Tacoma Arts Month aims to connect people feeling isolated because of COVID-19 pandemic
The annual Tacoma Arts Month is underway, and COVID-19 has required artists to adapt how they work on their craft.
The theme this year is “Cultivate Wonder and Care.”
It was selected to emphasize connecting to people who might be feeling isolated and alone through extended periods of separation.
“We want people to be excited about Arts Month and know that our artists are valued,” Community Programs specialist Chevi Chung said in an interview. “How will wonder and care be embodied in our city? It’s being embodied by all of our different artists and arts organizations.”
Those artists have been working on a series of engagement projects covering everything from care packages to poetry, all meant to support the community.
COLLECTION OF POETRY
Abby Murray is Tacoma’s poet laureate and will be launching an anthology of poems written by detained and undocumented youth in the Selma Carson Home in Fife.
The facility holds youth primarily aged 13-17 who are unaccompanied. Murray taught workshops at the facility in 2018 and 2019.
After reading a story in The News Tribune about an escape from the facility, Murray was inspired to get involved.
“I wanted to do something, but I’m not a lawyer. I’m not a translator. I was sitting on my back steps and I was like ‘Well, what can you do? I can teach poetry,’” said Murray. “I got together some translators that I knew and we went into Selma Carson.”
Murray said the workshops went “really well” but that they have been put on hold due to health concerns surrounding the pandemic.
“They went overwhelmingly well. It was an overwhelming experience,” Murray said. “I’ll be releasing a video on the Grit City Poet Laureate YouTube Channel that talks about these workshops, and I’ll be releasing the free PDF of the anthology so people can read it.”
Set to be released in the mid-October, the PDF can be found on Murray’s website.
ARTISTIC CARE PACKAGES
Tamiko Nimura and Teruko Nimura are sisters who collaborated on a project. Tamiko is a writer while Teruko is a multimedia visual artist.
It is the first time the two have worked together on a project.
“It’s different and new,” Teruko said. “We’ve been close personally forever, but professionally this will be the first time working together.”
Tamiko said they have discussed their art for years.
“That part of our discussion isn’t new, but we actually haven’t collaborated artistically before so it’s fun,” she said.
The collaboration is built around the Food is Free Project which, according to the group’s website, is “a food-sharing organization that advocates for front yard gardens and sharing among neighbors.”
The duo hopes to support the project by creating artistic care packages to put at seven of the locations throughout Tacoma. The packages will include masks made from a traditional Japanese fabric design to encourage people to take care of their health and those of their neighbors. They also will include papier-mache Daruma statues that are weighted at the bottom, so they can’t be pushed over.
“In Japanese culture, the Daruma is a traditional figure that is supposed to represent this monk who was meditating for a long time. The legend goes that he actually meditated for so long that he basically got stuck,” Tamiko said. “The advantage was that you could push him and he wouldn’t tip over. Japanese-Americans give these figures to each other as a way to signal encouragement and resilience.”
There also will be a letter explaining the other elements of the package, such as lavender bunches, donated seed packets to represent hope in the future and a written meditation.
“Right now it’s really hard to feel human, and part of this project is really to remember the important things about being alive,” Teruko said. “I really wanted the objects to be a personal reaching out.”
All these care packages can be found at the many Food is Free tables located on the streets of Tacoma.
TALKING TO THE PEOPLE OF TACOMA
Filmmaker Jamika Scott is working on a photo project called, “Tacoma, Where Is Your Heart?”
“Everything feels so heavy lately and people are struggling — we’re not connecting in the ways that we used to. I wanted to give people an opportunity to speak about the things that fill their heart,” Scott said. “Giving people time to take a moment to think about those good points in their life and the things that motivate them to keep pushing on.”
Scott hopes to present the series of photos at the conclusion of the various interviews.
The content of the interviews has been wide-ranging, from discussions of fitness to helping at-risk youth.
The conversations have helped Scott to see the good in people’s lives when the world has been filled with so much bad.
“I am a person who can dwell on the bad sometimes,” Scott said. “I just have to remind myself that there have been some really bright spots for me in the last six, seven months. I couldn’t have experienced those things, and I couldn’t have made it through to those things, without the support of the people I care about.
“It’s just really reaffirmed the importance of that support system and seeing the bright spots in the day when it’s easy to see the dark.”
Scott is looking into showing the work at a physical venue but will host an online event that will be announced in the event that doesn’t work out.
Tacoma Arts Month
Taking place over the course of October, in addition to the engagement projects, the month will include a variety of cultural programming, student outreach and an artist in focus series.
All information can be found at TacomaArtsMonth.com.
This story was originally published October 12, 2020 at 11:41 AM.
