The Talking Stick Project - Community Art Workshop with Amber Robles Gordon

Join us for a powerful, hands-on workshop with Amber Robles-Gordon exploring the art and meaning of “Talking Sticks”— Through this exciting art-making experience, participants will reflect on histories of collective activism and environmental storytelling while creating space for meaningful dialogue, personal reflection, and shared connection. This dynamic experience is free and open to the public. Lunch will be provided—come ready to learn, create, and connect!

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About the workshop: The Talking Stick Project is a workshop structured around the artwork of interdisciplinary visual artist Amber Robles-Gordon, the life of Henrietta Lacks, the use of talking sticks through Indigenous cultures around the world, and setting positive intentions for our collective future.

The Talking Stick Project is an interactive community art experience rooted in dialogue, reflection, and collective intention. Designed and facilitated by interdisciplinary visual artist Amber Robles-Gordon, this workshop draws from her long-standing exploration of public and participatory art, social memory, and storytelling. The Talking Stick Project invites participants to engage with artistic practice through the creation of “talking sticks” — objects historically used by Indigenous cultures worldwide to designate the authority to speak and to encourage respectful listening and shared reflection.

Inspired in part by Robles-Gordon’s work exploring the life and legacy of Henrietta Lacks — whose cells have had a profound impact on medical research — this workshop situates art-making as a space for exploring personal and collective narratives, connecting individual intention with broader histories and futures.

Across iterations of the Talking Stick Project — such as Salisbury University, National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum and the If You Lived Here DC public installation — participants have been encouraged to use their creations as expressive tools: to share memories of home, reflect on social issues, and envision positive, community-oriented futures.

Don't miss out on this inclusive art workshop where you’ll learn about the cultural significance of talking sticks, create your own symbolic object, and set intentions for our collective future — all guided by the creative leadership of Amber Robles-Gordon, whose work foregrounds hybridity, memory, and community engagement through fiber, installation, and participatory art.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher Community Folk Art Center