In 2019, Indigo Arts Alliance launched The Welcome Table. The Welcome Table is a term used in southern African American culture to describe a spiritual value; an ethic of hospitality; a space where no one is turned away and where the abundance of life is shared and enjoyed by all. It is a concept that was created by Black people in resistance to a society that often violently delimited their range of possibilities. The Welcome Table represents the ideal of a place of gathering – to eat, to talk, to enjoy, to give thanks, to just BE – in a healthy, multiracial nation where there is room for all of us and all of our stories. This year, Indigo Arts Alliance celebrates Juneteenth, Pride Week, bringing The Welcome Table back to Maine. Taking place on Saturday, June 15th 10am - 5pm, at Indigo Arts Alliance, the gathering will feature art workshops, movement and meditation, cross-cultural history, community-building, and cooking led by local and national activists and cultural workers. This intergenerational symposium celebrates the cultural and culinary traditions of worldwide historical social justice movements. As Indigo Arts Alliance enters our 5th year; not only will this program serve as a moment to reflect and review our impact but it presents a moment for us to envision what the future of our community will be through an Afro + Indigenous multicultural and multigenerational lens. We will be bringing together scholars, activists, religious leaders, artists, culinary specialists and members of the public to explore the links among food, culture and spirituality in national and international social justice organizing. Day one: Saturday, June 15th 9:45am - 5pm 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM: Opening Remarks 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM: Power of Creativity Panel How does the power of creativity move us toward strengthening our multi-racial democracy via reconciliation, justice, and grace? In this panel we will learn how artists have used their creative practice to dismantle and rebuild systems that have continuously caused harm to black and brown communities. Lunch + Break time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Theme: Traditional Black and African foodways. @BelleFlower Brewing 1:30 PM- 2:30 PM: Rest is an Act of Resistance Panel How do we create, sustain, and nourish spaces of health and healing – in our communities and within ourselves? How do we offer reconstructive practices and models of engagement as alternatives for the future? This panel discussion will explore ways black and brown bodies can heal from intergenerational trauma within sites of enslavement along with the long-term effects of slavery on the bodies, collective psyches, and cultural imaginaries of the descendants of enslaved Africans. 2:30 pm - 4:30 pm: Art Activations These art sessions will expand upon the symposium theme and give participants an opportunity to dive deeper into the themes of the day. The breakout sessions will run at the same time, and attendees will choose which session they’d like to attend. Session 1: Excavating Grief: Movement for Resistance, Community, and Joy with Victoria Rutledge What is the meaning of grief in the context of political identity? Who gets to grieve? When? How? In this workshop we will explore the power dynamics at play when it comes to grieving in marginalized communities, share in movement and guided meditation, and co-create a space to hold our grief with support and love. Session 2: Body Feast: A Collage Workshop with Minoo Emami (IAA AiR '24) "Body Feast" is a dynamic workshop focused on exploring the themes of body, identity, sharing, and community through art. A small group of participants will draw their body parts' silhouettes on paper to create a whole body silhouette. Collectively, they will use text as a texture, photo collage, and design elements to fill it in. The text will include their thoughts on the body, communal experiences, and personal stories, creating a shared tapestry of community narratives. Afterward, participants will share their artwork and discuss the experience together. Session 3: African Diaspora Melting Pot in the Americas with Iyalorixá Valnizia Pereira Oliveira (Mãe Val) and Dr. Scott Barton Our dear friend and Art Historian of the Diaspora, Henry Drewal has often said that Africans may have been brought to the Atlantic World “empty-handed, but not empty-headed.” Knowledges from the continent have produced cultural transfers across the African Diaspora. This workshop centers food and cooking as a seat of knowledge, since everything we do from politics, to culture, gender, power, nutrition, science, faith and creativity sit inside of foodways. Our goal is to illustrate and demonstrate this through the lens of sacred and profane Afro-Brazilian foodways. Anthropologist Robert Voeks has theorized that the supercontinent, Gondwanaland which united Africa to the Americas before the tectonic shifts meant that early Africans found plants that were native to West Africa, not hybrids or clones; allowing them to continue in pursuit of their culture, ethnomedicinal practices, and enjoyment of good taste. Reclaiming our botanical knowledge, falsely appropriated by settler colonials and displayed in botanical gardens and arboretums adds to the culinary knowledge and expertise that has already begun to be heralded on both sides of the Black Atlantic. Come join us to learn more and understand your own connections to power over the pain of enslavement. I personally focus on the 3-Rs. No, not those; but R-efusal, R-esistance, and R-esilience. Knowing how, when and where to stand your ground, be in solidarity, and make a way outta no way. So come on with us into this workshop with chef/scholar Scott Alves Barton, and Iyalorixá Mãe Valnizia Pereira Oliveira, Terreiro de Cobre in Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos. (Continued...) Session 4: (Queer) Afro-Latin Dance: An Embodied History with The Haus of Glitter Location: Maine Studio Works; 170 Anderson St, Portland, ME 04101 Open to all levels, beginner dancers to advanced. The Haus of Glitter specializes in dance lineages that come from Africa and Latin America. Explore a journey through Traditional West African Dance, Afro-Caribbean Dance and LGBTQ+ Afro-Latinx dance forms like vogue and Ballroom as embodied history, civil rights advocacy, gender affirming care and community wellness practice. Come with water and comfortable clothes, prepared to strut and explore the transformative power of dance as embodied history + herstory. Session 5: Lunar Capsule: An Interactive Installation by Abigail DeVille Location: Indigo Arts Alliance; 60 Cove Street, Portland ME 04101 In partnership with Bowdoin College Museum of Art, exhibition Abigail DeVille: In The Fullness of Time. Lunar Capsule is an interactive installation by New York based artist Abigail DeVille. The interactive object, which recalls through its form and scale the lunar lander that first brought human beings to the surface of the moon, also functions as a time capsule, inviting visitors to record their stories. While harkening back to the futuristic dreams of space travel that have animated popular culture for over a century and a half, DeVille’s Lunar Capsule is coated in gold leaf and features a throne-like chair in which visitors recording their reflections can sit. We invite our guests to leave their reflections that will be incorporated into the Bowdoin’s exhibition along with leaving their “Indigo Stories” testimonies as IAA builds our organizational archive. Let these prompts assist in the formation of your contributions: • When you hear the name Indigo Arts Alliance what comes to mind? • What is your most memorable Indigo Arts Alliance program or experience? • What past events in our community have nourished you, and which do you hope to experience again? • How has today’s symposium provided perspective for you? • How are you leaving this space transformed?