A Telling Collective Initiative
 Two body maps hung on the wall at a workshop |
Our vision is a development paradigm based on listening. This promotes healing, education, politicization and education. It galvanizes communities through women. We will support the sharing of oral histories as a way to influence policy and give agency to those who have been silenced by western notions of development. Honoring these stories will also enable healing as women reclaim their experiences and find their own path of transformation. We will use body mapping, an artistic outlet for expressing internal and external dynamics, as our technique of bringing out these stories, learning from women and sharing what we have learned.
We will update this web page and our blog as the body mapping initiative grows. You can use this page to track the progress in Africa at multiple body mapping sites. This site will also keep you linked to United States body mapping workshops and information on how you can do your own body mapping!
Our aim is to make body mapping an accessible tool for everyone. If you have any needs and/or feedback for the process of bodymapping and our resources please contact us. Also keep us in the loop of your own body mapping so that we can keep everyone connected and support you in any way possible.
Links
- For Updates of Nicole and Katelin's travels CLICK HERE to visit the Telling Collective Blog.
- To donate or learn more about the initiative CLICK HERE to visit the Marion Institute Serendipity Kukummi web page.
Contact Us
We would love to hear from you! To connect with Katelin and Nicole, get our latest snail mail address, or ask for our cell phone number email:
atellingcollective@kukummi.org
TELLING COLLECTIVE INITIATIVE INFORMATION
Documents
Click link to access
- Telling Collective Proposal
- Word File: Brochure
Workshops with small groups of women will utilize the body mapping technique and performance storytelling together with oral history documentation. In various locations we will bring together our target population to body map, educate, heal and draw out individual stories. Body Mapping has been used for memory and healing work with HIV positive women for decades. We will continue in this tradition, combining it with our backgrounds of storytelling, and expanding it to open up this technique to express a range of womens issues in Africa. Body mapping creates a space for life stories to emerge and for women to find and explore their own personal power.
Individual sessions help women to find their voice through various exercises that bring out the unique culture and power we all possess. In settings where a large workshop is not feasible, a woman cannot attend or incredible stories emerge as we travel, we will interview women individually.
Documentation and research of both of the above processes will provide rich insights into development needs, gender roles, healing traditions, post colonialism and contemporary institutions of power. Using video footage of workshops and oral narratives will enable us to share this knowledge with others with the educational materials we create. In addition, we will compile a booklet of photographs of the art produced through body mapping technique will inspire and provide instructions to bring this tool to wider audiences.
 Nicole (left) and Katelin (right) bodymapping |
What is Body Mapping?
In body mapping a woman’s silhouette is traced on a life-sized piece of canvas or paper. She then paints her silhouette. Inside her silhouette, she focuses on expressing her struggle, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual, while on the outside of her body map she focuses on where she finds her strength in herself, her culture, beliefs and community. Body Mapping has been used for memory and healing work with HIV positive women for decades. We will continue in this tradition, combining it with our backgrounds of storytelling, opening up this technique to express a range of issues women and communities face. Body mapping creates a space for life stories to emerge and for women to find and explore their own personal power. Although this initiative focuses on women, it is not limited to women.
Who are we
Nicole le Roux is a storyteller and healer. She uses of stories as a tool for supporting activism, organizing, mediation, community, and individual growth and healing. She is the co-founder of A Telling Collective and the founder of Kukummi. Katelin Wilton is interested in giving agency to people in the global south through collecting oral histories. She conducted a project, in conjunction with Kukummi, collecting life stories in Ghana. She has done workshops with many different ages using the footage she collected. Nicole and Katelin are converging their studies at Hampshire College through this initiative, spending June-December in Southern and Eastern Africa learning, exploring and working to adapt storytelling tools. As two young women whose studies converge on issues in the African continent, we are able to bring together healing work and politics.
The Pilot Projects
South Africa [10 weeks]
Cape Town: Hoops for Hope, Rural women activists, and others
Pretoria/Cape Town: TBA
Zanzibar [4-12 weeks]
With ZAPHA+: HIV/AIDS mapping out positive healing power
Third Destination [4 weeks]
To be confirmed. Our aim is to adapt to the needs of communities we are invited to so this flexibility is important. Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda are currently our prospective sites.
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A Story
This description was written by a participant in a bodymapping workshop in the United States (see image below also).
I have always felt torn in two, starting with my blood. On my left side my blood runs the peaceful color of sky blue. On the right there is my Mexican blood, running fiery red. There are two trees in each arm. Their branches rule my fingers and their roots are my veins. The two colors are a raging storm in my chest. Something beautiful unites them but I cannot see for certain what it is. All I know is that something ugly seeps out and reflects itself in the neglect I show in my body. I feel that my center is a gate I can't open but I know that when I do I will find more beauty within me. The various elements in my mind are different but joined by the storm within me. My legs have always been beautiful and keep me on my path. The outside world is also like my raging storm: torn in two. At times my energy is tranquil and peaceful like water and at other times there is only fire and anger. The duality in my blood and the storm within rules my being.