TheVITAL Process
Photo by Alex Maness.
Flower-making Zoom sessions
The VITAL Health team works with the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Wake County (NAMI) in leading five virtual flower-making sessions. Participants will learn coping strategies for the mental health effects of the COVID-19 "stay at home" orders and then be guided in a flower-making process to honor their mental health or that of a person in their lives. The therapeutic art-making process will provide a soothing, healing element for participants. Free materials will be mailed to participants before sessions begin.
When: May - June, 2020
Photo by Alex Maness.
Wreath-making, video trailer premiere
Wreath-making workshops will offer the community an opportunity to virtually help us create flowers for the wreaths in this project. Groups of 20 participants will create flowers on Zoom to honor their mental health and also have a chance to discuss the social unrest in 2020. A trauma therapist will discuss how past trauma affects us today. At the end of each session, we will premiere a video trailer for the short film associated with VITAL Health. The wreaths will be an acknowledgement of the more than 950 Dorothea Dix hospital patients and enslaved people buried on the property.
When: August - December, 2020
Photo by Julia Wall.
Video premiere, panel discussion
The VITAL Health team will premiere video project “Crisis Materials,” a short film featuring an original poem written by Johnny Lee Chapman, III and choreography from Anthony Otto Nelson, Jr. centered on a wreath installation at Dorothea Dix Park. The trailer serves as a preview of one of the performance aspects of this project. The trailer premiere will be accompanied by a community conversation with mental health professionals, educators and artists.
When: December, 2020
Photo by Caroline Cockrell.
Generational trauma conference
The VITAL Health team co-produced a virtual conference called Healing Generational Trauma through a partnership between the University of North Carolina at Wilmington Interdisciplinary Minority Student Research Group and the UNCW Office of the Arts.
When: April - May, 2021
Photo by Caroline Cockrell.
'Crisis Materials' live performance
The VITAL Health team performed "Crisis Materials" LIVE at Dix Park on Saturday, May 22, 2021. "Crisis Materials" is a movement and spoken word piece that unpacks how COVID-19 and the social unrest in our nation has affected our collective mental health. It also sheds light on the history of the land at park, specifically the Dix Park Cemetery.
When: May, 2021
Photo by Caroline Cockrell.
In-person workshops, second live performance
Beginning April 28, the VITAL Health team will host three free, interactive, in-person workshops at All Faiths Chapel on the Dix Park Campus. Then, on May 21, there will be a second live performance of "Crisis Materials" next to the cemetery at the park. RSVP for your stop in the round of workshops here.