The Arts for Healing and Justice Network

It’s our favorite season here at AHJN! We spent some time earlier this week breaking bread and exchanging gifts with one another.

We’re celebrating! AHJN has received a Meredith Willson Award from The Music Man Foundation The funding will help us as we work to permanently change the juvenile justice system through healing-informed arts programming and helping us create an ecosystem for supporting youth in community

A week ago, we had the honor of accepting the first ever Getty Prize. We were selected for this award by the incredible Mark Bradford. Let's take a look back at the wonderful moments we shared together at the Getty!

We are 10 days away from our annual Good Fight Fest!

GFF is a space to invite our community to learn more about what's happening in LA County when it comes to juvenile justice. Many people don't know about Youth Justice Reimagined, so we want to share information but also come together to create art, create spaces for young people to express themselves and be seen, and build community with each other. We want people to be aware of the resources available to them.

This year, we’ll have a youth-led art exhibit, a gardening workshop, contour drawing class, dj’ing/beatmaking workshop, dance and hat making, and much more!

It's a fun space to be with good people who are trying to reimagine a different way of being with each other! We'll be breaking bread and also having lots of fun. Stay tuned for more workshop and vendor highlights!

RSVP: https://www.classy.org/event/the-good-fight-fest/e560313

We hope to see you at Good Fight Fest 2024 🎨🗣️

Join us for a full day of thought-provoking panels, art workshops, and our youth talent show! 🌟 Lunch will be provided! Stay tuned for more details! ✨

Register here: https://ow.ly/PTgt50QzMte

Have you learned about the school-to-prison pipeline and wondered what you can do to help stop it? Join LAYUP Decolonization and Collective for Liberatory Lawyers tomorrow afternoon to learn practical tools to defend students' rights alongside other community leaders.

When? - Tomorrow, January 23rd, 2-3:30pm PST
Where? - Virtual, https://ow.ly/H6hT50QtgC6
How do I sign up? - Email [email protected]

Join us on December 8th to witness Versa Style's amazing street dance performance! Come show your love and support as they captivate the audience with their high energy and unique style.

Let's spread some joy this holiday season! Join us in supporting LA County Department of Mental Health's toy drive and food donation. Items will be accepted from November 20th to December 15th. Gifts will be delivered to families during the week of December 18th. Let's come together in community to show our love and care for each other during this cherished time of year!

This week, we want to highlight Crenshaw Dairy Mart's first film festival hosted in Inglewood, CA.

More from them below:

As an organization at the intersection of art and abolition, CDM asks: how does film play a role in the visual interpretation of this intersection? CDM seeks to explore how local filmmakers shift narratives on creativity and representation of our local community and how filmmakers utilize imagination and storytelling to envision new worlds and opportunities outside of systems that were not built to sustain our creativity.

The Crenshaw Dairy Mart believes that the marginalization of artists and arts workers of color, particularly Black creatives, combined with the historically undervalued compensation for creative labor to cultural workers, has generated a harmful and unsafe creative environment for Black, Indigenous, and Persons of Color and arts workers of color.

We believe artists at the intersections of abolition and healing should have abundant resources for experimentation and creation within their community as conduits and conspirators against White Supremacist, capitalist, colonial, and imperialist regimes.

We hope this hyperlocal festival provides Black and brown filmmakers from South Central, Inglewood, and across Los Angeles with the opportunity to feel seen, heard, and celebrated.

Irving Alvarez was a beloved community member and an exceptional youth justice organizer. He was a friend and loved one of so many. Our hearts go out to his family, his friends and his extended family of justice warriors at the Youth Justice Coalition, Brothers, Sons and Selves, LA Youth Uprising Coalition and the amazingly talented young people in the Leadership & Liberation Fellowship.