AWỌ’s “A Place To Call Home Series” is this year’s series of educational and awareness programs that began in September 2022 and connects people from many diverse backgrounds through interactive, engaging and healing activities as well as, conversations that invite Bay Area parents, families and youth to experience self-understanding and to catch a glimpse into what it’s like being in crisis or unhoused. Series will attempt to focus on finding common ground and create space for those who don’t have homes and those who do.
THE HOW
Leveraging our expertise both as educators and arts & culturally responsive practitioners to discuss a variety of topics including the lived experiences of the Bay Areas most vulnerable community members, AWỌ will use a staged-reading, discussions, podcasts, film, storytelling, music and music therapy to foster deeper understanding among community members and to inspire civic engagement, dialogue and action. We will put a spotlight on the unhoused, those facing housing insecurity and the need for affordable housing.
ABOUT AWỌ
AWỌ aspires to better understand the significance that color, class and culture have on individual stories being heard within society. With a focus on creating public education and awareness on a range of issues, and supported with the arts & culture, we bring people of all shades together to share, learn and engage with one another to improve their own self-understanding.
It is our Mission to create engaging opportunities for historically unheard or misrepresented stories to be shared and expressed.
OUR VISION
The Vision of AWỌ is to achieve a more inclusive and representative world by focusing on the unheard stories of individuals within society to build a more collective understanding about ourselves. We believe that a more complete story of HUEmanity creates accurate cultural narratives within society and translates into more inclusion and opportunities in local schools, workplaces and government agencies.
AWỌ envisions a world filled with more color-full stories of HUEmanity, where implicit biases do not become explicit crimes, and where unheard stories help promote and drive a more inclusive and representative world by giving those marginalized new social and economic opportunities. At the same time, by dismantling false narratives past and present that keep people isolated from one another, AWỌ exposes the oppression and exploitation of marginalized people and empowers them to tell their stories and be heard.