Amid the federal administration’s threats to sanctuary jurisdictions, MovingGround is creating Sanctuary Spaces, an art-action network and responsive performance experience, that shares narratives and sheds light on real stories, from real people in our real communities, through conversation, performance, and co-creating real Sanctuary Spaces together. The project will begin online, with immigrant, LGBTQIA+, disabled, public service, and artist community members who are in our direct networks. Project participants, their stories and lived experiences will guide project development.MovingGround collaborators leading the project include: Lisa Aurora Calderon, Krista DeNio, Bhumi B Patel, Deb’e Taylor, Jayden Torrey, and Maxine Flasher-Düzgüneş.
Recent iterations of Sanctuary Spaces
Sanctuary Spaces Workshop & Dialogue – CounterPulse Festival 2025
Join MovingGround on Sunday September 14th 3:30-6:30pm for CounterPulse Fest! We will be hosting Sanctuary Spaces: a workshop and dialogue.
When: Sunday September 14th – workshop (3:30-5pm) & dialogue (5:30-6:30pm)
Where: CounterPulse (Ohlone Territory, 80 Turk St, San Francisco, CA 94102)
Cost:
Tier 1/NOTAFLOF: $0
Tier 2/Student/Senior: $15
Tier 3/General Admission: $25
Tier 4/Benefactor of the Arts: $45
Registration: https://counterpulse.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/#/instances/a0FPO000002COLa2AO
The Sanctuary Spaces team will co-facilitate this workshop, utilizing arts-based, interactive, experiments, investigating our relationship with Sanctuary and creating safe spaces for humans. The following dialogue circle will be centered on questions the Sanctuary Spaces project centers, and the shared research uncovered within the afternoon workshop.
Workshop description: The Sanctuary Spaces team will co-facilitate this workshop, as we investigate our relationship with Sanctuary and creating safe spaces for humans, altogether. Participants will move through several locations and interactive, site-responsive experiments, including:an opening group score for warm-up and community building, followed by dialogue, movement, visual art and design based improvisations, and an interactive poetry + visual art experience focused on cultivating sanctuary through found language and “felt-sense”, [utilizing source text from Amanda Williamson’s Back to the Dance Itself]. Participants will play a vital role in the experiments and experiences created, as active researchers with the facilitators.
Dialogue description: This dialogue will include a guided community report back from the workshop participants, to share out the live, participatory research that was engaged during the workshop. We will also center some of our project questions and research, like : How has your life (or lives of your community members) been endangered due to current governmental or social policies and rhetoric? What spaces in your communities provide safety for you now? What would an ideal sanctuary space look like for you, given your identities and values? The nature of the dialogue may shift, based on the live and participatory interactions in the moment, in the space that we will all be creating.
The Freedom We Make: Queer Artists on Sound, Struggle, and Sanctuary Spaces
How do queer artists create spaces of freedom—not just for survival, but for creative process?
Amid the federal administration’s threats to sanctuary jurisdictions, MovingGround initiated Sanctuary Spaces, an art-action network to share narratives and shed light on people’s lives directly impacted through conversation, performance, and co-creating live and experiential Sanctuary Spaces together.
From Window, the Black lesbian vocalist and author of Black Lesbian Bedtime Stories, to Mister Lady Zen, an internationally acclaimed composer, cabaret artist, poet, and queer elder. Together these artists use sound, word, and community to build sanctuaries. Meanwhile, Rene “Casino” Reneand, the Berlin-based musician and podcaster behind BABE: Black American Berlin Expat, amplifies diasporic voices across borders.
Together with Freedom Festival USA and the Freedomistas, Lisa Aurora Calderon co-founder of Naming Gallery and ToMaRo Gallery invited MovingGround Artistic Director Krista DeNio to ask artists to share: How do we create Sanctuary, Safety, and Protection? How does art become a tool for peace in the face of chaos? How do we preserve sanity while fighting for liberation? And what does it mean to teach, create, and thrive when governments change abruptly? Join us for a conversation on music, memory, and the radical act of making room for ourselves.
Dance & Art Experience at Djerassi Resident Artists Program 2025
MovingGround is delighted to return to the Djerassi Program for another memorable afternoon of creativity, movement, and artistic exploration. Join Djerassi Program alumna Krista DeNio, MovingGround’s dancers, theater artists, and musicians as they guide you through the picturesque trails, infusing the natural surroundings with interactive performance and thoughtful inspiration.
The afternoon concludes at the Artist House with a beautifully curated grazing table featuring seasonal delights and small bites, accompanied by refreshing beverages, perfect for conversation and reflection as the sun sets over the landscape. MovingGround will be bringing our past work and research at the Djerassi Program together with our current project, Sanctuary Spaces, an art-action network that shares narratives and sheds light on real stories from people in our communities through conversation, performance, and co-creating real Sanctuary Spaces together.
When: Saturday May 10th 2-6pm
Where: Djerassi Resident Artists Program (2325 Bear Gulch Rd, Woodside, CA 94062)
Tickets: https://bit.ly/4jyATAL (sliding scale $50 – $200)
