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HEALING JUSTICE

Healing Justice architect Cara Page describes it as “a framework that identifies how we can holistically respond to and intervene on generational trauma and violence and bring collective practices that can impact and transform the consequences of oppression on our bodies, hearts and minds.” Healing justice is a framework, political strategy, philosophy, and ancestral practice rooted in Black Feminist and Southern Black Radical Traditions. The practice acknowledges that transforming society and communities is not possible without bringing collective healing into liberation work. 

Healing justice uses healing as a tool for liberation and transformation while envisioning a world free of trauma, violence, and abuse. Community organizers are no longer separating awareness of the traumatic impact of state violence from strategies to build collective power towards abolishing that violence. Healing practices address interpersonal, systemic, and generational violence while promoting collective safety, sustainability and wellbeing. The Black Panther Party began offering free acupuncture and meditation workshops along with free healthcare to the people in the 1960s. In 2016, Angela Davis said, "self-care and healing and attention to the body and the spiritual dimension—all of this is now a part of radical social justice struggles”. Healing justice practitioners and organizers offer an array of health, wellness, and cultural services today like free clinics, acupuncture, reiki, sound or somatic therapy, doulas/midwifery,  therapeutic arts, yoga, body/breathwork, and more.

HEALING JUSTICE AND PROJECT KNUCKLEHEAD 

Project KnuckleHead began in 2012 when founder/director Amir Whitaker was working in the juvenile courthouse in Miami, Florida. We were born out of a need to better serve youth in the juvenile (in)justice system. We soon partnered with schools across the country to offer creative and therapeutic arts opportunities for students. In 2016 we started our #FreeTheYouth movement and launched our Knucklehead Nation initiative. The project has provided beat-making workshops and music-making equipment to incarcerated/formerly incarcerated youth across five states. Through this work, we developed our B.E.A.T. Buddz socio-emotional learning music program that’s provided workshops and beat-making equipment to youth across seven countries. In 2018 in Los Angeles, we partnered with a drop-in center serving youth experiencing homelessness or with mental health needs to provide therapeutic music workshops on #FreetheYouth Fridays. Our Freedom Fellows started the Freedom Fridays creative uprising rallies at LA City Hall in August of 2020 with the call to #AbolishStateViolence. The arts and creativity were centered for collective healing and expression. Our #Drum4Justice has been active at least one protest a month ever since. In 2021, we launched our Afro Unidad movement with artists around the world to create deeper connections between Afro-descendants. Two of the four principles are healing and freedom.

HEALING JUSTICE RESOURCES & LINKS

HEALING JUSTICE = LOVE + LIBERATION


“Healing Justice is Love and Liberation” is a mural created by Amir “Dr. KnuckleHead” Whitaker in 2022. It was accepted in the Another Justice: By Any Medium Necessary project by For Freedoms. The work is showcased on billboards in Miami and Los Angeles and can be seen in New Orleans. It features a collage of freedom fighters and healers over a landscape of mountains, forests, rivers, and oceans. A group of Afro Gods and Goddesses appear throughout the work as well. 

VIEWINGS & EVENTS

  • Miami, FL- Billboard is Located at NW 79th Street &NW 12th Ave

  • Fort Lauderdale, FL- May 20th Project KnuckleHead Event: 1650 SE 17th St 

  • Los Angeles, CA- 2419 Hyperion Ave at the Arts Justice Gallery by ACLU SoCal Youth Liberty Squad- May 14th Event

  • New Orleans, LA- May 22nd

LOS ANGELES, CA

MIAMI, FL

FEATURED FREEDOM FIGHTERS, HEALERS, & ARTISTS

  1. bell hooks- feminist, activist, scholar, 

    • “Love is an action, Never simply a feeling.” “There can be no love without justice."

  2. Fannie Lou Hamer- civil rights activist, organizer

    • “When I liberate others, I liberate myself.” “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired!”

  3. Charity Hicks- 1969-2014- activist, gardener, healer

  4. Cara Page- cultural/memory worker, organizer, healing justice architect

  5. Dr. Joy Degruy- scholar, educator, author of “Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome” 

    • “Use the strengths we have gained in the past to heal in the present.”“

  6. Dr. Carl Hart- scientist. activist, educator

  7. Mirame Kaba- organizer, educator, curator

  8. Kareena Kirlew- dancer, organizer

  9. Elida Ledesma- activist, arts for healing and justice director 

  10. Mya Edwards-Pena- dancer, organizer, poet

  11. Pastor Stephen "Cue" Jn-Marie- musician, organizer, pastor

  12. Dr. Amir Whitaker- human rights lawyer, organizer, culturalist

  13. Iya Janina Walters- healer, culturist, priestess 

  14. Phil Agnew & Aja Monet- organizers, artists

  15. Kati Hernandez- artist, dance instructor/choreographer/healer

  16. Ashley Blanchard- artist, dance instructor/choreographer/healer, creative

  17. Rachel Hernandez- artist, dance instructor/choreographer/healer, nurse

  18. The Orisha- Afro Goddesses/God, Spirits, Deities

    ABOUT THE “ANOTHER JUSTICE” PROJECT

    Another Justice: By Any Medium Necessary is a project of For Freedoms that invites activists, artists, and communities to explore dimensions of carceral justice. It is a call to society to envision a more just future. The initiative features exhibitions, programs, and billboards across the nation. Amir Whitaker was one of several artists invited to create and reimagine justice.

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