Explore how dance, culture, and community can be pathways to healing through a story and movement workshop with Jean Appolon.

Currently in residency at Boston Center for the Arts, Appolon’s newest work Traka (“Troubles” in Haitian Kreyol) explores the impact of his father’s murder in Haiti in 1991 and the healing capabilities of dance, culture, and community. As part of his residency, Appolon will lead a community workshop with a focus on connecting the immigrant, refugee, and dance communities.

About the Artist:

The Artistic Director and Founder of Jean Appolon Expressions, Jean Appolon is also a successful choreographer and teacher based in Boston and Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He received his earliest training and performance opportunities in Port-au-Prince with the Viviane Gauthier Dance Company, and the Folkloric Ballet of Haiti. Appolon continued his dance education in the U.S. with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Joffrey American Ballet School, graduating with a BA in 2003 from a joint degree program at The New School.

Jean teaches regularly at Boston Ballet, The Dance Complex (Cambridge, MA), and the University of Massachusetts Boston, among other locations. Appolon was recently inducted to the 1804 List of Haitian American Changemakers in the U.S.

Directions: The Pao Arts Center is located in the One Greenway building, 99 Kneeland Street. For GPS driving directions, use 66 Hudson Street, Boston, MA 02111. From Hudson Street, walk up the stairs and across the deck to the 99 Albany Street entrance. The public parking garage entrance is on Hudson Street. The Pao Arts Center is accessible by the MBTA Green, Red, and Orange lines.

Contact: Chavi Bansal | 617-863-9072

Join Artist-in-Residence Yu-Wen Wu in the Leavings/Belongings project at the Pao Art Center.

Inspired by the tradition of storytelling while making, the bundle-making project engages women from various immigrant and refugee communities in the making of symbolic “bundles.” Through the act of making together, participants can share stories. These anomalously shaped cloth wrapped bundles may represent what is left behind, and what may be carried in migration – survival, hope, dreams. Throughout these sessions, these bundles will be exhibited collectively in public spaces to generate conversation, dialogue, and bridges across experiences, generations, and ethnicity. The bundles will contribute to the project Leavings/Belongings.

The final workshop will be held from 4-6pm on Thursday, August 8th.

Materials are provided. Feel free to contribute to the project by bringing fabric meaningful to your personal or your family's journey.

About the Artist:

Yu-Wen Wu is a Boston-based interdisciplinary artist. Born in Taipei, Wu came to the United States at the age of seven. Her work is informed by this bi-cultural upbringing — the eastern and western influences in life and art.

Wu’s current work explores the issues of Displacement, Assimilation and Individual and National Identity. Through video, installation, drawing and sculpture she challenges our impressions of accuracy and storytelling. Compositing imagery, she draws together the natural world and social movement, on both a personal and global scale. She approached her own experiences of immigration and other culturally specific happenings by presenting them as a series of inevitable occurrences. 

She is the recipient of numerous awards, exhibiting museums and galleries nationally and internationally, and in many public and private collections.

Contact: Vanessa Woo | 617-863-9080

Join Artist-in-Residence Yu-Wen Wu in the Leavings/Belongings project and gather together to create while sharing stories of your families' and your own immigration experiences!

Inspired by the tradition of storytelling while making, the bundle-making project engages women from various immigrant and refugee communities in the making of symbolic “bundles.” Through the act of making together, participants can share stories. These anomalously shaped cloth wrapped bundles may represent what is left behind, and what may be carried in migration – survival, hope, dreams. Throughout these sessions, these bundles will be exhibited collectively in public spaces to generate conversation, dialogue, and bridges across experiences, generations, and ethnicity. The bundles will contribute to the project Leavings/Belongings.

Materials are provided. Feel free to contribute to the project by bringing fabric meaningful to your personal or your family's journey.

Join us for our Community Open House!

About the Artist:

Yu-Wen Wu is a Boston-based interdisciplinary artist. Born in Taipei, Wu came to the United States at the age of seven. Her work is informed by this bi-cultural upbringing — the eastern and western influences in life and art.

Wu’s current work explores the issues of Displacement, Assimilation and Individual and National Identity. Through video, installation, drawing and sculpture she challenges our impressions of accuracy and storytelling. Compositing imagery, she draws together the natural world and social movement, on both a personal and global scale. She approached her own experiences of immigration and other culturally specific happenings by presenting them as a series of inevitable occurrences. 

She is the recipient of numerous awards, exhibiting museums and galleries nationally and internationally, and in many public and private collections.

Contact: Cynthia Woo | 617-863-9080