CREATIVE JUSTICE LAB
MISSION
Creative Justice Lab is an arts based laboratory for Social Justice educators, students, community leaders, activists, artists and aspiring facilitators to form community through the sharing of resources, knowledge, and expertise. It emphasizes the experimentation of how to engage in social change through the collaboration of creativity and activism.
OUR STORY
Working Towards a Better Tomorrow
Creative Justice Lab was born out of a literal dream of friends coming together to form a community of creativity, justice, fun, and learning. The more we thought about it the more we realized that social justice needed to be tangible. Something that can be understood, felt, and that our audience could feel connected to. What better way to embrace a concept than through creative storytelling. And that's just what we've done! Creative Justice Lab brings personal accounts of diversity, equity, inclusion, and the fight for a better world through art, writing, song, poetry, dance, photography and the like.
CREATIVE JUSTICE LAB WELCOMES YOU
James Baldwin
“Artists are here to disturb the peace.”
WHAT WE DO
We bring the stories of artists, and activists who incorporate art into their work to the public through our podcast and blog. We are an organization founded on the principles of creative cultural resistance. Creative cultural resistance (as noted by the New Tactics in Human Rights) is stated as “the broad use of arts, literature, and traditional practices to challenge or fight unjust or oppressive systems and/or power holders within the context of nonviolent actions, campaigns and movements. At its core, cultural resistance is a way of reclaiming our humanity, and celebrating our work as individuals and communities. Cultural resistance tactics are particularly powerful because they serve multiple purposes. They inspire us to own our lives and invest in our communities, while building capacity for local leadership.”
Furthermore, creative cultural resistance implores us to examine justice through a personal lens. It calls us to be empathetic to the human and lived experience of those different than ourselves. Therefore inspiring us to be agents of change.
CO FOUNDER
Dana Olivo
she/her/hers
A beautiful soul, a mother, a baker, and a photographer (sometimes). Dana is a creative in her own right, and is committed to making the world a better place through her contagious laughter and activism.
An educator, doula, and facilitator. Dana has spent the past 13 years working with students within predominantly white college campuses to become more socially just and inclusive communities. When working on college campuses, Dana is particularly interested in working with students from marginalized populations. When Dana is wearing her doula hat, she is dedicated to lowering the maternal and infant mortality rate for Black women, a community that has the highest rates of death in the country.
In her spare time, Dana loves to read trashy romance novels, drink beer, listen to live music, kill plants, and hang out with her family and friends.
CO FOUNDER
Annie Cohen
she/her/hers
A creative. An educator. An activist. The daughter of an immigrant. Cuban, White and Queer. A strong woman, a feminist. An explorer and lover of the world.
Annie has devoted her professional career to mentoring college students, facilitating workshops and dialogues around issues of oppression, justice and equity. Annie is committed to having difficult conversations on social justice and learning more about how others have committed their lives to living in a more just world.
To stay balanced Annie loves spending time with her family, friends and two dogs. She enjoys the arts, baking, doing things with her hands, decorating and creating her new home with her partner and developing her own little greenhouse.
CREATIVE COLLABORATOR
Bee Buehring
they/them/theirs
An imaginative educator. A white, genderqueer geek, committed to accountable anti-racism. A vegan cook and food adventurer. An illustrator. And a queer science fiction connoisseur.
Bee grew up in southern Texas and studied cinema and studio art in college. They have a graduate degree in counseling and education. Bee works with friends and colleagues to help organizations, businesses and institutions work toward equity and inclusion.
Bee lives for new illustration projects, sequential art and comic books, and thoughtful design. They also specialize in social justice curriculum design and educator training. Bee currently helps CJL with podcast production.
VISION
Accessibility and Inclusion
To make social justice accessible in all forms, particularly through creative outlets such as art, music, poetry and performance. To foster relationships within and among the surrounding communities. To help both individuals and organizations integrate social justice into their lives and work.
Ultimately, our longterm goal is to create both local and long distance networks of “artivists” to form community, connection and collaboration. We hope to create physical spaces by, for and with communities offering an environment for activists (both established organizations and grassroots) to gather, plan and execute ideas. In addition, we want to offer space for creatives to produce, gather and share their artistry.
