Thank you for celebrating with us!
Join us on-site at our City Heights location, or virtually from home, for this FREE neighborhood event. Register below to receive a complimentary Workshop Box, to participate in one of our many hybrid workshops, boxes are available for pick up the day of the event while supplies last.
Register to receive a confirmation email , with all the information you need to participate, and instructions on how to pick up your box for the event!
Pick up your Workshop Box between 9:00AM and 12:00PM
4089 Fairmount Avenue - San Diego, CA 92105
Please pick up your Workshop Box at the address listed above. There will be a pick up route starting on the corner of Fairmount and Polk, where you will drive thru our parking lot to pick up our workshop box. Please see the map here for details on the drive thru pick-up location.
People + Places Project.
The mission of the People + Places Project is a workshop that provides an inclusive space for communities to share stories about who they are and places they live. Participants leave each workshops with a unique one-of-a-kind toy that reflects who they are. Give each one a hug to hear a story.
10:00AM to 12:00PM Toy-making Workshop + AjA Team and Guests
Guest Artists Andrew Alcasid + Javier Arreguin Villegas
Schedule of Events
Dec 18, 2021 - ALL DAY EVENT - 10:00AM to 5:00PM
The AjA Project has been deeply rooted in the community for over twenty years. December 18th’s Welcome Home Open House, a first for The AjA Project, is an opportunity to reestablish those roots and celebrate with new and old neighbors and supporters. This all-day indoor and outdoor experience is open to the public and celebrates AjA’s past and present in true Open House style. From 10am - 5pm, guests can enjoy hands-on art experiences, a gallery reception, announcements and discussions facilitated by The AjA Project Team, Youth Fellows and supporters, food available from local vendors, and a guarantee that the community is at the center of it all by making it open to the public.
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10:00AM to 12:00AM People + Places Project
12:00PM to 1:00PM Cyanotype Workshop w/ Blanca Salas (alumni)
12:00PM to 1:00PM Photo Walk w/ Johnny Nguyen + Jeff Valenzuela
1:00PM to 3:00PM RISO Workshop Luisa Martinez + David Peña
1:00PM to 2:00PM Chop / Food + Memory Workshop w/ Rizzhel Javier
2:00PM to 3:00PM Journey Workshop w/ Rasha Asfour + Famo Musa
2:00PM to 3:00PM Lenticular Workshop w/ Andres Hernandez
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10:00AM to 11:00AM Lenticular Photo w/ Andres Hernandez
2:00PM to 3:00PM Cyanotype w/ Wen Song
2:00PM to 3:00PM Journey Workshop w/ Alejandro Arreguin Villegas
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11:00AM to 12:00PM Compass Community Circle (IN-PERSON)
Alejandro Arreguin Villegas + Ronnie Brookes
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3:00PM to 4:00PM Teaching Artist Exhibition + Social Hour
4:00PM to 5:00PM AjA Vision Presentations
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Do it yourself.
Join the fun and create your own toy from start to finish, with a personalized drawing of you or someone you love.
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Do it for others.
Bring the workshop to your event or donate to provide the provide at one of our interested community school sites!
Compass.
We’re Glad That You’re Here, learn more about the Compass program.
10:00AM to 11:00AM Compass Community Circle
Teaching Artist Alejandro Arreguin Villegas and Ronnie Brookes
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Andres Hernandez
Andrés Hernández (she/they) is a non-binary Mexican writer & illustrator currently living in the border city of Tijuana, Baja california. Her work primarily focuses on exploring social issues from an intimate first-person point of view. Vulnerability and the raw documentation of emotions are her main area of interest.
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Luisa Martinez
Luisa Martinez assembles creative spaces, centering under-recognized, non-commercial, experimental, and provocative artists and their communities. She organizes cultural situations and creates art in collaboration with others.
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Anna Almore
Anna Almore is a furious flower and time-traveling auntie. She’s the daughter of a Black Army ranger real-life superhero, Arthur, and a German village girl turned early childhood expert, Therese Almore. As a fourth-generation freedom dreaming educator, she’s currently back at school in Anishinaabek lands plotting and scheming about how we liberate education from white supremacy, colonialism, and capitalism through the sacred art of relationship.
Do-it-YOUTH-led: STEAM
A cyanotype is a pre-digital image that you can print using the sun. Learn how to make ordinary materials light sensitive in this workshop, led by Blanca Salas, Full STEAM Ahead 2014, and Wen Song, Parkeology 2020. Learn more about our STEAM OnDemand program here.
12:00PM to 1:00PM Cyanotype with Blanca Salas - IN-PERSON
2:00PM to 3:00PM Cyanotype with Wen Song - VIRTUAL
7 Years of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math
Barrio Logan College Institute, Full STEAM Ahead, 2014
STEAM OnDemand is a photography-based curriculum that explores the evolution of the camera and how it intersects with science, technology, engineering, art and math. Each program includes a workshop box to accompany a virtual hands-on demonstration to a variety of hands-on projects.
Join us on a Photo Walk through the Little Saigon District, learn more about SCHYM here.
12:00PM to 1:00PM Speak City Heights Youth Media
with Photographer Johnny Nguyen and Teaching Artist Jeff Valenzuela
“At the root of storytelling is cultivating an understanding that ultimately allows us to liberate our own voices and the voices that surround us.” — Endiya Griffin, Teaching Artist
Journey.
Participants use their creative storytelling and documentary skills to address themes such as identity, resettlement, migration, home, culture and community.
2:00PM to 3:00PM Rasha Asfour + Famo Musa - IN-PERSON
2:00PM to 3:00PM Alejando Arreguin Villegas - VIRTUAL
The AjA Project Past, Present + Future
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Alex Fattal - AjA Past
Rizzhel Javier - AjA Present
Blanca Salas - AjA Future
Alejandro Arreguin Villegas - AjA Programs
How to Support - Invest in AjA
Thank you - Closing Remarks
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Alejandro Arreguin Villegas
Amiahlina Figueroa
Andrés Hernández
Famo Musa
Janel De La Torre
Jeff Valenzuela
Joselynn Ordaz
Julie Kendig
Lorain Rihan
Luisa Martinez
Mariah Moneda
Rasha Asfour
Rachel Farris
Rizzhel Javier
Thom Finni
Winter Smiley
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Aya Ibarra
Cuc Doan
Junichi Satoh
Kris Lin-Bronner
Maria Chavez
Rebecca Webb
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Alejandro Arreguin Villegas
Alex Fattal
Amiahlina Figueroa
Andrés Hernández
Astrid Gonzalez
Aya Ibarra
Cuc Doan
Delana Delgado
Dinah Poelinitz
Famo Musa
Janel De La Torre
Jeff Valenzuela
Joselynn Ordaz
Lorain Rihan
Luisa Martinez
Mariah Moneda
Rasha Asfour
Rizzhel Javier
Stacey Uy
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Chop.
A tribute to food, and the important people in our lives that make it, learn more about the Chop program.
1:00PM to 2:00PM Chop / Food + Memory Workshop - Rizzhel Javier (in-person)
We’ll see you there!
Saturday, December 18 • 10AM-1PM • 4089 Fairmount Ave., San Diego, CA
Contribute to our Transformation.
2021 Reports
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City Heights Youth for Change, The Global ARC and The AjA Project present a body of artwork that rejects the ways that City Heights Youth are negatively stereotyped by telling their own stories. Ten organizers from CHYFC worked with The AjA Project to use photography as a tool to visually respond to the survey data collected by CHYFC and the Global ARC around the topics of law enforcement, safety, cleanliness and education.
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The Compass program serves as a hub for community wellness resources that hopes to foster a space for interdependent and self-sufficient discovery. At The AjA Project we understand there is a responsibility that comes with the process of healing, this is why we lean on artists and health professionals in our community, to work collaboratively with our staff to build health resources that meet our communities needs. Compass is our first virtual, asynchronous program, which expanded our reach to youth during the global pandemic.
2020-2021 COMPASS REPORT
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Mental health resources are hard to access, the issues are difficult to talk about (which can discourage those who need help), and the data show there are racial disparities among those who are or aren’t able to receive care. But we know from deep experience that the arts are both an entry point and a vehicle for healing. In COMPASS we will support existing youth leaders with radical healing + art spaces that enable dialogue about mental health challenges, generate resources to share with peers, and host art-rich, real-time events that support healthy development.
2020-2021 PHOTO CITY REPORT
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Journey participants use their photography skills to address themes such as identity, resettlement, migration, home, culture and community. Through this process, Journey participants create a stronger sense of community and learn to value the unique worldview that each person brings into the space. Often times, participants do not have an opportunity to build these values and important sense of community during their traditional academic school day, so having a safe after-school environment to do so is critical to the participants’ overall well-being.
2020-2021 SPEAK CITY HEIGHTS YOUTH MEDIA REPORT
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