Heal The Cypher, A Community Healing Event

Are you a creative looking for a safe space to reclaim, explore, and share your expression? Learn how art-making, storytelling, and movement can be added to your healing journey towards full self-expression. Self Reclaimed is hosting "Heal the Cypher," a 4-hour event for the community to create together, share their experiences, learn something new, and celebrate our individual and collective healing journeys. 

"Heal the Cypher" is Self-Reclaimed's response to the many devastations that have been happening in the world. Similar to the structure of our Healing Circles, this event will embody the pillars of our organization: trauma-informed, survivor-centered, holistic, accessible and sustainable.

When you attend “Heal the Cypher,” you will have the opportunity to express how you feel through a variety of art modalities (i.e. dialogue, art-making, music, & movement), followed by an opportunity to share your experience in a storytelling Circle. Immediately following will be a Chicago Footwork demonstration, led by members of CFOlogy, with insight on how footwork is a form of creative expression, master of skill, and healing. We will end with an open movement cypher to celebrate our community and what we created. 

Self-Reclaimed has the privilege of partnering with CFOlogy! We are proud to have provided leadership training for CFOlogy instructors on how they can create safe spaces for their students. It's with pleasure that we are hosting CFOlogy member, Kelli Foreman, and her crewmate, Mike D, as they share teach Chicago Footwork and share their journey of healing through this movement/artform.

Key Tenets of Heal the Cypher: 

• Safety is a priority
• Give equal voice/opportunity to all participants
• Emphasize the connectedness between participants
• Honor the presence and dignity of each individual 
• Value the contribution of each individual and how they choose to show up

This unique experience will directly support our mission to heal, empower, and unite our community against sexual assault and domestic violence. 

FAQ ~

When:

August 20th, 2022 (4:30 - 8:30 PM CST) 

AGENDA:  Part I, begins at 5:00 PM CDT  Art-making and story-sharing! Our co-facilitators, Nessa and Gabi, will guide participants through exploring the space and experiencing different stations set up throughout the room (i.e. visual art, music, and movement), where participants will engage with each art form individually before coming back together to unpack in small groups.

Part II, beings at 7:00 PM CDT  Chicago Footwork workshop and open dance cypher! Our co-facilitators, Kelli and Mike D, will lead a foundational class in Chicago Footwork and share their philosophy and personal stories on how their art is a form of expression and healing. We'll end the evening with an open cypher where people can choose to explore the art forms they experienced in Part I and Part II, while socializing and being in community with others!

Location:

Off The Ground Dance Studio (3057 N. Rockwell St., Chicago IL, 60618 - 2nd Floor)

Who is this event for?

Anyone who identifies as a "creative" and is looking to explore their personal healing journey through various art modalities. We welcome people of all ability levels, no previous experience is necessary! 

Here are just a few examples of how we embody the pillars of our organization:

Similar to our Healing Circles, "Heal the Cypher" has Community Intentions and Agreements that all facilitators, volunteers, and registered attendees will receive prior to the event. These are the expectations that we have of anyone who is entering our safe spaces and we will bring awareness to these commitments during our event.

Everyone will need to check-in prior to entering the event (bring your IDs!) 

The Co-Facilitators of our event are trained in trauma-informed healing modalities for survivors of SA and DV. All Community Leaders fall into alignment with our values and pillars. 

We strive to make our events accessible with the way we offer sliding fee scale ticket prices.

We will not tolerate any forms of abuse, harassment, hate speech, discrimination, or harmful behaviors during this event (or any Self-Reclaimed hosted/sponsored offering). Our team takes this very seriously and will proceed to take action as appropriate. 

Questions? Interested in becoming a Community Leader for this event? Want to sponsor Heal the Cypher?

Contact us at info@selfreclaimed.org and we'll get back to you as soon as possible! 

*Self-Reclaimed is fully operated by a team of volunteers.