Featured Taking Up Public Spaces: Centring Underrepresented Identities Through Creative Place- Making View Digital Media

Workshop Presentation
Alyssa Martens  

Through efforts that promote decolonization and anti-oppression and that actively de-centre White, dominant, “Western” narratives and centre underrepresented voices, my practice aims at facilitating the communication and amplification of identities from underserved people groups in public spaces and realms. In this workshop, I will unpack the process I undertook to amplify the stories of self-identifying older Punjabi women living in Sunset neighbourhood in Vancouver, Canada through a creative placemaking project at a local park. The workshop participants will learn a variety of techniques to engage community members through arts-based activities and will imagine how their neighbourhood might be transformed to centre the identities of underrepresented groups in their home countries.