance Theater (DWDT) and was the co-artistic director of Headmistress, an ongoing performing collaboration with movement artist Sherwood Chen. Her work has been performed in Brazil, The Republic of the Congo, Judson Church/Movement Research, NYC and many venues throughout the San Francisco/Bay Area and the United States. 

Sistar Wanda Sabir is a journalist, poet and author, moonlighting as a college professor in Alameda, California (wandaspicks.com). For 30 years, one of her many literary events has been to host “A Celebration of African American Writers and Their Poetry,” 1st Saturdays in February. She is also a Depth Psychologist, with deep roots in the bayous of Louisiana where she was born. Her interests and expertise are historic & persistent trauma and trauma healing—the Maafa, specifically ancestral memories, dream tending, women prisoners, and the use of art & appreciative inquiry to stimulate those forgotten conversations, especially among Diaspora descendants. She is co-founder & CEO of MAAFA San Francisco Bay Area, in its 25th Season October 2020, co-founder of the International Coalition for the Commemoration of African Ancestors of the Middle Passage and recent recipient of the Distinguished 400 Award, 400 Years of African American History Commission (2019) She is a Transformative Justice (TJ) or Community Accountability facilitator and believes the true revolution starts at home.  

Connect

Sistar Wanda Sabir -  Website

Sistar Amara Tabor-Smith - Website

Sistar Fania Davis - Facebook

Sistar Lorraine Bonner - Website

Zoom Registration